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Nov 12, 2009

By the sweat of ... someone else's brow


[SOURCE]:

Patrice Lewis
By the sweat of ... someone else's brow?


A GRANT is
"something granted,
as a privilege or right,
a sum of money or a tract of land."

Or as Patrice Lewis says,

"...a grant is free money..."

"...You don't have to pay it back..."

"...It's yours to do with as you wish (or as the granter determines)..."

For this, Patrice Lewis really lets loose on this letter to her local newspaper.
    Letter in local newspaper which Patrice Lewis contemplates upon

    "My husband and I want to purchase some land to start an organic vegetable and fruit farm, and maybe raise chickens and sheep. We have found several good prospects.

    The problem is money.

    I've tried going on the computer to find grants for starting to make my dream a reality.

    But everyone wants money just to give me books and list how to get a grant. How do you do it?

    Our home is not worth much (we are living in a fifth-wheel travel trailer in an RV park). Any advice on what to do would be very helpful.

    I have been reading books on organic farming, and I think we could make a real living at it."


Patrice's Painfully Honest Reply?



  • Why anyone ELSE should pay YOU for a chance to "make a real living"?

  • The person clearly has no experience in her "dream" beyond reading a few books.

  • As an investment, she would be a lousy risk.

  • Wonders why she doesn't "buckle down and work your butt off and figure it out for yourself?"

  • This person wants grants to achieve instant success

  • She wants to take the easy way instead of the hard way

  • She wants someone else to subsidize the risk with no guarantee of return for anyone but herself.

  • Worse, begging is no longer something to be ashamed of; it's something to take pride in.

  • It's not even begging anymore -- it's entitlement.

  • entitlements become (cough) "rights."

  • Then those "rights" are enforced at the point of a gun by depriving citizens of their income, property, freedom and liberties.

  • Success by your own merits is selfish. Failure must not be allowed.

  • By trying to take the easy way out -- on someone else's dime -- the letter-writer is giving up on what could be an extraordinary wealth of creative outside-the-box thinking. The most brilliant ideas and solutions are often forged in the crucible of struggle.

  • In sum, the grant she asks for is using the sweat of someone else's brow to accomplish what she should do for herself.

In conclusion, Patrice Lewis gives this advice to this trailer trash:
    So my advice to these and other progressive dreamers is: Get busy. Find an acre of land in some remote part of the country -- they're all over the Internet for cheap prices (you already have the advantage of a fifth-wheel trailer you can move onto it). Scratch for a living. Make mistakes. Grow and learn. Trade up. Trade up again. Take pride in your fight, your journey, your struggles, your victories -- and defeats.


From Trailer Trash to College Trash



I have always known that college grants were handouts even from my college days when our country's future "best" -- college kids -- were proudly applying for and receiving grants, both right and leftist.

I paid my way completely through college, taking a longer time, but in the journey, receiving a more "diverse" education.

I knew what it was like to work on refurbishing Air Force fire-trucks, pulling and cutting steel in a steel yard, driving a lumber truck and a school bus, being a night security guard, risking my life as a rough-neck on an oil drilling rig, and in learning the practical side of electronics as an electronic technician, all before becoming an electrical engineer.

But in all those years, I never once took a hand-out, even from my father who still had 4 kids to raise.

And in all these years, it never ONCE crossed my mind that asking for college grants is just a fancy way to beg.


You can read further at The Problem.
You can read further at The Solution.
Article located at:
http://www.thechristiansolution.com/doc2009/278_GrantsforBeggers.html
Last Hope for America
Christian Libertarian: Harmonious Union
of
Church and State

The Christian Solution ©             First Release: March 15, 2008