Stupid Me. I Thought Mama and Daddy Did It By Themselves.

I've never been overtly active in a political campaign before this year.

Granted, I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976, and my Mercer classmate Phil Brock and I were there in Atlanta for the Victory Celebration, right in the front, holding a sign with a grinning peanut on it. It was the opening video for Channel 11 in Atlanta for the next year.

But, this year, I'm ridiculously active.

If I hadn't been before, last week would have made the decision for me.

The Chicagoan-In-Chief made some Off-The-Teleprompter remarks about small business owners that just really set me off:

"You didn't get there on your own," Obama said. "I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

Somebody else made that happen.

You know, he's right. Somebody else DID make that happen for Mama and Daddy.

As I wrote earlier this year, Daddy opened his Amoco Service Station in May 1972. But a lot of "somebody elses" helped make that happen.

To answer the President...

It wasn't because Daddy thought he "was just so smart". He did have a wealth of wisdom, however.

It was because he worked hard. It was because he had a "great teacher" somewhere in his life--his mother, who taught in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Lumpkin County, Georgia, until Daddy had to quit in the fifth grade to work on the farm. 

It wasn't because "somebody invested in roads and bridges". They lived on a dirt road, off another dirt road which led to a dirt road which went to town. A road the farmers built because they had to.

When Daddy was trying to open his station, the government did its part. The Small Business Administration (SBA) allowed him to get a loan. He applied four months before he opened and got it after he'd been in business nine months. So much for start-up money. He lovingly referred to them as the "Sonsa Bitches Administration".

He opened at 7am, closed at 7pm, six days a week, running everything by himself. Then he'd come home and Mama would do the books after supper. For seven years.

He helped the government back--paid Sales and Use Tax, Income Tax, Federal and State Excise Tax, license fees, etc. 

Yep, he had lots of help. Just none from the government. Just like today.

I can't stand four more months of this nonsense, much less four more years.