The Libertarian sage (and I use that term seriously) Neal Boortz makes a point in a current column that points out the danger in the ideology of the far-far Left — where the Obamas reside.

When Michelle Obama spoke at the commencement ceremonies at UC Merced over the weekend she made the following statement:

“You will face tough times. You will certainly have doubts, and let me tell you because I know I did when I was your age … Remember that you are blessed.”

This wasn’t Boortz’s main point, but the assumption that graduating from a university is a “blessing” strikes me as being a bit over the top — at least the way Ms. Obama means it. Each graduate in that auditorium worked hard and studied long to obtain his or her degree; if they are blessed it is because they were born with fully functioning brains, they developed lots of will power and dedication to the task at hand and, in most cases, they were indeed blessed by hard-working, devoted parents who helped them get to this stage of their life. They were also blessed by living in the United States. But acknowledging that they were blessed by nature or blessed to have great parents or blessed to live in a great nation was not where Ms. Obama was going with that statement.

Ms. Obama continues:

“Remember that in exchange for those blessings, you must give something back. You must reach back and pull someone up. You must bend down and let someone else stand on your shoulders so that they can see a brighter future.”

She was not asking the students to “give back” to those professors who did their best to give them a good education! She was not suggesting that they give back to their parents who helped them get to where they are. She was not even suggesting that they give back to America — the land where their real blessings lie — by giving their service to their country. She was stating that they now owe a debt to ’society’; that they MUST help those who are not in their situations.

Huh?

We should all, of course, be good citizens and help those who WE FEEL need our help and give to charities that WE CHOOSE but that is not repayment of a debt to society, it is simply good citizenship. And in this great free country we can, of course, choose to be miserly — or at least very selective about who we help.

Neal Boortz’s point, in his own words was:

“Michelle Obama, and every other looter who has an eye on the wealth you produce, and who uses this “give back” line, will be completely negating every amount of effort you have put into your livelihood. Remember, they’re not asking you to “give,” they’re telling you to “give back.” The very premise of that phrase is that your wealth was a gift, not earned. Since your wealth was given to you, when you make some sort of a donation to a charity you are not “giving,” you are “giving back.”

It may seem to some like nitpicking over a phrase but it goes much deeper than the first lady’s words at a commencement ceremony (or oddly similar words used by her husband days later at Notre Dame); this idea was present in every one of President Obama’s speeches when he was running for office and has been a consistent theme since he won the office.

Just days after President Obama became President-elect Obama, I wrote this in a blog post, refering to a YouTube speech:

“So President-elect Obama gave a speech about the American Dream and assigned it the characteristics of the American Spirit: one being a personal set of goals and ambitions and the other a national spirit that kicks in when our country is in peril. Was this just a poor choice of words; a simple confusion of terminology? I sincerely doubt it.

What I take away from what the president-elect is saying is that he wants us on the road to a collective American Dream in which we give up our personal dreams and ambitions for “the greater good.” That has been the president-elect’s theme since he started running for the presidency: the greater good! Every American should have heard him say it and, since they elected him, we must assume that the majority of Americans are OK with that!

The purpose of this post is to say loudly and clearly that THIS American is NOT OK with that! The president-elect wants us to adopt this “for the greater good” attitude, he wants us to “sacrifice” (another favorite word in Obama’s dictionary) our aspirations so that those with fewer aspirations (or ambition) can have a richer life.

Are you ready for that America? Are you really going to go along quietly into Obama’s dark night?”

Barack, Michelle and, it seems, the majority in Congress are working hard to turn our country into a collective (The doctrine that land and capital should be owned by society collectively or as a whole; i.e., communism.) — we cannot allow that; we cannot allow that yoke to be placed around our necks!

News Links:

Associated Press: Michelle Obama urges graduates to give back

Chicago Sun-Times: Michelle Obama’s early alienation from the University of Chicago. UC Merced speech transcript

Blog Links:

Danishova: In graduation speech, Michelle Obama perpetuates myth of underprivileged childhood

Tradition of Excellence: Michelle Obama tells California graduates to remember who helped them

My other homes for my posts are: My View From the Center and Opinion Forum A Forum for Opinions on News, Politics, and Life.