What, you mean I don't deserve that?

awhile ago, ok, a long while ago I had a conversation with a friend of my who is extremely liberal. This was during the election and we were talking about the pros and cons about the presidents and this lead into a conversation on school and medicare and such. This person, for sake of the post I will call her sam (I'm watching a show and the main female character is sam) was talking about illegal immigrates and how they deserve all the same rights we do. Another person in the moms group was against this idea. Not against Mexicans, but the idea that anyone can come here and use the programs that we pay for. Medicare (or Medicaid) was a hot topic at the time as we were all trying to pay off huge doctor bills, and as we sit in the waiting room there are three other people there who get everything for free. When we mentioned an opposing view Sam would say in a most accusing manor (at least it seemed to me) "do you not think that every kid deserves schooling? don't you believe that every person deserves medical care?". To say anything other than yes makes us seem like a bad person, or a racist person. I've thought a lot about this because I feel like her point was wrong, but I could not find a way to say it that sounded right.
A few months later (it was bothering me for awhile) I figured out why it bothered me. It seems that in our society that everyone feels like they DESERVE everything. they deserve medical, they deserve education, they deserve that nice home and the new car.
you see, it is my opinion that no one deserve anything for free. It sure is nice when we get something for free, but who ever said that we deserved it? When I was in school I saw many people who had a free education, well, not free, but their parents paid for it. They did not work nearly as hard for their school, for their grades, as the students who paid. (yes, I'm sure that there are exceptions). I look at our society where everyone is on hud housing, food stamps, and medicare. I've yet to meet someone who is on all three of these things who are truly happy. there are those who use this system to get off their feet, and I whole heartedly support that. But then there are those that make a living off of abusing the system... have you ever meet anyone that was truly happy on these programs? What pride is there to be had in living off of someone else?
We have a garden, it's a lot of hard work, but I can promise that those tomatoes are so much better than the ones I buy from the store. Those tomatoes have my heart in them, they are the result of a summer of work, they are something that we had to watch over, to take care of, they are something we can be proud of.
So, although it is ideal that every person has an education and medical, I think that what people miss is that the only right we really have is the right to work for those things. We need to take responsibility for ourselves and stop looking for everyone else to take care of us.


btw, another irk, driving is another privilege that too many people think is a right... so get off your cell phone, stop looking in the mirror and DRIVE (ok, so that is a whole different rant)