Festering: The Objectivist At Leisure

Sometimes I read comments on Facebook where I feel a tang of sympathy for the sentiment, then you realize that it is a tale told by someone who never actually has to confront the results of what they say they believe in. This comes from the pages of two local stores where the person was posting to make the point as large as possible.

What a shame. Stores used to close in this country to show respect and observance of our country's hard-fought Independence Day. I am a regular TJMaxx shopper, but I will not be shopping on the 4th of July in TJMaxx or any other store...and I hope no one else will be either. I am pro-capitalism, but our country's Independence Day is a day for patriotism, picnics, fireworks, family ---- NOT a day to shop.

Truett Cathy, the owner of Chick-Fil-A, stands on his principles and continues to close on Sundays, and yet, even in this tough economy, he prospers. It's sad that many in this next generation have been so schooled in situation ethics rather than foundational principles that they don't always understand the value of doing what's right because it's right...and then trusting that, when we put our principles first, in the long run, we'll be blessed all the more for it.

It sounds good until I realize this is a person who shops a lot, who buys into the hard right wing republican nonsense, the faux economics of lightweights like T. Sowell and just "loves" Dagny Taggart. It's a pity really because this is person who writes well but thinks shallowly.

I wonder of those of you criticizing these stores, do you actually have jobs? For some, a day off is a day they can get things done and independence means just that: being independent to choose as you will instead of what a small minority says you must. My wife worked because the senior citizens at the home where she cares for them needed her. She is THAT kind of Christian woman: Others First. I went to Lowe's to buy things we needed to fix the house. Yes, we celebrated Independence Day by exercising our independence, and we still had hot dogs and hamburgers and fireworks.
How many of you are veterans or have a child or father in the service? Did you serve or do you take up the flag to wrap it around your pro-capitalism that has come to signify the 1% who took the wealth such that the rest have to work on holidays for that time and half that pays for their kids to get an education increasingly out of reach?

There was a time when we could afford to have the entire country take a holiday. What was true: one car per family, no air conditioning, houses were a third the size on average, only a small percentage got past high school, food came from family farms or not at all, we didn't drive fifty miles to try the scones in a restaurant, and mother sewed the clothes of our older brothers and sisters so we would have them.

Times change. The glory that is America is that we change with the times because when we don't we fail to be a good country. That is the true foundational principle: we change. We grow. We care. We can do and will.

Yes, Independence Day is a day to count our blessings and today that means having a job.