Think back to years ago in Wayland, if you are age 45 or older, to a time when you knew when to come home for dinner because you heard the 5 o’clock whistle blow for the shift change at Pet Milk. This was years before what it is now called. You knew it was noon because you heard the fire station siren go off (which it still does).

The people in town knew each other, looked out for each other, helped with little league, rocket football and any other organized sport for kids. It was a time when porches were on the front of the house instead of decks off the rear, and very few fences to restrict kids or animals. You’d walk down the street and neighbors would wave at each other, stop to converse, enjoy the weather, get a little fresh air and exercise. Kids freely rode their bikes across town to visit friends or to play baseball. There were no murders, beatings (other than a youthful fistfight), gunshots at people. We knew, even as kids, firearms were serious business and most of the young men used them with Dad hunting.

There was a recent comment in Townbroadcast that got me to thinking – do you know your neighbors? I doubt most do. Why is that — are we so callous we don’t want to know or we just don’t put forth the effort? Remember when a mother or grandmother would get sick and the neighbor would bring over dinner, knowing the men of the day knew nothing about cooking, and wanted to help out the family? My mother did it for others and others did it for us at times and we were very thankful for it.

Then the big changes came. More and more adults were working out of town, the majority in Grand Rapids or suburbs. Many of the kids were on their own in the morning to get ready for school and get on the bus or walk to school. A generation before, the majority of mothers with children were homemakers – stay at home mothers.

There were many reasons for the change. Some families wanted to earn more money by both spouses working. This was understandable, as advertising was used to sell more desirable products that we were told we couldn’t live without. “Keeping up with the Joneses” was the mantra of the day. With new found wealth, people could afford more things and opportunities opened up that were out of reach before.

This was not unnoticed by the state and federal governments. With more people working, more money was coming into their respective treasuries. Government programs and hiring expanded, causing the need for more and more money to cover the expenses. Government, when led by trustworthy and honorable people, was efficient and viewed as helpful and honest in intent. More and more social programs were created, and more and more people became dependent on those programs being there to help out. Eventually, it became a way of life for some families – government assistance for anyone signing up for it. Uncle Sam became Uncle Sugar. For something like sugar to be ingested into the body and in turn creating and turning acidic and attacking the teeth and organs, so it started the rotting of human existence at the lower end of the social economic strata.

Now, millions of people are dependent on the drug called “welfare.” To be on welfare when I was young was embarrassing and demeaning. If you were on “assistance,” you were looked down on, not able to take care of your basic needs under your own efforts. It was understandable in some instances to receive welfare due to an inability to provide for your own; however, most people were able and willing to do something for their helping hand until they could get on their feet and get a steady job.

Now, it is regarded as a right, and you better pay your taxes so that money can be given to those who not only can’t work, but those who refuse to work for their basic needs. The Democrats used to frame it as helping those who can’t help themselves, now it is explained they can’t help themselves because of a variety of reasons – discrimination, drug use, alcoholism, caring for children, racism, you name it, it’s everyone’s fault but those directly affected.

I remember looking for a job and finally getting an interview because I was laid off and drawing unemployment benefits. This was a good job from a local manufacturing company and all was smiles and encouragement of employment until they found out what company from which I received a layoff. Then they didn’t have a job, it was filled, they hastily exclaimed, and they wouldn’t consider me. Just like that. I learned either lie or not apply for a job.

Luckily, I received a job working for a public institution for a year before I was recalled back to my previous employer. I needed a job, and they had one. They paid just above minimum wage and no benefits – paying for needed insurance cost me almost 20% of my take home pay every month. I needed work, they had a job, and I took it. I had a family to feed and house and I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask for welfare, no matter what.

That attitude is gone now. Nobody displays any embarrassment or reservations in receiving welfare, another generation lost to government plantation thinking and programs. However, those working and paying the freight (taxes) for those who won’t work are told those not working are the unfortunate and they need these programs to survive. The millions of people on welfare are now sucking the lifeblood out of the country in the form of government revenue.

To make matters worse, illegals entering this country can receive all the welfare citizens receive. How this is legal? I’m not an immigration lawyer, so I haven’t a clue. What’s not to love about America when you can come in illegally and everything is provided for you – all you have to do is sign up for it?

And Democrats and Remocrat RINOs don’t understand the attitude of those who support Donald Trump for president? It’s called following the rule of law – enforcing existing immigration laws and deporting those that come here illegally. Those same existing laws Democrats (especially President Obama, the Justice Department and Mrs. Clinton) ignore and refuse to enforce.

The whole point of this – when you make it easy for those to subsist on others’ productivity, to put it in stark language – eventually the parasite will kill its host.

Who receiving welfare and subsistence will vote for anyone not supporting their interests? Who will vote for anyone supporting more of the same and future welfare recipients? Isn’t that one of the main points of this election?

The differences are stark and certainly contrasting – Mrs. Clinton will be more of the same that hasn’t worked in the last eight years. More pain, more misery. Mr. Trump is correct, Mrs. Clinton is a bigot, only saying what she has to say for votes, she could care less about those in misery and the bonds of welfare continuance.

Mr. Trump, as the opposition, you have someone outside of the statist Republican mold and states he will enforce the existing immigration laws and concentrate on expanding the economy, raising opportunities for everyone.

In short, the rotting of American from within continues if we keep on the path we’re on. We need a different direction, and we need it fast. Mr. Trump is the only hope for change.