A LITTLE SKIN IN THE GAME

Barry Small

01/23/2015

I have come to the conclusion that the reason America is the divided crumbling society that it has become is because we have “NO SKIN IN THE GAME”. More to the point, there are too many people with too much voice making decisions that affect the whole nation that have never had any skin in the game.

Before I go any further, I want to make something clear; I was never in the military, I went to private school and grew up in middle class middle America. I am neither Republican nor democrat. I consider myself a believer in the Constitution; as it was written, by very wise men that fully understood the temptation of power, money and influence.

If you had asked me about what I am about to say a year ago you would have gotten a very different answer than I am going to write today. But in the words of James Carney “the president’s position has evolved.” Good enough for him; good enough for me.

I believe we need a return to the draft. Yes, I know that it comes with some constitutional issues, so maybe this isn’t as much about a true return to the draft, but more about making a point. I think that mandatory military service would bring change to America…and that is what America said it wanted correct…change.

What spurred this thought was the incredible stupidity of the remarks coming out of Hollywood and the progressive left about the movie American Sniper. Too be fair, there were some leftist progressives that did call out their brothers for their ignorance… kudo’s to them. This is where my clarification that I never served in the military becomes important. Some will say that it is hypocritical to call for a draft when I was unwilling to serve when I was of military age.

They are absolutely correct. I was unwilling to serve, but not for some political or moral reason. I saw first-hand how the patriot veterans of Vietnam were treated when they returned home. I lived in Saigon for two years as a pre-teen and saw all the war I wanted to see. I got just a glimpse of what our soldiers saw every day and then the treatment they got when they returned and I didn’t want to be a part of it.

Many years later, and with much more experience and wisdom, I feel a bit of guilt for living the American dream on the backs of those men and women while having no real skin in the game. This is a good point to say thank you to every person that dedicated their life to the military and too protecting all the freedoms and opportunities that I get to take advantage of.

It was the poison that came out of Seth Rogen and Michael Moore that made me wonder how we got to the point where those that protect us have become the enemy. What happened between WWII and today that we don’t appreciate the sacrifices made by those that serve? How did we get to the point where patriots are villains?

As I thought about it I realized that Seth Rogen and Michael Moore are nothing more than today’s Jane Fonda’s. They are the current issue of draft dodgers and bra burners. They are today’s hypocrites raised on a silver spoon and given a platform to spew their garbage from the safety of their gated homes protected by security. They are the today’s shitbag traitors that have made their living on the backs of those that sacrificed and served to protect their right to be stupid.

That is what I mean by “no skin in the game.” If Seth Rogen had served in Afghanistan or in Chris Kyle’s shoes, I doubt he would have run that sewer pipe he calls a mouth the way he did. Seth Rogen is the poster child for raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. Michael Moore on the other hand is just a pig at the trough.

No doubt someone will say that I have no idea what their background was like and they are right. But I know this from having lived and travelled all over the world; virtually every one of us that grew up in America grew up with a silver spoon compared to the majority of the world. Not one of us that didn’t serve has the right to call out any patriot that did.

That is why I think the draft would be a good thing. I believe that the difference between today and yesteryear is that there are too many of us that never had to invest or sacrifice anything important to live the American Dream. We don’t have skin in the game.

Think about the difference a draft would make. If everyone had to do two/four years of military service when they turned eighteen or graduated from high school, the “you owe me everything you worked for” crowd would disappear.

If you had to be up at the butt crack of dawn marching, we wouldn’t have the obesity problem we have today. Instead of sitting on your ass playing video games in your parent’s basement you would be learning responsibility, respect and a whole lot about what freedom is worth.

Instead of kids camping in a city parks marching in the streets, shooting heroin and raping each other, they would be marching and camping in the mountains, learning the value of hard work, discipline and team work. They would discover that with a little effort they don’t need the government to support them and that there is a sense of pride in self-reliance that you don’t get from living on government crack. I doubt many would feel the need to demand their share of what I work for because they would be working themselves.

I believe we wouldn’t have the “racial” problems we allegedly have today because in the military everyone is a grunt and everyone learns that they all have to depend on each other equally to succeed. It has been the one place where to a much higher degree than anywhere else, racial integration is successful. That most certainly would carry over into society as people moved back into civilian life.

Military service should be a prerequisite to citizenship if you are of military age. If you want the benefits of being an American citizen you should have to earn it. I don’t think that if that was the case, those that earned it would look too favorably on those that get amnesty/citizenship by entering the country illegally. Having a little skin in the game would certainly change the value and perspective of being what being an American is worth.

Here is the big one; if you aren’t willing to serve, don’t serve honorably and don’t have a DD214 that says you did your time honorably you should not be eligible to hold any public or government office. This should include any government job from janitor in the public library to public university professor to POTUS. I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be too many Ward Churchill’s brainwashing our youth if they had the silver spoon extracted from that rectum known as their mouth and had to put a little skin in the game.

Jesse and Big Al wouldn’t have the audience they do because their constituency would evaporate with knowledge, skills and a sense of self-reliance as opposed to the victim message they are fed. No longer would they accept the montage that they are victims of society when they are weaned off the victim diet and realize that their own people have been the ones using them for political gain. Self-reliance and a sense of equality on all sides would go a long way toward getting people and keeping people out of the welfare/poverty death spiral.

There would be very little tolerance for the hate speech and anti-Americanism preached by the likes of Jeremiah Wright, the radical Islamic emams, or self-proclaimed socialists like Bernie Sanders and Kshama Sawant in Seattle.

Lastly I think that those elected to public office would have a better understanding of their responsibility to the people. I think they would look at the people’s money quite a bit differently than they do today and I think they would have a better understanding of how valuable the constitution and our rights really are.

Having a little skin in the game changes one’s perspective; it gives value to the things we take for granted. Freedom isn’t and shouldn’t be free, it should be earned. Nothing you get for free is worth any more than that. That is why welfare and socialism don’t work. When you don’t have to earn it, there is no respect for it or yourself.

Jane Fonda, Seth Rogen and the Michael Moore’s of the world have no right to trash talk anyone. We continue to allow the Saul Alinsky’s and Wade Churchill’s to pollute our kids and incite hate. Our silence toward these anti Americans speaks volumes about how much we really value the gift of being an American.

Freedom shouldn’t be free; every one of us should have some skin in the game. It is far too easy to eat from our American silver spoon and complain while someone like Chris Kyle is doing our share of the sacrificing for us.

A draft will never happen again not because of constitutional issues, but because politicians don’t want a population that values their rights. People with pride and values wouldn’t put up with their incredible irresponsibility and ignorance. The progressives most certainly would never go for it because they need “victims” to maintain their class warfare and racial message. Conservatives would never allow it because self-reliance is empowering and they cannot have an empowered citizenry threatening their hold on power.

If we want to right this ship, we need to have some skin in the game. We can’t afford to continue allowing people that haven’t bought and paid for their ticket to have a say in where we are going. That includes people like me that have lived the good life with very few sacrifices. I was lucky; my father earned his freedom and taught me to value it. I saw and experienced places in the world that didn’t have what we have. But that isn’t the same as sacrificing for it.

My “position today has evolved” and I better realize that I owe my success to patriots like Chris Kyle; he paid for my freedom with his life. I don’t deserve it; he was way more a man than I was. I had the same opportunity he did; he answered the call and I didn’t.

Seth and Mikey don’t deserve it either, and CPO Kyle certainly doesn’t deserve the vile hate they spewed about him. Traitors like Fonda, Alinsky and Wright don’t deserve the gift that has cost the blood of thousands of patriots.

What is the difference between WWII and today? Patriots came home as the heroes that they were. They had skin in the game, walked with an air of self-reliance that was born in blood. They didn’t need or want to be reliant on anyone else; they understood the value of earning everything they got including their freedom. They had skin in the game and they earned the right to every freedom the constitution guarantees. It’s about time the rest of us man up, pull the silver spoon out of our collective asses and do something to earn what Chris Kyle died to give us.

Rest in Peace CPO Kyle, and thank you for your sacrifice.