Work is required

Time to return to the values and effort that made America great in the first place.

There’s work to be done. | Image: Substack AI

I plopped down on the hill, drenched in sweat and panting like a racehorse.

My morning was spent thinning a poplar tree invasion on the back half-acre slope. Not a job for wimps on a Summer afternoon in the Blue Ridge. I processed the trees into stacks for burning and piles for delivery to the recycling center.

While catching my breath and mopping my brow, I reminisced about the hard labor I’d done in my youth. Warehouseman, truck driver, rail car loading/unloading, ice bagger in the Alpha-Beta Grocery frozen warehouse. Then there was my first job: Yard and Refuse Management, an unpaid internship under my Dad (cleaning up dog poop and mowing the backyard).

Those smelly, high-sweat, low-pay jobs motivated me to return to college and get a degree (yes, I am a reformed college dropout). I was persuaded that the sheer grunt force nature of that kind of work would have shortened my life if not for the option of going back to school.

Growing by degrees

With a college degree and some key connections, the door to my future swung open. And I have to laugh, recalling some of my imaginings on the way to finishing my education. I remember strolling through the Art Department at Cal State University, Fullerton, one day, ruminating on the road ahead: “If I could ever make $30K a year, I’d be set!”

That’s not even enough to buy an entry-level Honda these days, but such was the size of my dreams at the time.

Eyes to the future

Cooling off on the hillside before butchering my next tree, my thoughts turned to the drivel we’re hearing so much of today. Capitalism, that plague of colonialism, has failed! Socialism! Now, there’s the solution to all of our problems! That and we need to let as many migrants as possible enter the United States because no Americans will do the jobs “they” do.

That last part is what I want to speak to, so buckle up, children.

The facts of life

There is a biblical maxim, a Truth that extends from the Garden of Eden till the return of Christ:

No worky, no eaty.¹

The succinctness of this unchanging Truth is not to be missed. And it was directed not at unbelievers, but Christians. I’ve provided the RIV text, but NKJV is in footnotes for Bible students.

Young people

Look, life requires work. Often hard work. You’re going to have to come to grips with this. I understand that some of you were “raised right” and you “get” the concept. However, a large number of your cohort do not “get” it. And the people who should be helping them “get it” are not doing their jobs.

I understand that it’s hard to find a job during the early years. When you’re young, have no degree, and possess limited skills, it will be difficult to persuade someone you’re worthy of representing their enterprise and taking their money. You may need to get your hands dirty and sweat a bit. That’s life.

And I hear you, the ones who paid exorbitantly for a sheepskin not worth the parchment it’s written on. I feel your pain, but you have a problem to solve, so stop whining about debt forgiveness. And, don’t worry—I’ll deal with Universities a little further on in my diatribe.

Dad and Mom

I’m not a parent, so I’ll tread lightly. However, lack of parental experience cannot erase what I’ve witnessed over the past few decades. The downward slide of the American education system is staggering. And the end product—students with truncated skills in reading, math, history, and the hard sciences—does not bode well for our collective future.

The idea that the education system should prepare capable and productive members of society has been replaced by the rhetoric of debt forgiveness, safe spaces, and income redistribution. In a society where everything is “free,” the idea of work (let alone hard work) is anathema. “No worries, the Government will take care of us!”

That’s a very shiny bauble, and in the always-on, screen-saturated world in which we live, it’s dangled before your kids continually.

Let’s start on the 18th tee: If you’ve got a healthy college graduate (or high school graduate who is not going on to university) living at home rent-free, you’ve lost your mind. And, you’re robbing your offspring of a valuable learning opportunity: Work.

Right now—today—Dad and Mom, you need to communicate a change in the relationship dynamic before you ruin your “child’s” future. I’ve written the script for you. So, sit down with Junior or Missy and spell it out:

No worky, no eaty.

So simple.

“We love you, but get a job, start contributing, or move on. Love, Dad and Mom.”

Doesn’t have to be harsh. A short grace period before policy implementation is reasonable. But the truth of life is this: Everyone must pay their way. Help connect the dots for your kids. They need to understand this basic precept.

Teachers/Professors/Administrators

Ahhhhh … I’ve been relishing this moment.

No matter where you are in the education system—from Kindergarten teacher to university Professor—you are responsible and culpable for building the intellectual capital and capability of future generations. It’s a weighty assignment, to be sure. But you signed up for it, and we’re relying on you to do your job.

If a large percentage of young people today decry capitalism and desire socialism, you all had a hand in deconstructing their understanding of our Constitutional Republic (this is where Liberals would cry out, “DEMOCRACY!”). That’s nothing to be proud of. History is replete with examples of the disastrous results of socialism/communism on the human condition.

Kindergarten teachers, we’ll start with you. Discounting pre-school, you had the first crack at every generation that has come of age in America. Did you take advantage of being the first person into the batter’s box in the lives of your students? Did you swing for the fences concerning Truth, Justice, and the American Way? If not, why not?

High School teachers, you’re not paid to be cool and generate “Likes” from your students on social media. You are our last best chance to build an internal moral and intellectual bulwark in your students before they are sucked into the demonic vortex of “higher education.” You stand in the gap between life and death for the young people under your care. It’s time to be brave and make that stand for them.

University “professors,” I will exercise as much restraint as possible in expressing my contempt for those of you who hate America and have no qualms about bending the youthful minds in your lecture halls to hate America, too. If this is you, yours is the creepiest kind of child grooming—a cunning strategy to suck the living souls out of the future of our Nation by robbing bright, young minds of Truth. All from your unassailable tenured tuffet inside the hollowed-out halls of “higher education.”

University administrators, the price you charge for delivering a very questionable service is staggering. In fact, exorbitant. Between tuition and endowments, you have come to the idea that you can thumb your nose at accountability and integrity. Perhaps you’ll get away with your “academic enrichment strategy” for a while longer. But all eyes are on you now, holy robed acolytes of greed and malinformation.

A fresh start?

There may still be time to save America from wrongthink and foolishness. But the time to act is at hand. We, the People, are willing to let bygones be bygones. But let’s get this boat turned around right now. So—Kindergarten teacher, High School teacher, College professor/administrator: Raise your right hand and repeat after me:

“All the ‘isms’ are bad. I will not teach to the contrary. Nor will I fleece the sheep any more. Please forgive my past indiscretions. I’m sorry.”

If you really mean it, and you tap your heels together three times while repeating that promise, you may open your eyes and understand how important your role is, and that with a fresh new mindset, you really can make a difference—in the lives of young people and, by extension, for the future of the United States of America.

See to it.

“Wow! I loved this!”

1. ^{10 “}For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” —2 Thessalonians 3:10