That Which We Would Not

A small article buried in page six of June 20th Herald-Palladium caught my eye as a pharmacy in Medford, New York was robbed of prescription medication and four persons were killed. They likely followed their store policies right to their death. Now cut to Benton Harbor, MI on May 28th of this year where pharmacist Jeremy Hoven, carrying a registered concealed weapon, fired after almost being fired upon by a robber. In hindsight, did he do the right thing? Not according to Walgreens, who fired him. Mr. Hoven had a choice: follow store policy by waiting for the gunman to clear his jammed gun and then be shot or do all he can save not only his life but those under his stead. In times of great stress, we do not what we wish to but that which we need to do.

Many times a situation comes down to facing the devil and our nation is under great stress right now. Our proverbial financial pants are busting at the waist due to the weight of our national debt and we have two choices: get bigger pants (higher taxes to spend more), or cut (also called fiscal sanity) our spending to solve the problem. The answer seems obvious, but there are those who would rather get the bigger pants (a.k.a. soak the rich) and go on as if traveling to Oz. There is not enough tax revenue to satiate their lust.

What we fail to understand is that it all comes back to us in the end. I mean, we sure got BP to pay for all the expenses of the oil spill in the Gulf last year, right? No. They wrote off billions on their taxes, and coupled with higher gas prices, who pays the bill? More taxes means more spending which means more borrowing because Congress never has enough which means higher costs on products which means you pay more.

Benton Harbor has gone through a great deal of pain because things just haven't been right. City managers were fired when they tried to do anything of substance to fix the problem. Now, under the guidance of Mr. Harris, Benton Harbor has endured the tough love and is the better for it financially. It’s never easy to take the hard road but, like Mr. Hoven, sometimes we have to do that which we would rather not. God bless America.