I am a free man! I can take care of myself!

   Those were the words that I found written in a book entitled, "Let's go to America!" (by H. Brackmann) which covers the history of the German immigration in the mid to late 1800's from an
area of Westphalia to Southern Illinois.  My ancestors , Fritz Vogel and Heinrich Vogel, are mentioned in this book.  It details how Fritz had left home (to avoid the German army) and went to America to start his own farm.  He worked as a farm hand and saved every penny he could until he could buy his own land.  He later went back to Germany to bring his brothers, Wilhelm and Heinrich (a 52 day trip each way on small sailing ships).  Even though they owned land in Germany and Heinrich (my great grandfather) was the heir to the land he didn't want it because the high taxes made it difficult make a living.  Luckily for him (and me) his sister married a wealthy land owner who could take the land and keep it in the family. All 3 brothers boarded the next ship over to America.  There they worked hard and eventually became some of biggest farmers in the area.

     They were proud hard working individuals who cared much about their freedom.  In the book it talked about how they wanted nothing to do with the Lutheran pastors that came from Germany because they were still listening to what the "state-church" was teaching and not what the Bible was teaching.  A Lutheran pastor says in the book, "There is a freedom in the churches have here in America that the state churches in Germany do not have".   This astonished me as I never knew that to be the case until now.

     Then came a section that absolutely astounded me.  The author mentions how many of the farmers were told they were eligible for Social Security even though many, like my grandpa Henry Vogel, never paid a dime into it.  90 year-old Heinrich Vogel refused to take it and said

"I am a free man!  I can take care of myself".

    I almost wept when I read these words because it saddens me to think about how far we have come in our nation.   To think that we are the descendants of men like this.  Men who braved the ocean (multiple times) to come here are start out on their own.  Men who built their homes from the lumber they cut from the woods around their farms.  Men, like my grandpa Henry C. Vogel (his real first name was Karl, but he reversed them to sound more American) who joined the army to fight in WWI and possibly fight against his own relatives. (he developed the flu the day before he was to ship over and they left him behind because they feared he had influenza.  He recovered but the next boat would not leave for another 6 months and by that time the war was ending)

    Have we become a nation of people like this guy, Jason Greenslate, who thinks its his

job to live on food stamps and welfare and to surf all day?   He was featured on a Fox News special looking into the expanding numbers of people receiving food stamps and welfare in our county.  Granted, he is the worst of the lot who does this, but there are many more like him who take from the government dole rather than take a job requiring manual labor. (note: on a future show he was offered a job making $80K driving a truck in the Montana oil fields. He declined the offer).

    Contrasting these 2 people, Jason Greenslate and Heinrich Vogel, we see 2 people who both say they are "free".   Jason believes himself to be free to surf all day and eat sushi and lobster.  He has no college education and wants to be a recording artist.  He will have enough money to get by on, but not enough to travel or raise a family on.  He will be required to live not too far from his welfare office to receive his daily allotment.  He will be required to vote for the politician who promises to keep his belly full and his surf board in the water.  But what will he do when the money runs out?  He will have no work history.  He will have no education.  He will have no skills to forage food on his own.  He will be forced to sell himself to whoever will take him for whatever money or food they will pay him.   The government which is giving him this "free money" is tallying up the total amount and will soon be demanding "payment" from him.  In the end, he will become a slave.

   People like Heinrich,  will be truly free to vote for who they want in office.  They will not be slaves to the government.  They will grow their own food if needed.  They will sew their own clothes.  They will build their own houses.  They will educate and train their own children.  They will worship their own God.