Are you participating in the recession? I am not. If the Obama administration insists on throwing a depression - for political gain – I do not have to participate in it, and neither do you. Most people volunteer to be depressed. The more pitiful they can appear, the more aid they think they can attract.

Have 14 kids and no husband? No problem. The government (some government) will pick up the millions of dollars for  your medical expenses, not to count your living with 14 children. This was not a freak accident of nature. She actually paid to have eight embryos implanted in her when she already had six children.

I am reminded of the old woman who lived in a shoe who had so many children she didn’t know what to do. Of course this contemporary woman does not live in a shoe, she lives in public housing and knows exactly what to do. She subsists on food stamps and welfare, and expects free medical care for all 15 of them. She also expects volunteers to contribute to her lifestyle. She has a website telling her whole story and soliciting your contributions.

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She used to have a publicist, but the publicist quit when she started getting death threats and “really nasty voice mails.” The woman has since acquired an agent and is working on a book deal and speaking engagements. That should leave her plenty of time to look after all those kids.

Almost certainly, someone will ghostwrite the book for her.  What would it be about? Just being a selfish freak, I suppose. People can be forgiven for believing that the whole octuplets thing is a publicity stunt to gain a PR platform – maybe run for office.

Is this becoming the American way? Is there no shame in being needy (as distinguished from being poor)? In this land of abundance, does it not brand you as eminently unsuccessful in a milieu in which success is not that difficult?

The other day, President Obama was appearing somewhere and a woman made her way to within earshot. She cried loud and long about how needy she was and could he help her? Remarkably, he did. He arranged for her to get some of what she says she needed.

Was this an act of charity on Obama’s part? It might have been in the script.

Whatever he gave her, you know did not come out of his pocket. He found some way to bail her out. Why not? Money is suddenly cheap, if you’re the United States government.

But what does this demonstrate? 

It shows the government, in this case in the person of the president, has the power to relieve all suffering. All you have to do is appear pitiful, learn to cry on cue, and above all, surrender your self-respect, your ability to guide your own life, your self-reliance and your personal sovereignty. They can be a heavy burden for some. I fear that woman wouldn’t have a clue what I am talking about.

But you do.

You would never prostrate yourself before the head of state to sob out your need. You would never do it no matter how desperate your situation was. And because you think that way, your situation will never get that desperate.

We are not a nation of peasants begging alms from an all-powerful Oz. We are free and independent men and women. We are Americans! We are the best of the best. We routinely do what others dare not even dream of.

Well, most of us do. But the government is on a program now to reduce us all to sniveling whiners. I won’t be bought. Will you?

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.waxmanmedia.com. Lionel Waxman’s Flashpoint commentaries are published in The Daily Territorial.