A truth stands the test of time

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A truth stands the test of time. That is how you know it is a truth. A truth cannot change. If it did, it would have been proven to be false.

Just over 60 years ago, the column below appeared on the Gasconade County Republican’s editorial page. It was just as true then as it is now.

Here is a reprint of the column “Our Back Yard” from Nov. 2, 1961, written under the pen name of Owen Lee Gabbin.

It is a human weakness, an innate frailty, of which we are all guilty: Hoping for something for nothing.

We all hope…yet we all know that we get out of life just what we put into it!

In spite of all the hope, there is no such thing as something for nothing. It is non-existent.

The tragedy is this. The sum total of the hope for something for nothing is probably America’s greatest weakness.

In fact, something for nothing dictates many of our actions, our reasonings.

Too often, most of us cheer the officeholder who, by plunging our children and generations-to-come deeper and deeper in debt, offers us something for nothing.

Too often, most of us go to the polls and vote for the politician who promises us that pie-in-the-sky — something for nothing.

Too often, most of us praise the employer who gives us that which we haven’t earned.

Too often, most of us remain loyal to the union leader who promises to get us paid for not working.

This is all something for nothing…and in every instance, there is deceit, a lie, a string attached, a penalty which must be paid for seeking the impossible!

People who promise something for nothing are fakers. They know the truth, secretly.

If only we would cheer the officeholder who does his job in the interest of the people, and vote for the politician who pulls no punches but truthfully strives for a better life for all, and accept that which we earn and give  a day’s work for a day’s wages!

But there is a vast difference between something for nothing and a better life. 

Something for nothing is a fool’s paradise. It must come to a premature end. It is a substitute for truth. It includes a day of reckoning.

When you earn your way, on the other hand, you buy and pay for a better way of life. You own it.

For in the final analysis, there is no such thing as something for nothing. Life still boils down to one simple rule: You receive in equal measure what you give!

The accounting is made on the day of judgment.

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That was 60 years ago. Politicians still sell the falsehood that we can get something for nothing. It was just two months ago when President Joe Biden insisted that his $3.5 trillion social welfare bill has a “zero price tag.”

Biden doesn’t stop there. Hidden on page 1,647 of the Democrats’ social spending package, the Build Back Better Act, is a provision that would eliminate the Social Security number requirement for the child tax credit. This change would make parents of illegal immigrants — who don’t have Social Security numbers — eligible for the child tax credit for their children who are also here illegally. 

In a report on foxnews.com, Steven Camarota, a Center for Immigration Studies researcher, estimated that eliminating the requirement could result in up to $2.3 billion in additional child tax credit payouts to illegal immigrants.

That’s a big something for nothing for illegal immigrants — paid for by you and me. And the Biden Administration can’t understand why immigrants are literally dying to come to America. 

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Here is a short history of the column “Our Back Yard.” It first appeared in print in the Gasconade County Republican on Thursday, Nov. 20, 1958. I’m sure most readers did not recognize the author — Owen Lee Gabbin — in the beginning.

Mr. Gabbin was a pen name for my uncle Tom Warden, publisher emeritus.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a second column which appeared on an outdoor or farming page entitled “Backwoods Browsing.” 

Tom was listed as the Assistant Editor of the Gasconade County Republican on April 9, 1959.

On May 13, 1965, Gabbin’s name disappeared from the weekly column, even though it was still published. Five months later, on Oct. 7, the end of the column was signed with the initials T.C.W.

It took another six years — May 13, 1971 — for Tom’s byline to appear with his weekly column. 

His farewell address was published on Feb. 28, 2001.