Justice Thomas: Americans Little Disposed to Sacrifice and Self-Denial
Justice Clarence Thomas says Americans today are less willing to sacrifice during hard times, and he lays the blame on the “self-indulgent, ‘Me’ generation” of the 1960s.
In a speech yesterday at Washington and Lee University, Thomas recalled the messages he heard over and again as a child, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. “Learn to do without,” he was told. “Prepare for a rainy day,” and “No one owes you a living.”
“These days, there seems to be little emphasis on responsibility, sacrifice and self-denial,” Thomas said, according to the Times-Dispatch account. “Rarely do we hear a message of sacrifice, unless it is used as a justification of taxation of others or a transfer of wealth to others.”
Thomas recalled President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech and said the words no longer ring true. “Today the message seems to be, ‘Ask not what you can do for yourselves and your country, but what your country can do for you.’ “
Thomas thinks that needs to change, the Associated Press reports in its account of the speech. “Our country and our principles are more important than our individual wants,” Thomas said.
