"Give me liberty or Give me death!"
My God, Patrick Henry must be rolling over in his grave!
We just recently passed the 233rd anniversary of the legendary speech that Mr. Henry gave in the Virginia House of Burgess on March 23, 1775. This passionate and persuasive rhetoric (something for which Mr. Henry was well known) convinced this Legislative House to send Virginia troops to the support of the Revolutionary War. While no written copy of that speech was ever saved, recalling this quote even today tends to stir the hearts of some with patriotic fervor.
Unfortunately, the greater number of citizens today seems less concerned with maintaining liberty than with attaining comfort. Somewhere down the years we seem to have become less concerned with protecting ourselves from the menace of intrusive and abusive government than we are with protecting ourselves from gingivitis. Little concerned about the essential rights of all men, we now seem more concerned with government protection from each other and from ourselves. Instead of being concerned with protecting the fundamental liberties that this country was founded on, we seem far more concerned with the presents that we hope to find under the tree after the next election. When did this happen?When did we start to ask for government to protect us from all of the trials, tribulations, and potential pitfalls of life?
When did it become government's responsibility to take care of us in ill health or old age?
When did it become government's job to sustain the Stock Market by printing more money or manipulating the interest rate?
When did it become government's responsibility to bail us out when we took an ill-conceived loan or made a bad bet?
When did it become government's responsibility to tax some forms of business to the edge of bankruptcy while subsidizing others?
When did we begin to believe that governments might have a place in deciding how much profit a company should make or how much money the CEO of such a company should be paid?
It shames me to think that the noble experiment that the Founding Fathers attempted in creating this nation has so degraded itself as to make its citizens believe that they have no responsibility in their own future. It distubss me that the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" have been degraded to a "make all the bad stuff go away mommy" philosophy. It depresses me that so many are looking forward to the November elections, not for an increase of opportunities or freedoms; but for an increase of government hand outs.
Well maybe the world has changed in the last 223 years, but there I think that there are still a few or us relics of the past around. I only hope that as November's responsibilities come closer to home, that more people realize that what we are supposed to be doing in an election is choosing leaders who can make the right (and sometimes the tough) decisions. It is not to treat a trip to the voting booth the same way that kids treat a trip to the mall ... to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what kind of presents we would like.
As far as I am concerned, you can keep the toys and the pretty packages thank you; I'll stick with Patrick Henry's choices.
2 comments:
When did we start to ask for government to protect us from all of the trials, tribulations, and potential pitfalls of life?
When did it become government's responsibility to take care of us in ill health or old age?
When did it become government's job to sustain the Stock Market by printing more money or manipulating the interest rate?
When did it become government's responsibility to bail us out when we took an ill-conceived loan or made a bad bet?
When did it become government's responsibility to tax some forms of business to the edge of bankruptcy while subsidizing others?
When did we begin to believe that governments might have a place in deciding how much profit a company should make or how much money the CEO of such a company should be paid?
The answer is that these aren't just rhetorical questions that Libertarians have made them out to be. Each of these questions represents something that happened in history in which only government was able to make a change that improved the lives of its people. We have a history rich with the greed and self-interest of the few doing their best to subjugate the many. If we were to do away with the laws that are currently on the books, a panacea world would not appear. We would see the disappearance of the middle-class. We would see a return to child labor. The elderly would have to work until the day they died or hope they died the day they could no longer work. We would effectly return to a state of serfdom. Even the things that could insulate a person from these things in past centuries would not be present, as we're all effectively urban dwellers now.
I agree that government is certainly not the most effective method for managing and mandating these things. However, we have proven that without government intervention, we do not take the high road in regard to these issues. Until we come up with actual solutions to these problems, cries for deregulation seem to me like the heralds of disaster.
linvinginfits,
Perhaps the only thing we agree on here is that each of these questions were asked at a critical point in history. I believe that we have answered incorrectly however.
The "War on Poverty" didn't end it, nor did the "War on Drugs". Social Security has not provided the guaranteed retirement we all thought we were getting and with the government's current plan, I do believe that I will have to work until the day that I die. The list goes on an on and I won't bore you with it. What government adds is massive levels of bureaucracy and taxation, which it compensates for by restrictions of personal choice.
I do not believe that we have to return to every evil practice of history to prove this, but could use the government controls of pre-WWI Germany, and post WWII England and France to make my case.
We may have to agree to disagree on this one, but I refer to the Quotes section this week, where smarter people than I am have, I believe, agreed with me.
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