Do the Research

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... “ Thomas Jefferson

A stranger calls and asks you to recommend them for a high paying position within your company. They have been told that you are considered to have a great deal of credibility within the company and probably can influence the decision. The stranger promises not to betray your trust and will find a way to pay you back for your recommendation. Do you risk your position and credibility and recommend them?

Most people with even moderate intelligence would say “No”. However, isn’t this precisely what we are being asked to do by all of the presidential candidates? We really don’t know them…only who and what they say they are. If only we will support them with money and votes, they promise not to betray our trust. What makes us so willing to buy into their scam? Because we are so shallow that we can’t let the other side win under any circumstances? Or because we don’t know how to change things?

These candidates are not our best and our brightest. They are politicians who will say whatever it takes to get our votes and gain our trust. When they do, the rewards are tremendous…unlimited power. The best and the brightest don’t want any part of the political scene. They have no desire to become involved in the filth of campaigning. Ask not what I can do for my country; let me tell you what a lying piece of scum my opponent is.

We, fellow Americans, are the losers in both cases. After spending 12 years as a school director, I can say without hesitation that power corrupts…real power or the assumption of power... even at this, the lowest level of politics. If it exists here, imagine what’s at stake at the highest levels of government. It’s time for those of us who live quiet lives outside of the limelight to demand more from our representatives. We need to stop relying on these users to tell us what is best for us and do the research for ourselves. It’s the only thing that will keep us free.

Tantrums of Government

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1782)

Oh how intelligent and sensible our founding fathers truly were! And when I read a quote like this, it reminds me how much foresight they possessed. I struggle to try and understand how a minority as small as one person can change the lives of millions of people just by claiming that they have been injured, when no physical harm has come to them. A child, in it's immaturity, will run crying to it's mother at the slightest afront, hoping that she will punish the "bully". When the parent complies out of desparation to stop the tantrum, the child is empowered and has learned that this manipulation will bring the desired results. A monster has been created.

I have learned, and I hope I have taught my children, that Consequences are the greatest teacher. Although they sometimes cause us pain, they bring us the greatest self-respect and maturity. It is the consequences of our wise choices that empower us to create something better, and the consequences of our poor choices that make us wiser and smarter. Those who cry "bully" and require someone else to spare them the consequences will win temporarily, but they and their generations will always be the load society must carry. They will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again, until eventually, they will make an error so drastic that no one can save them...not even the government. We will all suffer along the way.

Today most of our government representatives, and I use the term loosely, are those grown immature children that want everything and have learned that they can get what they want by placing the blame on someone else. They have claimed immunity from the consequences of their own actions by diverting the attention to others, then throwing tantrums so that the focus will be turned away from their own poor choices. This is my generation and I am ashamed for them all, but although they have picked my pocket, they have not yet broken my leg.