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Apr 26
2009
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What We Want from Government, Tea Party commentsPosted by Peter and Helen Evans in Untagged   |
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Tea Party, April 25th, Washington DC
Friends, Americans, Patriots - lend me your ears!
We are gathered here on this beautiful day - not because we are filled with hate - but because we love our country.
Our hearts are breaking as we watch our good, true and beautiful nation being crippled by self-inflicted wounds, crushed under an enormous burden of unnecessary debt and strangled by tighter and tighter regulations.
Although the cancerous growth of government has been happening for a long time, it is happening much more quickly now. Even so, many of our families, friends and neighbors still don't see this yet. This where we have work to do. This country is its people - "we the people" - ALL the people. So, when we love our country, we also love our neighbors. We don't want to insult them, hurt their feelings and drive them away from us. We love liberty and we know that only the truth - and constant vigilance - can make us free. We must bring the truth to our families, friends and neighbors in ways that educate, persuade and convince them to do what's right for this country that IS ALL of us.
Helen and I wrote a review of a movie a few years ago for our young nephews and niece. It was about the movie "John Q". We offer it as an example of one way to get a discussion going about the truth. Helen is handing out cards right now with a link to it on our website. We hope that it can be helpful for you in your efforts to spread the truth.
An important truth was stated here almost 30 years ago and in these troubled times we need to hear it again. "Government is NOT the solution to our problems. Government IS the problem."
Is anyone here old enough to remember the "Great Society" project of the 1960's? Remember the "War on Poverty"? Over a period of about three decades the government spent Trillions (with a "T") of dollars in an attempt to "eliminate" poverty. What happened? Well, we got MORE broken homes. We got MORE fatherless families. We got MORE unemployment. We got MORE drug abuse. We got MORE crime. We ended up with MORE poverty! Oh yes. Did I mention that we also ended up with MORE government?
OK, that was a long time ago. Look back just a decade or so. We all remember "Affordable Housing" right? Back in the 1990's government started interfering with the mortgage market to force down interest rates and to compel banks to make insecure loans. Right after we got over the dot-com bubble, the real-estate bubble started blowing up. After a few years, of course, the insecure loans started collapsing in record numbers. By then the securities based on these shaky loans had been sold all over the world and this contributed to the worldwide financial meltdown that we are all "enjoying" right now. OK. So... "affordable housing" results in financial collapse.
It's a CRISIS!!! Well we "can't let a crisis go to waste" can we? Quick! We have to DO SOMETHING!!!! No time to stop and think about it. If all that borrowing and spending of the last few decades was a "bad thing," then we had better borrow five times as much and call it a "stimulus" or a TARP or a bail-out or an "investment in our future." Then it'll be a "good thing" - right?
Well, it's a good thing if you are the government, because now you control the financial sector and the American auto industry. What a relief! Pretty soon "we the people" can count on having "affordable" money and "affordable" cars! What's the matter? Don't you have any faith in the government?
Don't you have any hope? Put your hands into your pockets. See!! you still have change!
Well, watch out now, because the geniuses who brought us "affordable" housing are getting all set up to bring us "affordable" education, "affordable" energy and "affordable" health care. As a very smart man once said, "If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free!"
The only way we can get government back on its Constitutional track is for ourselves to embody the foundational values of liberty and self-responsibility. The only way for us to embody them is to talk about them, talk about them with our families, friends and neighbors. It will really surprise you, once you start doing this, how many times we actually endorse bad values just because we are swimming in them. They are in TV the movies and the internet. They're changing the meaning of the words we use. The bad ideas are usually hiding behind good-sounding names like "fairness" and "equality," like "non-judgmentalism," "tolerance" and "choice." Help your families and friends to find the truth underneath these disguises. That is why we're asking you to take a movie, a TV show or a some other event in your life and sit down with someone and talk about what values are being promoted there. You might be surprised. That's why Helen is passing out some cards of that movie review I just told you about. We went through that movie scene by scene to talk about the values portrayed there.
One of the bad ideas out there is that it's OK for the government to steal from some people and give to other people. This is usually called something like "social justice" or "being fair" or "spreading the wealth around." It might even sound better if we call the giving "welfare" and the stealing "taxes on the rich." But if we bring it into real life - it's just wrong. Imagine this: here's you, me and the other guy. It's cold. I've got a coat. You've got no coat. The other guy's got a closet full of coats. Is that fair? That's just the reality. I want you to like me, so I take one of the other guy's coats and give it to you. Is that fair? Now you're warm, but you're in possession of stolen property, the other guy's been robbed, and I'm a thief. Is that what we want? I don't think so.
So much is being trashed in the name of fairness. Now, let's be clear, we really DO want things to be fair, we want people to be generous and helpful; that's an important part of life. Let's take back what it really means to be fair and giving; let's not substitute stealing for giving; let's tell the government to get back to its real Constitutional principles and stop making things up as it suits them.
Come November, there will be a lot more evidence that government is doing more harm than good. It will become progressively easier to show our families, friends and neighbors the truth that these interventionist, big-government policies are the wrong way to go.
It's going to become so obvious that even politicians will start to notice. Let's help them pay attention. Give them a call. Send them a letter. Tell your representative just one thing you want to see changed. Tell your families, friends and neighbors to tell their representatives. By 2010, we the people will have some real alternatives when we go to the polls. We've got to tell them - PROTECT OUR LIBERTY. PROTECT OUR SOVEREIGNTY. ENFORCE OUR LAWS. AND - STOP REWARDING FAILURE! NO MORE BAIL-OUTS!!
Peter and Helen Evans are authors of Get Serious,
The Church's Stand on Contemporary Culture, and culture warriors leading a grassroots movement.
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First - not everyone is going to go to grad school. There are going to be steel workers, auto workers, mechanics, and a whole spectrum of people who do essential jobs that do not pay six figures plus. You can't tell all of these people to get advanced degrees and design micro-chips. The fact is that the character, as portrayed in the movie, was hard-working in a blue collar career. That is perfectly okay.
The fact is that the U.S. economy used to support blue collar workers just fine. Many of these workers have seen their jobs shipped overseas, and even though they work just as hard as ever, they don't make ends meet.
Who is responsible for shipping those jobs overseas? Multiple factors. The Fed counterfeiting money so that we can print cheap dollars to pay for imports cheaper than domestic production is one cause. Lack of national sentiment on the part of global managers. The onerous government regulations that punish business domestically and help push production overseas.
None of this in the control of the average blue collar worker who pays taxes and tries hard. The problem with our economy is that the factors cited above have rendered millions of workers obsolete as we print paper money to pay sweatshops in India and China.
A second factor is health care. The use of employment to ration health care is an artifact of WWII. Employment and health insurance should be decoupled so that consumers are never surprised as in this case. Further, the American Medical Association colludes with the Federal Government to reduce the supply of low-cost medical care that could help people like John Q not go through this dilemma.
Finally, the fact is that in a situation like this the Church should have stepped forward and should have helped this boy. Whatever responsibility the father has, the son is an object of charity. The father had no right to endanger others or to take violent action, but neither should charities ignore their responsibilities to help children.
I think, to sum up, that you are not wrong in your condemnation of socialism or the 'give-me' attitude. The problem is that your approach simply does not explore all aspects of the problem. The working class in this country really have been victimized, just not the way that Hollywood normally portrays.