GilfordGrok

A response to Kip Allen's Letter to the Editor in the Daily Sun:

To the Editor,

Kip Allen in his Letter to the Editor (Daily Sun, P7) wrote: "Social justice and moral obligation are not just words but ideas that a great nation was upon"

Methinks you forgot about a couple of words - but even after adding them back in, it still would be wrong.

The operative phrases in our country's founding was NOT "social justice" (a more nebulous term has never been created in the annals of social engineering and political tax raising) - but "equality under the law".  Neither was it "moral obligation"; rather, the phrase "the freedom ability to decide for oneself and one's family unhindered by Government" would be a far better fit.

This country was built on the singular (and still radical today) notions of individual freedom and personal sovereignty. What Kip Allen wishes to place upon us all is an overarching mechanism to force behavior according to the Progressive ideal of "social justice".  The problem is when you ask for specific definitions of that term and compare that to those of "individual freedom and choice", one can tell their political acknowledge the role of freedom, and then the word "but" appears as in usage that screams out "but that it should be subservient or limited in the cause of 'the common good' in one fashion or another".  While I agree we do have responsibilities to others, one has the innate freedom to decide for themselves whether to help or not - a voluntary and free choice of will.  However, every time I see his two phrases used together, I also see their implication of "and I will make you adhere to such by force of law".  And laws are not voluntary.

I am not so naive that all human behavior is such that we need no laws - unfortunately, there are those that believe that what belongs to others should be taken from them - we call those people "criminals".  

Often times, there are also others that delight in forcing behaviors upon others that they would not ordinarily perform - we call those people "bullies".

And then there are people who do both - forcibly take from some to give to others and then also demand that we act in ways that are pleasing to them and not what we would chose ourselves - we call them Progressive Politicians.

Continue reading ""Social justice": Not the moral philosophy on which the Constitution was fashioned" »

Posted by Skip at 07:39 PM | Permalink

In response to a Letter to the Editor from Tim Sullivan in the Daily Sun (P7):

To the Editor,

Tim Sullivan, in his Letter of 6/25/10 wrote the following: "Hopefully the selectmen and Budget Committee members of Gilford are not so busy...that they don’t have time to actually read the newspapers and either watch or listen to the news on a regular basis. Their decision making should be based on the outlook for the situation in their community and not their own personal situations and affinity for pet projects."

I have two words for you: "You betcha!".

Speaking for myself: These are hard economic times; I believe they aren't getting better anytime soon. For the past two years, even though Gilford budgets have been pretty much flat, I have been critical and questioning of any expenditure for new programs or purchases (e.g., "can we put off the new phone system or that new truck until the economy gets better?") in an attempt to move property taxes even lower; during these times, we can and should spend less. And yes, if that means cutting back on lesser priorities, those "less than absolutely essential services", so be it.

Even town government, should only do what would ordinarily be difficult for even groups of individuals to do; it should not be doing things simply because we have grown lazy, outsourced our individual responsibilities to others, or that it “feels right and good". Sadly, we seem all too willing to shuck off those responsibilities with a response of "someone will do it", "there ought to be a law", or "government should/will take care of it".

However, there are those that absolutely believe that Government has to spend more to take care of its citizens and should always do more; they have it exactly wrong. American style of governance as envisioned by our Founders, was built solely to protect our Rights, be a limited government that relied more on people taking care of themselves, and not be in the business of taking care of our every need (real or perceived). They never speak of the harm they do to others by raising taxes to pay for higher spending, for that would spoil the narrative.

Tim is right - this is not a time to spend.

Continue reading ""You Betcha!"" »

Posted by Skip at 06:09 PM | Permalink