A few responses to some posts recently have made it clear we have too many liberals with a dogged faith in the US Government.
Though it defies all reason, they are convinced that any programs of aid or assistance need to be administered through the US Government. To me, this is patently absurd.
Many students of history have wondered as they have read of the old homesteading laws, what happened to homesteading and why, with our vast public land resources, it could not be done in this day and age. The reason is simple: Government leaders determined that the land once reserved for homesteading was more valuable for its mineral rights, and sold it to private mining interests.
That's right--this land, the land that was "made for you and me" was sold to the highest bidder. If this were done in the private sector, there's a word for it -- misappropriation.
The same government began Social Security and set its funds aside to provide for the needs of those who were too elderly and infirm to provide for themselves. By taking 13% of every dollar earned by employee (half of that coming from the employer unless you're self employed), they created a nice little nest egg that the greedy bureaucrats couldn't keep their hands out of, and as a result, we have a potential Social Security crisis. In the private sector, this is called embezzlement, and it's FAR worse than anything Ken Lay ever did.
The treaties that the federal government has broken with the indigenous peoples of this planet are too numerous to mention, and our entire history is replete with cases of land theft and chicanery perpetrated by those we entrust to SAFEGUARD our resources. This, ladies and gents, is why I buck and rail at the suggestion of every new program by the US government.
When I was a teenager, and in foster care, I bought my first car, a '68 Dodge Coronet. It was a sound car, and I purchased a parts car to go along with it. My total investment in the two vehicles was $900. My foster father, wanting to purchase a new vehicle for his birth daughter, offered me a 1976 Cutlass for both vehicles plus $1200. Believing that he was looking out for my best interests, I proceeded to buy the worst car I have ever owned (and I've owned some bad ones, believe me). It wasn't right then, and it isn't right when our own government perpetuates the same sorts of scams.
The moral to this story? Let's look at new solutions and a decreased dependence on the federal government to solve our ills. They have not, and WILL not, provide efficiently for us, and our resources are best directed elsewhere. As the old saying goes, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".
We've been "fooled" a lot more than twice. It's time we wake up and stop playing the victim.
Respectfully submitted,
Gideon MacLeish