No replies to this topic

[Rick Hake]

In Oregon, we recently had our Primary Election. Along with candidates for public offices were a couple of Property Tax Levy's. With the demise of our timber industry, several counties of Oregon are having extreme budget problems. One of these issues is our local justice system.
The citizens of our county voted the Tax Measures down by a huge margin. As a result, the District Attorneys office to the Sheriffs Department is facing huge cutbacks. For the weeks leading up to the election the local news were filling the airwaves with stories of how crime will be out of control. Prisoners will have to be turned loose, scores of Sheriff Deputies would be laid-off, but all of these stories and threats did not deter the voters from strongly insisting that the government must learn to live within its budget no matter how little it is. After all, does not society expect the family unit to live within their budget? Why should our public servants live a higher standard than the ones they serve?
The money to fight for the passage of more tax money for the Justice system and the public campaign on the media seems to have come from the employees in the system that would naturally be effected by this, since jobs were at stake. No one likes to face the prospect of looking for another job, and starting over. Therefore, the pressure to pass this measure was mounted and it was powerful and relentless.
Upon pondering this problem, one thing became apparent to me. One of the bad side effects to the Constitution is big government, but in a more toxic manner than normally thought. While its true, that big government has the power to do awful things when it serves more like a democracy than a republic. Its truly toxic power is in the number of votes they have in sheer numbers. It only stands to reason that government workers are not going to vote against something that may endanger their jobs. Especially when you consider how highly paid they are. What about the supervisors who risk losing a few badly needed employees, or who could gain by adding a couple of needed employees to ease the workload? How do you think they would vote?
The Constitution sets limits on how big the federal government can get. Big government is a dangerous animal, with a need for a cage to keep it under control. Our Founding Fathers learned this with England, and so they built the cage in the form of the Constitution. We the people with our newfound freedom and liberty grew fat and lazy. We took our eye off the ball. We started saying stupid things like "Oh, I never talk about religion or politics”. All the time, like a cancer, government began to grow bigger and bigger, until we have this huge problem. While most of us recognize something is wrong, we have this feeling of impotence to do anything about it.
The voters of Josephine County have taken the first step to reducing the size of government. They said no while they still had the power to vote. Adjusting to the lack of something we were use to is not going to be easy. In fact, it will probably be painful. In the end, we will be better off. We will learn to watch over our neighbors, and come to their aid, as any good neighbor should. We will help our law enforcement officers by volunteering as reserve officers and if we are too old and fat, we can volunteer to do clerical work to free up sworn officers for the field. Law enforcement officers will learn to appreciate the citizen’s help, and the wall of indifference between us will gradually come down.
We will have to be on guard, because you can bet your life they will try to pass another property tax levy in November. Therefore, until then it is a real good time to go to www.givemeliberty.org and Join ranks with us to get our governmental house in order. We need you more than ever, and with your help, we can get it done. I have attached a humorous look at this problem through the talents of gifted animation creators. http://www.youtube.c...eature=youtu.be

Rick Hake
WTPC - Oregon