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It's All About Respect
by Theresa
Fritz Camoriano
This week's
quote is from the famous scientist Louis Pasteur: "When I approach a child he inspires me in two
sentiments: tenderness for
what he is; and respect for what he may become."
That's good
advice for the way we ought to approach adults too -- with great respect.
And, in our personal lives, that's generally what we do.
You may disagree with the religious beliefs of an acquaintance or
with the way she is raising her children.
I may think a person is too careless or too wasteful or that he
doesn't have his priorities straight.
But still we respect the person's right to live his life as he
chooses. I may try to
persuade a friend to cut back on the booze and plan more for the future.
You might offer to take a neighbor's kids to the park.
But we don't get out a gun and force people to do things our way.
And most of our friends, neighbors, and co-workers, acting as
individuals, tend to do the same.
On the other
hand, when government becomes involved, respect goes right out the window.
As George Washington said, "Government is not reason, it is
not eloquence, it is force." Government
does not respect our wisdom, our creativity, or our struggles.
Instead, it treats us as creatures to be regulated and plundered.
For example,
Louisville's Mayor Dave Armstrong and the Board of Aldermen don't respect
our personal choices for spending the money we earn. Instead, they spend it for us, "donating" millions
of dollars to downtown property owners and "investing" in
convention centers and arenas. They
don't want to give us the chance to make a mistake by, perhaps, donating
our money to build a new wing on a school or investing in pork bellies,
braces for our kids' teeth, or even six-packs of beer.
When Bill
Clinton was asked why he didn't give the tax surplus back to the people,
he said he wasn't sure the people would do the right thing with the money.
Disrespect, arrogance, and chutzpah all rolled into one!
And what exactly would the right thing be?
Another dress for Monica? Certainly,
being elected to political office does not make a person more intelligent,
more moral, or more appropriate to spend our money than we are.
If anything, recent experience might suggest just the opposite!
So what
should we do about an adult we think is going astray?
Should we make their actions illegal and threaten to shoot them if
they continue down their path? Should
we elect them to political office so they can expand the scope of their
poor judgment and screw things up big time for everyone?
Well, that
depends on what their path is. If
they are taking actions that involve the aggressive use of force against
others, then, of course, it is appropriate to bring out the government
guns or maybe even our own personal guns to stop them.
Someone who is stealing or beating someone up certainly ought to
have a prompt, close encounter with a defensive weapon.
But what
about people who are only harming themselves or living in ways that we
think are unwise? People who
keep changing jobs, because they never find a job they like for the long
term? People who don't send
their children to the government school as often as we think they should? People who spend a good part of their time high on drugs or
alcohol and thereby miss out on a lot of real life and harm their bodies?
People who spend every penny they earn and never save a dime for a
rainy day? What should we do
about those people (who, by the way, are always those
people, never us!)?
First, we
need to have humility and respect. While
we may be pretty sure these people are making a big mistake, we need to
recognize that we are not God. We
may not know the whole story, and we may, in fact, be wrong.
Second, we
should not pull out a gun and force them to do things our way, and we
should not pretend that calling on the government is any different, since
calling on government means putting a gun in a policeman's
hand and directing him to use it.
If we were wrong, then forcing people to do things our way
certainly would be a big mistake, but, even if we were right, the use of
force would be a big mistake, because it always backfires.
For example,
we know that drugs can be very harmful to people.
So, what happens when we make drugs illegal? Does this stop people from using them? No. It simply
compounds the problem, turning the users and sellers into criminals,
encouraging and rewarding a huge criminal drug business, promoting
drive-by shootings, deaths from tainted drugs, corruption of law
enforcement officials, and more. Hardly
the result we had in mind. Unfortunately,
whenever government force is used beyond its legitimate defensive role, we
see this type of backfiring or unintended consequence, making
matters worse, not better.
Even Mayor
Dave's forcing us to spend our money on restaurants, hotels, and arenas,
can be expected to have a very detrimental effect.
For example, Rick Pitino has voiced concerns that using our tax
money to build an arena would harm his college basketball program.
Competitors of the subsidized restaurants and hotels are certainly
harmed by being forced to subsidize their competitors, and we taxpayers
are harmed, because we have been relieved of hard-earned money that we
would rather use to take care of our families.
The downtown area ultimately is harmed as well, because it is not
allowed to develop in a natural way, based on real consumer demand, so
that it would be able to sustain itself over the long haul without regular
infusions of tax money.
Instead of
promoting the aggressive use of force against a person, which is very
disrespectful and harmful, we might offer someone a job or invite them to
join a group that might include good role models.
We might explain our point of view and try to show them how they
could be happier, healthier, and wealthier if they took our advice. We might encourage and praise their efforts.
We might donate money to a charity that provides guidance and help.
Those would be respectful actions.
If the
Mayor, the President, or anyone else decided to treat people with respect,
what would he do? First, he
would use the guns against the aggressive bad guys, keeping the city and
country safe for the rest of us. That
is a very big and difficult job and certainly worthy of the time and
energies of our elected folks. If
our officials had been properly tending to that job instead of looking for
new ways to spend and "invest" our money or pointing their guns
at people who didn't follow their regulations to the letter, or trying to
turn the U.S. military and intelligence offices into a day care center for
the politically correct, there might be over 5,000 people still alive in
the World Trade Center, and the buildings that were destroyed might still
be standing. There also might
be many local residents still alive and healthy who have instead been
murdered or injured.
If elected
officials and voters chose to treat people with respect, they would depend
upon the creativity of individuals to solve problems in a voluntary
manner, which is the only way they ultimately can be solved, rather than
believing that they could threaten or coerce their way to utopia.
Instead of taxing, regulating, and stifling creative people, they
would applaud, encourage, and defend them.
They would use their offices as a bully pulpit to promote what they
think is good, rather than using armies or policemen to bully people who
are not aggressively causing harm to others.
Many
Americans today feel a lot like Don Rickles -- we "can't get no
respect!" Ask an inner
city black kid who is hassled by the police, nosing around looking for
drugs. Ask a middle-aged white guy who is trying to figure out how
he can afford to send his kids to college while at the same time sending
over half of his income to the government.
Ask a Hispanic mother whose child is trapped in a lousy government
school, where she is taught that she can't be expected to achieve, because
she is poor and a member of an ethnic minority.
Given the
disrespectful world in which we live, it should not be too surprising when
people finally snap like that poor yahoo in southeastern Kentucky who shot
up a police car and ran off into the hills.
However, instead of snapping, I suggest that we try to use what
little creativity has not yet been regulated out of us, before it is too
late. Maybe it's time to
write some letters to let elected officials know how we feel, attaching a
little tea bag to the letter as a gentle reminder of our nation's history
with respect to unfair taxes. Or
maybe we could all go out and get multiple copies of Aretha Franklin's
record, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and send them to the voters and elected officials
who, through their arrogance or ignorance, support the aggressive use of
force against us. I believe there are lots of good ideas out there.
If you have any good, creative ideas you would like to share with
the readers of Jefferson Review, please e-mail me at Editor@JeffersonReview.com .
If
you would like to contact Louisville or Jefferson County officials, you
may go the the links
section of Jefferson Review or use the information below.
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