Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

An End Of The Year Wish

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.   I recognize that, no matter how much formal education I have and how much additional studying I do, I never will master my own fields of expertise, let alone the many other fields of study that exist.  The world is a very complex place, and each of us can only hope to begin to understand a tiny part of it. 

Unfortunately, there are many people who believe they are experts in just about everything and, because they are so superior, they have the right to force the rest of us to do things their way.  In fact, they feel perfectly justified, even morally superior, using force against us “for our own good”.  They think they are being compassionate when they forcibly reach into our pockets to give money to their favorite causes, leaving us far less able to support the causes that are important to us.  They think they are doing us a favor when they forcibly control our health care, our children’s education, and many other of the most personal, private areas of our lives.  How can they possibly feel so morally superior and arrogant when they are pursuing policies that are so destructive and harmful?

Do they believe that their good intentions and feelings are all that matter, regardless of the devastating results of their policies?  Were they raised or educated to believe that they are far superior to other people and therefore justified in using force against them?  Wherever these ideas come from, they are wrong, and they are very destructive.  Nobody is that intelligent, that sensitive or compassionate, or that morally superior, and, even if they were, they could not be trusted with the power to control other people’s lives, because that power itself would corrupt them. 

No matter how much formal education we may have or how intelligent or well-informed we think we are, in the overall scheme of things, each of us individually doesn’t know very much.  We certainly aren’t God and shouldn’t pretend to be.  The best we can do is to live our own lives in accordance with the principles and teachings that have proven over generations to bring peace, prosperity, and happiness and encourage others to do the same. 

So, as this year draws to an end, I hope we all will develop some humility and respect for our fellow human beings.  Instead of being in attack mode, each struggling to acquire power over the other, and trying to shove our views down other people’s throats by force, I hope we will begin to realize that we are all better off when power is widely dispersed and held by the individual people.  I hope we all will begin to understand that we are all better off when each person has the right and power to control his own life and property as he thinks best, to buy his own medical care, educate his own children, save for his own retirement, and use his own resources as he thinks best – not plundering others to try to get something for nothing, and not being controlled or coerced by others.  While I don’t know a lot, I do know that, if those thoughts ever took hold, we most certainly would have many very happy new years to come.

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest /  White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN