Balanced Government

Today, April 18, 2011, Americans will gather at Tax Day Tea Party rallies around the country. This is good; people need a venue to connect with like-minded citizens to commiserate and cooperate. On this day in 1864, a similar gathering was taking place in Baltimore, and they had the honor to be addressed by President Abraham Lincoln.

“Sanitary Fairs” sprung up spontaneously around the country and served Union soldiers traveling to or from the front. All-volunteer in nature, these were places of caring, rest, sustenance and all were born out of a patriotic sentiment and gratitude to the Union troops.

President Lincoln gave a brief address, and while part of his speech was focused on the then-rumored massacre at Fort Pillow, Tennessee by rebel forces of white officers and the black soldiers in their company, the first half of his speech was focused on liberty. Lincoln remarked that while we all declare for liberty, we have strange – and opposed – meanings for it. How interesting that so much and so little has changed between now and then. We all still declare for liberty; yet, one man’s liberty is another man’s tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty… Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty…

And how are things this morning in America? People will gather today to decry the taking of their property in the form of taxation, and nearly half of America will shake their heads and say that they can’t believe these Tea Party people are real. The people present at these Tea Parties, for their part, can hardly believe that recently in Wisconsin, public union employees were protesting, rallying, and decrying the “oppressive” actions of their government, whose objective was something as tyrannical as balancing their budget. Here we find ourselves.

We may yet have a long way to go. I recently heard a Congresswoman speaking before a group of Republicans, and her over-riding theme was that there are no easy answers with the budget; governing is hard work; it is difficult to find places to cut spending; and we have to govern. As a public service, I would respectfully submit the following to you, for your unattributed use, should you ever hear such a sentiment uttered.

We have district boards of education that manage the affairs of our district’s schools. We have county-wide regional superintendents of schools. We have state Boards of Education. We have a federal Department of Education. Now this last agency keeps growing and getting bigger, but are you aware of the degree? The measure of a company’s assets in excess of its liabilities is called its net worth, and the USDOE has a net worth of $87.6 billion; that is money that has been taken from Americans in taxes and built up, over time. This agency (you can see their annual report for yourself) spent $99.6 billion in 2010. If we’re challenged on where to cut expenditures, $100 billion a year plus the $87 billion in the bank is a good place to start. Let the states fund their educational systems however they please.

Indeed, we may have a long way to go. We’re as divided as we’ve been in a long time. Finding common ground will be a challenge, but our alternative – a bleak, acrimonious future of debt and failure – is not much of an alternative. If you attend a Tea Party, enjoy yourself, but remember that shouting and rallying only accomplishes so much. At some point, we need to get engaged and begin to take back the high ground in our relationship with government at all levels. At some point, we need to speak to all Americans on the serious Republic-threatening risks before us.

We may not ever come up with a definition of liberty that all people can agree upon, but it is worth trying.