Friday, April 3, 2009

S.O.S.

S.O.S. - - Save our Ship, or Symbolism over Substance?

I received an email setting forth the top ten reasons why I should not go to a Tax Day Tea Party. Here is the email.

“Ten Reasons You Should NOT Attend Sioux Falls Tax Day Tea Party

by Dr. Allen Unruh
Sioux Falls, SD.

10. If you don't care about losing your retirement and think this is something that just happened by accident - and it will come back no matter what politicians do - you should stay home.

9. If you feel secure in your job and that you will always be growing in your income in spite of anything the government does - you should stay home.

8. If you don't care about the economic opportunities of your kids and grandkids because government security will provide best for them - even though Ben Franklin said, "He who would trade freedom for security will end up with neither." Ben Franklin was wrong and Obama is right - Even though maximum security is a prison, You should stay home.

7. If you think socialized medicine will provide much better care, even though you may have a "duty to die" all for the greater good, only bureaucrats know what's best for everyone - even if it means killing you. After all, your only justification to exist is whether you're wanted, needed, loved or convenient to bureaucrats. Even though socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don't need it and hell where they already got it." Other socialistic countries just haven't had the smart people like us to run it, and you're sure it will work this time. Socialistic countries just haven't had the right people running it. We have much smarter people who know what's fair for everyone. If you agree - you should stay home.

6. If you think paying for tatoo removals for gang members and building bridges for MicroSoft workers to go from one building to another, and a new rail road from San Francisco to Las Vegas are great ways to stimulate the economy - you should stay home.

5. If you feel like our Attorney General Eric Holder that "We are a nation of cowards," and deserve everything we have, then you should stay home.

4. If you agree with VP Biden that even if they think they have it right, there is a 30% chance they have it all wrong" it's worth the risk to trust the government with our money. After all, you're smart enough to make your own money, but you may spend it foolishly on things like food, clothing and shelter, while Government can spend your money much more wisely on you than you can by giving aid to foreign governments.

3. The #1 reason we have all these economic problems is that there jsut hasn't been enough money in circulation, and if the government just can keep those presses going whenever we don't have enough, it will keep us going indefinitely - If you feel that way, you should stay home.

2. If we just had bigger government, and more taxes, even though one in five people now work for Federal, state or local government, an all wise government really knows more than the people - after all government, of the people, by the people, and for the people, is an old fashioned idea. A much better system is government of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats and for the bureaucrats, if you agree - you should stay home.

1. And last, the reason we have an economic crisis is that you just haven't been patriotic enough. You haven't paid enough in your taxes, to support all these great government programs, or paid for everyone's right to own a nice house, 60 inch flat screen, and get FREE health care. If you will just work harder for all the suck hogs who deserve this because they were born in America, or walked over the border, then we will all live in utopia together - just keep working harder for the government, giving from the heart, from each according to his ability to each according to his means - if that's what you believe - you need to stay home. Even though Edmund Burke said, "All that's necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good people to do nothing." And Dante who said, "In times of economic and moral crisis, silence is not golden, IT'S YELLOW." And Thomas Jefferson who said, "The Power To Tax is the Power to Destroy." If you believe these people were just not as smart as the people we have in office now, then you should stay home. After all, eternal vigilance is simply too big a price to pay for freedom. These crazy early patriots gave their lives, fortunes and sacred honor for our freedom, and the penalty for throwing the tea into the water was DEATH. It's inconvenient in our schedule to take an extra hour off work to attend our protest. If you agree, then you should stay home.’

Now, after contemplating these reasons, my military mind, asked me what was really going on here. And, it appears, at least to me, that we are following the democrats and liberals in their continuous appeal of symbolism over substance.

What is really being done by putting together these symbolic tea parties? A man much wiser than me, once said something to the effect of, “The person who will not learn from history is doomed to relive it”. What does history tell us regarding the tea party?

Well, back in that day, the king of England was extorting huge amounts of taxes from the early settlers in the New World, for the goods they received from England. One of the examples was tea. Tea is a beverage that is well loved by the British. In my own experience I have found that followers of the British love for tea, and I differ…They love hot tea and iced coffee…I love hot coffee and iced tea. My paternal ancestors came from somewhere in the British Isles; they may well have decided from the great tea party on, that they were not going to drink a lot of tea; I don’t know, unfortunately I wasn’t around then to query.

Anyway, to return to our search of history and the symbolism of today’s tea party. By dumping the tea in the bay, the commodity would not have entered into the country, and therefore, the people would not have been liable to pay the taxes. The king of England, thought otherwise, and sent his army to set us straight. From this we devised the Declaration of Independence. And we fought a bloody war, to gain our independence from this oppression.

Today’s “tax day tea party” is supposed to symbolize rebelling against oppressive government, but is it? Unfortunately, government has already set in place the means to extract onerous income taxes from the people through the employers. I would find substance in the tea party idea, should we, the people, have the ability to refuse to pay the income taxes, but, alas and alack, we do not have that ability. Employers, do not want to face the onerous government by withholding withholding taxes from employees.

Rush has reported that 46% of the nation voted against Obama…What would happen if that 46% was able to refuse to allow withholding taxes to be paid to the government? In my mind’s eye, that would be akin to dropping a complete shipment of tea in the bay, and telling the government we ain’t gonna take it no more