R.
Lee Wrights
Contributing Editor
R. Lee Wrights is a writer and political activist living in North Carolina. He is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the free speech online magazine Liberty For All and an editor at Free-Market.Net.
Punished for the Sins of Others
In the aftermath of what is being heralded as the greatest terrorist tragedy in the history of the world, Americans did what they always do in times of national peril - they rose to the occasion. America’s citizens quickly answered the call for aid and comfort as they generously gave of themselves in an attempt to ease the pain and shock caused by a handful of religious zealots on September 11th. They sent food, water, and clothing to the rescue and recovery effort at the site of the tragedy. They gave money, blood, and their time in support of the victims in America’s greatest city. Americans showed the world how we deal with a national tragedy. So why are these generous, caring citizens now being punished for the sins of others?
Why, after all they have already given, are the American people being forced to give even more? Were the thousands of tons of food and necessities donated from all over the nation not enough? Were the hundreds of gallons of blood given for fallen countrymen insufficient? Is all the money gone that was collected to aid the victims of tragedy from countless, generous donors in America? No, no, and, no. So why are we being held responsible for that which everyone has agreed from the beginning is not our fault? The American people are being fined for the death and destruction that very few of them have any control over whatsoever. It is a heavy fine indeed.
The fine has been incremental, but it is growing at a steady rate. It is taking its toll not only fiscally but also constitutionally. The first phase of the fine was levied while the mountain of rubble that once was the World Trade Center was still smoldering. While Americans were busy writing generous checks to charities; and, buying flags for their homes and cars in preparation for the inevitable war, CONgress was voting to force its patriotic constituents to pay for propping up a lucrative private industry. The terrorists were blamed for the plunge in the airline industry’s bottom line directly following the WTC tragedy, but the American taxpayers were handed the bill to the tune of a 1.5 billion-dollar bailout. The terrorists kill our friends and families, but we are punished for their treachery. And it has always bothered me that instead of worrying about its citizens, our government was busy giving our money to people that did not really need it even before all the fallen had been found.
As war came so did other phases of our fiscal punishment. After almost a month of a continuous bombing campaign, on a nation that had already been bombed practically non-stop for the last decade, Colin Powell announced to the world that America (that’s me and you) would rebuild Afghanistan. Now we know that President Bush has pledged more than 250 million taxpayer dollars to help pay for the reconstruction. All this on top of the cost to America (again, you and me) for bombarding our supposed enemies in the first place. Today, Mr. Bush has pledged another 50 million dollars to the new government of Afghanistan, which will replace the old government that the America taxpayers had already purchased. Once again Americans are forced to suffer the consequences for actions that are beyond their control.
You’d think that was enough, but we are not being let off so easy. You see, CONgress decided that Americans (you and me) have not been generous enough. The State has declared that we will give even more. While private charities argue over how to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars in donations generated by the love of the America people, government nursemaids have decided that each family of the victims of the September 11th tragedy will receive in the neighborhood of one million taxpayer dollars. After all that we have given so far, we are sentenced for deaths we did not cause. I wish I had known they were going to force us to pay before I voluntarily sent my check to the relief fund. This is getting to be quite a hefty fine to impose on people that are innocent by everyone’s account.
And now we are told that in order to become more secure as a nation, while doing battle with the evil invader Terrorism, we must relinquish our precious freedom. I know it sounds crazy but what the State would have us believe is that the only way we can remain free is by allowing ourselves to become enslaved. We have done nothing to deserve this loss of liberty; and yet, the politicians say the only way they can protect us is if we give up certain rights so that they can more properly be our lord protectors. It seems every time in my life when something is supposed to be “for my own good” it turns out to be much more about someone else’s convenience than my own welfare. Alas, it is easier to punish than to protect.
Terrorists attack us and we are punished for it by being robbed of our earnings and our freedom at the hands of thieving politicians using fear of the unknown as their gun. I will remind you of what H.L. Mencken wrote, which has never been more evidently true than now:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed - and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
The State’s motives are not benevolent because they are forcing Americans to do something they would not do otherwise. The State’s incentive, at the expense of you and I of course, is to give a good performance on the stage of world politics. When the cause is just Americans don’t have to be forced into giving. They have proven that they are compassionate. Perhaps CONgress can take a lesson from its constituency and learn to show compassion toward those from which it derives its power. It’s time to let the taxpayers off the hook and stop punishing us for the sins of others. Enough is enough!
