From Dennis L. Goecks
McMinnville, Oregon
I lived in Monroe my first 22 years of life (1939-1961) and come back yearly to visit mom and attend our cousins reunion. On Aug. 20 I read a letter to the editor in The Monroe Times that supported voting for Democrats that was laced with issues that I know to be untrue. There were so many misrepresentations that I decided to suggest two things to your readers in retort:
1. The TEA Party is not a political party, it is various groups of American citizens who have decided enough is enough. They get together to hold those running and in elective office accountable for their behavior, not their words.
There seems to be five foundational beliefs that are interconnected by TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party groups:
A. Constitutional compliance - the U.S. Constitution is a restrictive, not a permissive document
B. Smaller federal government
C. States rights - if a specific power is not stated in the U.S. Constitution, then our states or people retain the power.
D. Lower spending and taxes
E. Individual rights, responsibility and integrity
Those who agree with these five points search through candidates of all parties and look for people they can vote for that will adhere to these beliefs.
2. I have just finished reading "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek. The original text was released in 1944 and re-released by his estate in 2007. Hayek was co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974 and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. While it is not an easy read, it is a must for those who are serious about the need for our representative republic to survive.
For F.A. Hayek, the collective (socialist) idea of empowering government with increasing economic control would not lead to a utopia but to the horrors of Nazi Germany or fascist Italy. Over the past 60 years the book has established itself for its timeless meditation on the relation between individual liberty and government authority.
It seems that as government becomes socialist, the country reaches a point where the citizen is no longer in control. Even if "good, well meaning" people are in control, the day will come when the worst in human beings will take control and fascism or communism result. When we give up our freedom for security, we soon have neither.
Hope your readers find this of interest, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Monroe.
McMinnville, Oregon
I lived in Monroe my first 22 years of life (1939-1961) and come back yearly to visit mom and attend our cousins reunion. On Aug. 20 I read a letter to the editor in The Monroe Times that supported voting for Democrats that was laced with issues that I know to be untrue. There were so many misrepresentations that I decided to suggest two things to your readers in retort:
1. The TEA Party is not a political party, it is various groups of American citizens who have decided enough is enough. They get together to hold those running and in elective office accountable for their behavior, not their words.
There seems to be five foundational beliefs that are interconnected by TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party groups:
A. Constitutional compliance - the U.S. Constitution is a restrictive, not a permissive document
B. Smaller federal government
C. States rights - if a specific power is not stated in the U.S. Constitution, then our states or people retain the power.
D. Lower spending and taxes
E. Individual rights, responsibility and integrity
Those who agree with these five points search through candidates of all parties and look for people they can vote for that will adhere to these beliefs.
2. I have just finished reading "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek. The original text was released in 1944 and re-released by his estate in 2007. Hayek was co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974 and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. While it is not an easy read, it is a must for those who are serious about the need for our representative republic to survive.
For F.A. Hayek, the collective (socialist) idea of empowering government with increasing economic control would not lead to a utopia but to the horrors of Nazi Germany or fascist Italy. Over the past 60 years the book has established itself for its timeless meditation on the relation between individual liberty and government authority.
It seems that as government becomes socialist, the country reaches a point where the citizen is no longer in control. Even if "good, well meaning" people are in control, the day will come when the worst in human beings will take control and fascism or communism result. When we give up our freedom for security, we soon have neither.
Hope your readers find this of interest, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Monroe.
