Leslie Boyd Tim Peck | July 23, 2009 Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Leslie Boyd has violated the code of journalistic ethics by participating in partisan political events as an advocate while also covering the story for her employer.
A Lesson in Journalistic Ethics Erika Franzi | July 23, 2009 I contacted the President and Publisher of the AC-T, Mr. Randy Hammer with my concerns. Mr. Hammer, it seems, is not quite as concerned as I am. He has offered to meet with me next week and has made no comment about the ethics violations, past or pending.
Meeting Cancelled Erika Franzi July 30, 2009 My meeting with Randy Hammer, president and publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times, has been called off.
Franzi, Hammer meeting cancelled Jason Sanford | July 30, 2009 Franzi says she's continuing an e-mail discussion with Hammer. Boyd says she plans to have an "announcement" next week.
Socialized Healthcare Tim Peck | July 17, 2009 Erika Franzi at a protest of socialized healthcare at Representative Heath Shuler's office in Asheville on July 17th.
Tea Parties Visit Congressional Offices by Sylvia Bokor
On July 17, Tea Party members throughout the nation visited the offices of their Congressmen to deliver grass roots’ “pink slips”---notices suggesting that representatives could be “fired” (not re-elected)---for their support of various welfare schemes. The central concern was socialized medicine. The number of visitors in all cases was impressive.
Tea Party visitors pointed out that government health care constitutes gross violations of individual rights. They discussed the nightmare of long lines and wait-times, the specter of rationed health care, and rising medical costs causing higher taxes. It was stated that even under partial government control emergency rooms are presently jammed with patients while fraud amounts to $68 billion per year. One visitor asked, “Why does the Obama Administration want to take the best health care in the world and turn it into a third-rate system?”
Congressman Heinrich’s District Director said that the Congressman has not decided one way or another about the health care bills. “We may end up being on the same side,” she said. “Or on opposite sides.”
When a Tea Party member read aloud a few of the “pink slips,” Senator Udall’s Field Representative was visibly shaken to discover that Americans are deeply upset with government health care.
At Senator Bingaman’s office everyone was given opportunity to see the District Manager. But according to their web sites and form letters sent to constituents, both Senators Bingaman and Udall favor government health care no matter what it costs. Their position rests on the view that the medical needs of the indigent should take precedence over the individual rights of those who earn the money that pay the indigent’s medical bills.
But you cannot kill the goose that lays the egg and get more eggs. The largely unstated but over-riding factor at the root of any government medical program is the inevitable, unavoidable exhaustion of the medical profession upon whom socialized medicine makes unrealistic demands. And more: the consequent disappearance of medicine through stagnation and attrition.
When one has to pay for treatment, one makes sure the treatment is necessary, then finds the means to finance it. When “the government pays”---meaning the taxpayer, since government has no income except what it confiscates from the producer/earner---then every minor ache and every malady caused by irresponsible behavior overwhelm serious needs.
Demand swamps supply, draining financial resources. Doctors and their staffs no longer have time to do research, to improve techniques and treatments. Health care quality declines. The medical professional’s mind and body are overworked. Bureaucrats demand reams of paperwork. The spirit sags.
Government edicts become the standard of medical practice. By violating individual rights government health care castigates ambition and crushes youngsters’ interest in making a career of medicine. Therein lies the death of medicine.
Politicians weep ostentatiously for the poor, and write long, complicated utopian health care bills. They cry, “soak the rich”---an obscenely immoral position that is venomously mendacious.
For even if every dollar of the 400 richest Americans were seized by the government, their combined wealth of about $1.57 trillion would give each citizen $5,233. After that, zero. It would be the end of the wealth builders and of the recipients---all rendered destitute.
The fact is that the entire nation relies on one-third of the population---the employers and wage earners who will be forced to pay for government health care by committing financial suicide.
Mr. Obama has never worked in business. Neither has most of his staff. They know nothing about capitalism or its benefits. Under laissez-faire capitalism, medicine flourishes. Under free-market medicine, doctors work harder to make more money. They see more patients, improve treatment and expand medical knowledge. Under government controlled medicine, fraud and bribery proliferate. The deserving are shunted aside in favor of bureaucrats’ pals.
Under free market medicine, charities flourish. Those who are in desperate circumstances are assured they will be helped. New Mexico, for instance, has a program to help those who cannot afford medical insurance or treatment. The program offers discounted rates depending on income up 75% of costs. Under government medicine, charities shrivel and die.
The government that promised to “bring us together” is tearing us apart with its obsession to change this country into a socialized state. Government health care will finish the job. If one truly wants to alleviate another’s medical difficulties, free market medicine is the only sane answer.
A former 1960s radical, a veterinarian from Barnardsville and a stay-at-home mother of four. It's a group that wouldn't normally have much in common. But Western North Carolina residents John Schuske, Kathie Lack and Erika Franzi have found one thing to rally around recently.
1. The Asheville Independence Day Tea Party took place on July 4th. This report is published on July 24th. This is what the AC-T considers timely reporting? Well, better late than never. Never being what they would have preferred.
2. "'You already know what the protesters think the way forward isn't. Ask them what they think the way forward is,' said Tom Sullivan, an Asheville engineer active in local Democratic politics."
Ending government interference in the marketplace is the way forward. But they don't want to hear that, so they say we have no ideas. The complete separation of economy and state is the idea. Strengthening individual rights is the idea. Strengthening property rights is the idea. Strengthening economic liberty is the idea.
Mr. Sullivan can continue to stick his fingers in his ears and claim that we have not declared a way forward. That is his wont. But this is not equivalent to having no ideas in fact. We are bursting with them.
RELATED
Leslie Boyd Tim Peck | July 23, 2009 Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Leslie Boyd has violated the code of journalistic ethics by participating in partisan political events as an advocate while also covering the story for her employer.
Individualism in America Tim Peck | July 4, 2009 America has not always existed. I don't mean so much America the nation, but America the idea.
Dear Asheville City Council Boards and Commissions Committee,
It would appear that the URTV board still does not get it. That is not conjecture; it is plainly evident in a recent video produced by a sitting URTV board member:
Fremont Brown, one of the newly appointed board members, is clearly out of touch with the causes of controversy at URTV. He displays disdain for its critics and a casual dismissal of legitimate complaints. Apparently, even yours.
First, this video would appear to violate the proposed "secrecy oath" that Executive Director Pat Garlinghous attempted to impose on board members. This, you'll remember, is the issue that first thrust the problems at URTV into the spotlight. Ms. Garlinghouse consequently withdrew the oath.
Mr. Brown places the blame on the whistleblowers, demonizes them, and completely absolves the board and executive director of any misdeeds. This after video and audio evidence, as well as press reports, show that the picture Mr. Brown attempts to paint is inaccurate.
Mr. Brown claims that URTV has no obligation to comply with open meetings laws and that URTV voluntarily complies with those laws. Of course, as you know, URTV is mandated by you and by Buncombe County to follow those laws. It is a requirement imposed on them, not a favor bestowed on us.
Mr. Brown states that people are welcome to film the meetings. We know from photographic records and personal testimony that the board and executive director have repeatedly obstructed attempts to film board meetings; either by misreprenting the law or through harassment and intimidation.
Mr. Brown claims that Executive Committee meetings specifically are not subject to Open Meetings laws at all. This, as you well know, is false. Meetings may formally go into closed session only for a limited number of specified reasons and closed sessions must be announced at a regular open meeting. No Executive Committee meeting has ever met the criteria for holding a closed meeting.
Mr. Brown claims that Pat Garlinghouse "has brought order to URTV." Surely you must know by now that the opposite is true. Beginning with her overt harassment of Program Manager Jen Mass, to the banishment of John Blackwell, Davyne Dial and Richard Bernier, up to the present moment, Pat Garlinghouse has sown discord and resentment. By virtue of her own actions, problems at URTV have been widely publicized and debated in the media, online, privately, and at their own organizational meetings.
Mr. Brown then tauts the advantages of membership at URTV; such as access to cameras and sound equipment -- none of which have been the subject of any controversy -- as if to say that we should ignore their mischief in exchange for access to expensive equipment and technologies.
Mr. Brown brings up the concealed weapon prohibition issue which was contested but brought to a peaceful resolution. This incident then became the pretext for suspending a politically-oriented talk show that had been the object of long-standing prejudice.
Mr. Brown claims that URTV does not receive public funds. As you know, PEG money disbursed by the City of Asheville and Buncombe County are public funds, regardless of the means employed in collecting those funds. This, in fact, is the basis for your requiring compliance with open meetings laws.
Mr. Brown claims that URTV complies with open records laws by stating that audits are conducted and financial reports submitted to the city are available to the public. Of course, as you know, referring people who request access to financial records to a report filed by URTV with the city is not the same thing as compliance with open records laws. Requests for financial records, correspondence and checkbooks by members have repeatedly been rebuffed by management. We have yet to open a single record.
Mr. Brown asserts that city council should have conducted a proper judicial hearing when Alan Rosenthal spoke during the public hearing on URTV controversies at your July 14th meeting. Mr. Brown accuses Mr. Rosenthal of intending to deceive city council. As you know, speakers have three or ten minutes to make comments only and cannot ask questions or conduct trial proceedings.
Mr. Brown claims that there is no requirement to air board meetings on their station. However, URTV rules state that anyone securing equipment for the purpose of filming a program must submit that programming for airing on URTV. Members have indeed obtained equipment for the filming of board meetings but no meetings have been aired.
Mr. Brown makes many statements in his video but does not bother to respond directly to the 14 points detailed in your committee's letter to URTV Director Pat Garlinghouse and Board Chair Jerry Young. He is either unaware of your letter or chooses not to acknowledge it. Either way, that is not a promising development.
Mr. Brown claims that there are no problems at URTV when it is clear that he himself is one of them. If this is the caliber of leadership emerging in the face of growing public scrutiny, declining membership, policy violation, noncompliance, and subsequent reproof by your committee, then we do indeed have a great many problems at URTV.
This video by Mr. Brown is published on the internet by Board Secretary Ralph Robers and has now been picked up by the Mountain Xpress in their Twitter feed. It is clearly meant to be a rebuttal to recent criticism and is therefore a formal representation of URTV; despite disclaimers to the contrary.
In your letter to URTV, published in the Mountain Xpress, you have demanded that URTV "right its own ship and press on to good places." It would appear to me that URTV has no intetion of "righting its own ship" and is heading in no good places. I would suggest that the misinformation, skewing of the facts, and, above all, the abject dismissal of your admonitions, demand a further clarifying and more definite response than the previous mild approach taken in your letter to URTV management; to include timetables, staff and board improvements, performance measures and explicit consequences.
Thank you.
TIM PECK
ASHEVILLE
**UPDATE July 25, 2009**
1. Fremont Brown has been appointed as Secretary, replacing Ralph Roberts, making him not only a board member but also an officer of the board.
2. Twitter report: fobes:RT @ralphr: URTVforums now FORUMS.1vid.com, operating independently of URTV. Ralph Roberts no longer secretary [or] a member of URTV. #mxnow Jul. 25, 5:02 pm
3. The video was uploaded on Monday, July 20th. That is the day the board received city council's letter.
4. Council member Mumpower has responded saying, "What we most recently have is a verbal agreement by the URTV folks to take things to a better place - we will see if they are willing or able to follow-through effectively. I would take the position that we support the Board in taking what stance they deem best and respond from there. URTV's staff and board have received a letter that outlines our concerns. The ball is now in their court to make changes or otherwise respond as they deem best. What they do over the next 60 days will, in turn, lay the foundation for our future actions."
5. Alan Rosenthal writes to city council: "Special note to Bill Russell: Save us from your nonsense. Resign as Liaison to URTV so we can get someone in there who will actually be responsible enough to do the work, You certainly don't wear Robin Cape's pumps well."
**UPDATE July 27, 2009**
Fremont Brown has resigned from the URTV board of directors.
Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Leslie Boyd has violated the code of journalistic ethics by participating in partisan political events as an advocate while also covering the story for her employer. Boyd is pictured on the WNC for Change website as the keynote speaker at the recent Healthcare Reform Rally held at Pritchard Park in Asheville on June 20, 2009.
Leslie Boyle featured on the WNC for Change website:
The AC-T points to the ethics violation themselves:
"Boyd, the keynote speaker at Saturday's rally, is also a reporter at the Citizen-Times."
Boyd is credited by the AC-T in their published photo album of the rally as the photographer for the event.
CREDIT: LESLIE BOYD, LBOYD@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
Boyd is also mentioned in an email from left-wing political action group MoveOn.org:
The following is a message from the host of R.E.A.L. Action for a Public Option, the REAL Public Option Day of Action that you signed up to attend
Hi! Thanks for registering for the R.E.A.L. Action for a Public Option. Among the speakers scheduled so far are Leslie Boyd, a reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times whose son was uninsured and didn't receive a routine test that might have saved his life; and John Kelly, a family-practice physician who has an insightful view of the health care system and how it affects his patients.
I look forward to seeing you at 356 Biltmore Ave. in Asheville on Thursday, July 23, at 5:30!
Best, Randy
The MoveOn.org website clearly states that it is a partisan political organization:
Ground rules
MoveOn.org Political Action is a political organization and our events are considered partisan under the law. Non-partisan not-for-profit organizations such as schools, churches and libraries should not use staff time or resources to organize events with MoveOn.org Political Action.
Journalists do not take part in politics. While staff members are entitled to vote and to register in party primaries, they must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of our news operations. In particular, they may not campaign for, demonstrate for, or endorse candidates, ballot causes or efforts to enact legislation. They may not wear campaign buttons or themselves display any other insignia of partisan politics.
Ms. Boyd is a political activist and she is using the tragic story of her son’s disease and death to market her ideological agenda. I was at the rally where she spoke and heard her maudlin speech. She and others are using the fallacious ‘appeal to pity’ to advance socialistic public policy. WNC for Change is quite happy with that approach. They use it on their website. They see Boyd as an asset in their cause. I expect Mr. Hammer sees her as an asset as well.
A Lesson in Journalistic Ethics Erika Franzi | July 23, 2009 I contacted the President and Publisher of the AC-T, Mr. Randy Hammer with my concerns. Mr. Hammer, it seems, is not quite as concerned as I am. He has offered to meet with me next week and has made no comment about the ethics violations, past or pending.
Socialized Healthcare Tim Peck | July 17, 2009 Erika Franzi at a protest of socialized healthcare at Representative Heath Shuler's office in Asheville on July 17th.
Boyd in Hot Water Jason Sanford | Ashevegas | July 26, 2009 Political bloggers Timothy Peck and ThunderPig, as well as Asheville Tea Party organizer Erika Franzi, blew the whistle on Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Leslie Boyd at the end of last week for an alleged ethics violation. That whistle's turned into a screaming siren of attention.
Many answers have been offered to the question: who is the enemy that struck us on 9/11 — and why? You may remember hearing suggestions that the attackers should be regarded as deranged criminals; or, that the terrorists were driven by poverty and frustration; or, that they are a band of “Islamofascists.” The answer you accept will shape your conclusion about what must be done to defend our lives and freedom. For example, if you think the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were criminal acts, one practical implication is to round up the ringleader and his minions and put them on trial before a judge (which is what happened after the first attack on the WTC in 1993). But my view is that nearly eight years after 9/11, Americans still lack a correct picture of what we’re up against, and that this has subverted our security. The problem is not merely that we lack a clear idea of the enemy; we’ve been deluged with a host of bizarre and false explanations.
This lecture, delivered by Ayn Rand at the Ford Hall Forum in 1969, concretizes the issue of reason vs. emotion via an analysis of two contrasting events of that year: the glorious achievement of the Apollo 11 moon flight and the mindless mud-wallowing of the Woodstock rock festival.
"The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape. The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress. The release of the update—usually scheduled for mid-July—has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town Aug. 7 on its summer recess."
RELATED
The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think By Mortimer Zuckerman | Wall Street Journal | July 14, 2009 The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad. The average length of unemployment is higher than it's been since government began tracking the data in 1948.
Asheville city council candidate Ryan Croft (R) is the webmaster for Denise Pendleton (R). Pendleton was recruited by Croft at the last minute to compete against Mayor Terry Bellamy (D).
It was his decision to have me banned from the campaign website.
The reason?
"Because you talk to the other side. Progressives are the enemy."
**UPDATE** July 27, 2009
Ryan Croft is now allowing me on Denise Pendleton's website. In fact, I was re-instated. I did not re-register.
RELATED
Ryan Croft for Council I find that I have been banned by Asheville city council candidate Ryan Croft from his campaign website.
The article, “Price of history/Grove Arcade comes under scrutiny for costs, management,” (AC-T, July 12), bemoans the lack of parking for the Grove Arcade. The answer is simple, cheap and immediate — buy some more buses, increase the frequency of current routes and add routes to unserved areas. Then more people could take the sane option of commuting by bus, leaving more than adequate parking for visitors.
MY RESPONSE:
When the writer says, "buy some more buses," he means have the government take more money from the taxpayers against their will to fund his own peculiar green pipe dreams. It is his type that prevents entreprenuers from building parking decks by zoning, regulation and harassment of city council. It is he who would stop the solution to parking.
The City of Asheville, which is required to have a balanced budget, started the year out with a five million dollar shortfall. If the writer would like to take up a collection from voluntary contributors to "buy some more buses," and then fund the operation and maintenance of them, I won't stop him.
It’s hard not to long for a simpler time when this whole “economy” thing wasn’t dragging everybody down. What if there was a system of formalized, locally based barter system where people could swap goods and services without ever having to produce cold, hard cash? That’s the premise behind the Asheville Local Exchange Trading System (LETS), and in this video Kila Donovan explains how it all works.
The Asheville Local Exchange Trading System is a great example of free market capitalism that serves a rational self-interest based on the trader principle where value is exchanged for value in a non-coercive economic environment. As opposed to the system we have now, which is government interventionism that interferes in the economy through regulation and demands service and sacrifice.
This is a group of Leftists who think that they are circumventing capitalism, when in fact they are practicing it.
**UPDATE** July 22, 2009
Hi Tim,
This is Scott, co-founder of AshevilleLETS and Firestorm Cafe & Books. Thanks for cross posting the LETS video that somehow ended up on MountainX.com!
I just wanted to be clear that many of us involved in LETS and Firestorm are not "leftists." As libertarians and anarchists, most of us happily diverge from the Left on critical social, economic and political points.
Speaking for myself, I would not hesitate to call LETS an exploration of free market principles on a community scale. Whether the overall tone of LETS is capitalistic or not, is however, open to further examination. Capitalism is not the only economic philosophy that embraces self-interest and free markets.
I look forward to productive future dialog around our philosophical commonalities and divergences.
I came across something interesting the other day when I looked up the Declaration of Independence. We all know how it starts: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
But it was the ending of the Declaration that I was drawn to. It says: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”
That doesn't sound much like the greedy squabbling that is going on about getting the basic right of health care to our fellow citizens. Where is the “Honor?” And we certainly don't seem interested in mutually pledging our fortunes (socialism) for each other. Best to let those people rely on “Divine Providence.” They certainly seem to be having a hard time getting any compassion or sense of equality from the health care “stakeholders” manipulating and lobbying to hold on to their “Fortunes,” without a care for the life, liberty and happiness of their fellow citizens.
MY RESPONSE:
What Mr. Walz does not understand is the difference between force and persuasion. And he does not understand that Government = Force.
The founders pledged their honors voluntarily. What Mr. Walz advocates is using government coercion to force you to pledge and sacrifice your honor, your labor, your property, and your suffering to the state against your will according to the dictates of a politicized power-hungry bureaucracy (socialism).
LTE: Government Monopoly Tim Peck | Asheville Citizen-Times | June 29, 2009 The truth is that the government, with its hands already in your pocket, competing with counterparts the private sector is the antithesis of competition.
"HEALTH CARE REFORM RALLY" MEDIA COVERAGE
Health care rally and meeting with Rep. Shuler Asheville Citizen-Times | June 23, 2009 Local grassroots organization WNC for Change will host a public protest rally for health care reform at Pritchard Park at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Hundreds rally for health care reform Asheville Citizen-Times | June 28, 2009 Earlier Saturday, an estimated 300 people attended a health care reform rally at Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville organized by WNC for Change.
Photos for AC-T by Leslie Boyd PHOTO CREDIT: LESLIE BOYD, LBOYD@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM Boyd covers the story for AC-T and also participates.
Pushing the issue into everyday conversations Asheville Citizen-Times | June 30, 2009 On Saturday, the local grass-roots organization WNC for Change hosted a rally for health care reform at Pritchard Park that drew more than 300 people. But that's just the beginning of their efforts and those of other groups, as the national debate over health care takes center stage in the Obama White House and Congress.
300 rally in support of health care reform Asheville Daily Planet | 30 June 2009 The final speaker, Leslie Boyd, a social issues and religion reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times, spoke of the poor heath care her son Michael received in Savannah, Ga., where he lived, eventually resulting in his death.
WLOS News 13 coverage [video] A local grassroots organization rallied for healthcare reform in downtown Asheville Saturday morning. It came fresh off the heels of President Barack Obama's "Prescription for American Healthcare" public forum. "WNC For Change" hosted the event at Pritchard Park, where a large group of people turned out. Folks from all walks of life came together to deliver the message of the need for single-payer healthcare.
Neal Boortz will join other broadcasting legends in the National Radio Hall of Fame. Thanks to your votes, Neal will be inducted on November 7th at a ceremony in Chicago. Neal sends his deepest gratitude to all of you who took time to vote for him during the on-line voting process. Your efforts now ensure that a truly unique radio giant will forever be commemorated in the Radio Hall of Fame. Listen to Thursday's Neal Boortz Show for more celebration of this fitting honor.
The statist wants to prevent millions of supposed incompetent people from making decisions for themselves and turn that power over to just one genuinely incompetent person who would make all decisions for everyone.
"Issued by the Second Continental Congress on July 6, 1775, to explain why the Thirteen Colonies had taken up arms in what had become the American Revolutionary War, and represents an important development in the political thought that went into the American Revolution. The final draft of the Declaration was written by John Dickinson, who incorporated language from an earlier draft by Thomas Jefferson." -Wikipedia
If it was possible for men, who exercise their reason to believe, that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power over others, marked out by his infinite goodness and wisdom, as the objects of a legal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the parliament of Great-Britain some evidence, that this dreadful authority over them, has been granted to that body.
[...]
With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -George Santayana
[Speech given at the Asheville Independence Day Tea Party. Special thanks to John Lewis and Sylvia Bokor.]
America has not always existed. I don't mean so much America the nation, but America the idea.
For thousands of years, people lived in societies not as autonomous individuals with a right to live for their own sakes, but merely as members of 'the group,' 'the tribe,' or 'the state,' without individual worth outside their limited value to the collective. And they lived under the thumb of a dictator, a priesthood, or some ruling elite. And also without any political structure that would protect their natural individual rights – or to even acknowledge them in the first place. In a sense, they lived by permission and not by right.
Then came America's Founding Fathers. They did something unique in all of human history: they created a nation based on an idea. That was the idea called The Rights of Man.
The Founders saw each of us as endowed with unalienable rights; rights that may not be separated from our nature as autonomous beings. They envisioned a form of government based on the moral principle of man's right to live for his own sake. They shaped the world's first representative republic; a limited government whose sole task was to guard our freedom – making us the freest nation on earth. They gave us a Bill of Rights – the first explicit statement in history that acknowledged the individual's sovereignty and his rights. Broadly speaking, these unalienable rights are:
The Right to Life; which is the right to live your own life, to choose your own goals, to define your own values, and preserve your own independent existence.
The Right to Liberty; which is the right to act in order to achieve your goals, free from the coercion of others.
The Right to the Pursuit of Happiness; which is the right to act in ways to achieve your own success, your own prosperity, and your happiness, not someone else's.
The Right to Property; which is the right to gain, keep and enjoy the material products of your efforts.
In the Declaration of Independence, which we celebrate today, the Founding Fathers made it quite clear when they said, "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted." At last, people were free to earn a living as they chose, free to pursue their own values, free to dispose of their own property as they saw fit, and free to live without government interference. At last, the individual was put in the driver's seat and the government took the back seat.
It is this political principle of man's individual rights that freed the slaves, liberated the poor, and ended the traditional subjugation of women. This is America's contribution to the rest of the world. And it is a contribution that we dishonor by abandoning the idea that fueled its influence: And that is the idea of Individualism.
My friends, for quite a long time now we have been witnessing a reversal of the Founder's ideal of a government that is subordinate to the individual and one that secures our rights, with its powers circumscribed to a small and limited sphere of action.
We have, in fact, seen a complete reversal of the idea that the government is the servant and the individual is the master. Now, it is we who are to serve the government in whatever way is determined to be “the greater good.” We have seen the principle of the sovereign individual turned on its head, where the government is now our master, deciding which rights will be protected and which rights will be violated, depending on who holds power. We have seen our Constitution virtually re-written and, in many cases, simply ignored, leaving us with no recourse to redress our grievances.
This is not a trend that has developed only this year – or even over the last eight years. No, for over a hundred years we have been gradually straying farther and farther away from the American ideal that the Founders worked so hard to craft.
Today, we are over-taxed in a growing multitude of ways; most egregiously, on our personal incomes. What is an income tax but a prior claim on the fruits of your labor? – a tax burden that presses productive achievers into involuntary servitude.
Today, we see businessmen and entrepreneurs, who have created the richest nation on earth, being persecuted, taken over, and ordered around by politicians. What else is the bailout-mania besides a government power grab?
Today, we hear demands that doctors and nurses be enslaved based on the erroneous notion of a “right to health care.” What else can a “right to health care” mean but a right to someone else's labor, property and innovations?
Today, we have a central bank issuing phantom money and credit, distorting the economy, and making every dollar in your pocket worth less and less every day. What else is inflation but a clever backdoor tax on you and your children?
Today, we see a greedy government that knows no bounds and views the individual as merely a means for achieving its own power-hungry ends.
Today, a Department of Homeland Security marks you down as a terrorist. Now you know how the Founding Fathers felt when they were targeted by the King of England.
But, my friends, we know better. There are those among us who remember what was intended when this country founded. And, my friends, this is not it!
Being the crusty Americans that we are, we know that there must surely be a limit to the suffocating growth of government. We know that there must surely be a limit to the destruction of our individual liberties. We know that there must surely be a limit to the abuses we are forced to quietly endure.
My fellow Tea Partyer's, there is a limit – and we have reached it. We have reached it! We have reached it!
For too long, our paternalistic government has been in the driver's seat. For too long, we have been riding down that dead-end road that leads to socialism. For too long, we have been the back-seat passenger crying out to deaf ears, "Are we there yet?"
It is time now for U-turn. It is now time that we reassert our moral status as sovereign, autonomous individuals. My friends, as we travel down the road to serfdom, now comes the time to kick the government out of the driver's seat and take back the wheel.
My fellow Tea Partyer's, I call on you to do what the Founding Fathers would have you do and that is, from this day forward, to put the individual American citizen back in the driver's seat.
[Music: "Driver's Seat" by Sniff n the Tears]
The government can take a walk. Put the individual back in the driver's seat!
Fear of big government helps unite tea party members
Joel Burgess | Asheville Citizen-Times | July 26, 2009 A former 1960s radical, a veterinarian from Barnardsville and a stay-at-home mother of four. It's a group that wouldn't normally have much in common. But Western North Carolina residents John Schuske, Kathie Lack and Erika Franzi have found one thing to rally around recently.
TAMMY WRITES: I'm pleased to introduce to you the redesigned Tammy Blog at TammyBruce.com and invite you to join our new feature subscription service called The United States of Tammy. With so much going on in our world, I thought it time to create a completely different and easier to use blog and news site. From the reaction so far, it's a hit, and if you've already visited the blog I want to thank you for your support. I'm really pleased with the new design and truly appreciate all the great suggestions and comments coming in.
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