Posted by
Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Sunday, October 18, 2009 12:46:39 AM
Obama urges people to serve their communities
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Calling public service "the essence of our liberty," President Barack Obama on Friday urged Americans to step up and volunteer in their communities.
Speaking at a community service forum in Texas, Obama said there's only so much government can do in tackling the nation's problems. He said government can build the best schools, but it can't run the PTA. It can buy the armed forces the best equipment, he said, but it can't give a home-cooked meal to a military family stretched thin. |
Pardon me, sir, but the essence of our liberty is to be free - free to do what we want to do, free to achieve whatever lofty heights our abilities and hard work can bring, and free to keep what we earn for our own use and that of our posterity. Government's only responsibility is to make sure that I don't infringe on someone else's freedom to do the same.
If you had your way, government WOULD run the PTA and give a home-cooked meal to every family stretched thin (oops, government DOES do those things, doesn't it. You run the teacher part of the PTA, and I know you've heard of food stamps, welfare, and the thousands of other gubmint programs that keep the populace subservient to government.)
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| "The need for action always exceeds the limits of government," Obama said. "While there's plenty that government can and must do ... there's a lot that government can't and shouldn't do and that's where active, engaged citizens come in." |
Maybe you do understand that government has its limits, but you don't seem to know what those limits are. I would like to suggest a reading of the U.S. Constitution which is written in very plain English, so that all of its citizens could understand what the government was empowered to do. It will take a lot less time to read than the 1,000 pages of legalese you and Congress used to take from the people $787 billion and spend it in ways we can not fathom. It would take less time to read than the 1,000 pages of legalese in the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Tax bill that you support which will make energy rates for all families skyrocket. And it would take less time to read than the 1,000 pages of legalese that will be written in order for the government to destroy the best healthcare system in the world while claiming to make it more affordable.
In a few short pages of simple English, The Founding Fathers set forth the Supreme Law of The Land, which served us well for almost two hundred years. But then something terrible happened. All three branches of our federal government decided that they knew better how to take care of the American people than the American people knew about caring for their own best interests. And we let you get away with it.
Well, enough is enough!
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Former President George H. W.) Bush first spoke of the "thousand points of light" in his acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican convention, using it as a metaphor for all the things Americans do, individually and in groups, to help fellow citizens. He created the Daily Point of Light Award in 1989 to honor volunteers. Friday's event honored the 20th anniversary of his volunteer movement.
In recognizing that initiative, Obama said Bush "didn't call for one blinding light to shine from Washington, but for a vast galaxy of people and institutions to solve problems in their own backyards." |
No, Mr. Obama, President Bush did NOT call for "one blinding light to shine from Washington", but your proposed solution to every perceived problem is a solution from on high in Washington, DC. It would be a lot simpler and infinitely less expensive to taxpayers for government to get out of our way so that we - the people - can solve our daily problems.
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| "In the end, service binds us to each other and to our community and to our country in a way that nothing else can," (Obama) said. |
This is nothing more than empty rhetoric, Mr. President. The Founders said it much more eloquently than you ever will when they "pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" to establish a country in which we could pursue - without government interference - our God-given (not government-given) rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
You, Mr. Obama, said:
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| ... there's a lot that government can't and shouldn't do and that's where active, engaged citizens come in." |
It's a sad commentary that you couldn't hear our millions of voices on September 12, 2009 at your residence in Washington, DC. We, the people, have been trying to get your attention through all of the letter-writing and all of the TEA Parties all over the country.
It is so sad that you just will not listen to us.
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BTW, don't you find it at least a LITTLE uncomfortable to be on the same stage with a President Bush when you spend so much of your effort trashing his son, President Bush. If only some of his grace would rub off on you and your Democrat predecessor.