Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald 10/3/2004
Recently, my wife and I followed the cattle trails north to Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas, much as the early cowboys and charros, possibly (great) grandparents of many in the Valley, did 130 years ago or so. We were much more comfortable, however. On the way we stopped in Oklahoma City at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
The historical displays and extraordinary art work in this remarkable place brought me face to face with the reality of what and why America is!

The many displays reminded me that, as was the case with the founders of the United States the people of this day braved serious risks and hardships to make a better life for themselves. They took pride in their own ingenuity and abilities to solve problems and support themselves and their families. These hardy individualists went to great lengths to avoid giving up their freedoms – won with such difficulty in this new world.
In the case of the cattlemen, in order to find a market for their products, drove their cattle a thousand miles, through hostile Indian Territories and sometimes battling rustlers as well as Nature, to the rail centers. Some cowboys made enough money to buy a little ground and a few cows to have their own place in the sun, others left their money with the opportunists in the cow towns along the way. The choices freely made determined the amount of success they enjoyed.
The Native Americans didn’t want to give up their freedoms either, and fought bravely to keep the world they knew and their freedoms.
These early settlers both Native Americans and those that came from elsewhere seeking freedoms no longer available in Europe or even the Eastern U.S., wanted that freedom so bad that they battled for it in spite of the odds. They knew its true value!
In our nation today there is a great division in ideology, possibly as great as at any time including the Civil War.
On one side there are those of us who based on experiences described above, believe in self-reliance in supporting our families, protecting rights of property ownership, the right of choice to whom we give charity, the right to pass on our values to our children and in defending those rights as aggressively as the need requires. Essentially, they feel that the government should not try to be all things to all people. They see the government being involved in only minimal situations relating to public safety and others relating only to the country as a whole.
On the other side are those who, based on their experiences with European style governments such as, monarchies and other class oriented societies where a lord or padrone determines what everyone is best suited for and what their needs are, and then takes care of all his constituents needs. They believe that the rulers should be empowered, to determine what our children should be taught and how, how all resources even those privately owned should be used, and how much tax is to be collected – then how it is to be used; not unlike feudal days.
An evidence of this is described by a recent “page seven” news story entitled “Supreme Court will determine when cities may seize private land”. At issue is whether a government can seize peoples’ homes and businesses merely when it is needed for public use and the government’s view of just compensation is paid. This places the hopes and dreams of all of us at risk if we live near a school, any public property or for that matter anywhere someone with a plan that would benefit the community and its leaders. Worse, what if we have had our little patch for generations with our family buried there!
It is not one major party or the other that espouses the views above; there are many in both parties that espouse a ruler class.
We can recognize which side the politician is on when it is said “All Americans should have……” and someone else will be taxed to pay for it.
I implore everyone to find out how the government works and take some time to personally find out what the stakes are. Read newspapers, watch TV news on more than one channel and listen to radio talk shows. Each media outlet has a different constituency and must supply focus to that group. It is very possible to see the same story from many different perspectives, all of which are accurate. I really doubt there is a “no spin zone” as the absence of spin is perhaps another perspective. Listen to all of them – then check sources as best you can!
Based on this new power of your own understanding vote your own conscience.