Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald November 8, 2009

The 23rd Congressional Dist – is in Northern New York along the Canadian Border. It includes mostly rural areas, known for dairy farms, potatoes, a Mohawk Indian Reservation, and is interspersed with small cities and communities.
It is a beautiful area of severe winters and moderate but short summers.
The only industries are summer and winter based recreational areas with ski resorts and cool fresh lakes for summer water sports and provide a home for snowmobiling.
In spite of the differences, the demographics of the area are similar to our area in South Texas. It adjoins a foreign country where the language is different (French)
The area is made up of less than well to do people who are independent folks of modest means and traditional political and social views.
It is also where I grew up.
My dad worked as a maintenance manager at the local school and my mom also worked at a number of jobs to keep our heads above water.
Our school district didn’t like the controls that came with Federal money, so they refused it and the community controlled the system. We still had good classes, and a great football, basket ball and hockey sports programs.
We got a great education with a majority of us going on to college, frequently by way of military service and scholarships; I made use of both.
According to the press, the area has never supported a Democrat in the Congressional District since the Civil War. However, one must look at the flavor of Republican that has been voted for.
The most popular politician during my youth was the very liberal Senator Jacob Javitts. Further, we must look at the candidate that was backed by the County leaders another very liberal Republican Ms. Scozzafava, who when she saw that she was losing, withdrew in favor of the Democrat candidate. Mr. Doug Hoffman who was supported financially by Citizens United, a group that seeks to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security, ran as a 3rd party, independent Conservative.
A large part of the folks in the area have determined not to support the Republican choice, but supported the one that most represents the views of “We the people”.The independent nature of the area reasserted itself with a little help from the “9-12″ Tea Party meeting demonstrations.
The Republican found she was going to lose big, in spite of her National and labor backing, withdrew giving her support to the Democrat.
This really gives me hope that our nation might just recover by listening to the folks! A third party candidate seems to really have a chance and it makes a difference.
It is interesting to note that the “9/12 – tax day tea party meetings” were started by the Illinois Libertarians. Of course, for the Libertarian Party every day is a Tea Party.
The “We the people” are rapidly becoming frustrated with the perceived self-seeking corruption in politics at all levels and the “Tea Party” groups are attracting large crowds.
Here in Cameron County, the local Libertarians had an overflow meeting recently that was directed at locating quality candidates for office in the 2010 elections. Several were identified that may have real possibilities for federal and state offices and are now evaluating those opportunities.
As many of the attendees were “seasoned citizens”, who most regularly vote, there can be a real expectation of a revolution similar to the one taking place in the Northern Border Area and many other areas across the country.
We all just want to use our talents to earn a living wage, without paying suffocating taxes and have the opportunity to seek happiness.
We are also interested in educating our children, helping our neighbors in need, and preserving our surroundings, so as to remain healthful and continue to show us the majesty of nature.
 We want to be allowed to follow our beliefs without the interference from others, in particular from a strong armed imperial government. We want to do all this without interfering with others.
The imperial government is currently spending our future down the drain and taxing us more and more into poverty. This has to change!
In fact it is changing as we can see from the telling elections in Virginia, New Jersey and the opportunity for the “Third Party Candidate” in the 23rd Congressional District in Northern New York.
Lastly, if you know someone in your family or a neighbor that could make an honest difference as a leader in the community, encourage him or her.