Month: December 2008

Good citizenship, properly applied, must demand accountability from every person, from political elite, “self-elected” nomenklatura, to the common Joe and Josephine in the street: everyone. But in demanding–and holding firm to that demand–accountability, we’re going to hear a lot of pigs squealing, skewered by accountability:

In trying to resurrect conservatism and the Republican party, I fear there’s a whole segment of our country we can never reach. These people, whether rich or poor, are not our natural constituents. These are the people to whom things are owed.

We saw it after the Katrina debacle, at the other end of the socioeconomic scale: “Why are you so slow to help us? Where is our money and food? Why haven’t you been here, government, rebuilding my house? I know my rights, and my rights include welfare, subsidies, support, and attention. We’re not to be treated like those victims of tornadoes in the Midwest who pull themselves together, help their friends, patrol their communities, and rebuild their neighborhoods. No, life is supposed to be easy, big and easy; why aren’t you here right now with the support I deserve?” And we hear it from the fat financial community who want the bailout check left at their door while they go on rich retreats to celebrate their good fortune.

This, by the way, is why Sarah Palin was so refreshing and, to be clear, so exotic to all the elites: a woman who could raise herself up by dint of hard work and self-sacrifice to be a wife, mother, mayor, and governor. She didn’t do it by set-asides, by birth, by quotas, or by handouts. She did it as a woman and she did it by her efforts. She exemplified what we all once saw as America—a land of opportunity, where you could be anything you set your mind to be so long as you worked for it. She showed us something about both her character and ours, our old-fashioned American character. For all this, she had to be ridiculed—she represented a kind of American virtue that shames the privileged, whether they be rich or poor.

Shame the privileged. A worthy goal. How? B y demanding accountability from our political (and bureaucratic) elites and by quietly, firmly, consistently emphasizing our differences to both the statists of the Left and the statists of the Right (most often found among the country club repugnican’ts now in power in the Republican Party).

In the second chapter of I Peter, the apostle charged first century Christians to make a positive impact on the world around them with their alien character:

1 Peter 2:11–Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:11-12 [emphasis added]

Now, while I’d urge Christians to follow that injunction, I’d also urge all good citizens of whatever religious persuasion (and by “religious” I also include atheists, no matter how silly they might be in denying that their belief system is a religion) to emulate the principle ennunciated by Peter: be good examples to those around you. Express your God-given rights (yes, God even gives rights to atheists) and liberties in such a way as to shame your fellow citizens (those few who have any ability to feel shame left) into honoring truth, seeking justice, examining mercy and voting knowledgeably and wittingly for these principles the next time they go to the polls.

Shame the privileged. The rich privileged and the poor privileged. The privileged politician and the privileged bureaucrat. Whoever and wherever they may be: shame them by your life, lived well.

Trackposted to Rosemary’s News and Ideas, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, and A Newt One, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

What does a good citizen do when faced with a bad government? Well, as I’ve pointed out before, in a representative reublic–which in theory is these (dis)United States–we have a responsibility to be directly involved in the process of selecting our leaders, not just by voting but also by doing all we can to influence the selection of candidates and to keep our representatives’ noses pressed firmly to the grindstone of OUR choosing.

But more, much more than that, we need to do everything we can to educate our local, state and national representatives as to their poper place in the scheme of things as public servants, employees of The People, not all that important in our daily lives, mostly warts on the body politic.

In order to achieve this objective, we must

1. Give due honor to genuine public servants
2. Give the raspberry to politicians exercising illegitimate power as though it were legitimate authority, but most of all,
3. Be a daily example to our children, friends and relatives of persons who consider the law a negative thing and politicians’ proper role in the scheme of things to be that of chidren in the Victorian age: seen rarely, rarely heard.

*huh*?

Yep. We must train those around us and future generations to view the purpose of the law as mostly negative: punishing–harshly punishing, in most cases–malefactors who harm others by violence, theft or deceit. (Hmmm, that’d place 90%, at least, of our congresscritters in harm’s way PDQ.) We must peacefully, quietly, consistently refuse to acknowlege laws and regulations that violate basic human and civil rights as noted in the founding/source documents of this nation (BTW, for any illiterati having this post read to them, that does include the Bible–check the Founders’ own words, if you can.) Sure, some of us will run afoul of some nancypants government bureaucrat intent on doing us harm, but we must do what’s right for the good of our progeny.

And as we go about our daily lives, simply doing what is good and right and just, as instructed by the same wisdom that instructed the Founders, that means that we will do the ordinary things of life purposefully, as revolutionary actions in resistance to the growing anarcho-tyranny of various civil governments and quasi-governmental agencies (like public schools).

In that vein, expect more “beer posts” and more “compgeeky posts” and more other such posts apparently unrelated to politics, societal decay, etc. Just figting the good fight in quiet ways…

Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo – WordPress, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, Faultline USA, DragonLady’s World, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Rosemary’s News and Ideas, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.