They're Not Listening

“Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels -- men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, we may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower

While home for a few days recently, I attended a city council meeting. After writing and encouraging people to stand up and get involved in securing their own freedom against the encroachments of the leviathan state, it seemed the right thing to do. I received further encouragement to get involved at the bottom of last month’s water bill, where the small print indicated that the city intended to raise the water rate by 20 percent beginning in October. Nothing like a quantum leap in the bills to get one motivated I guess.

At the meeting, we were provided with an itinerary of items to be discussed and presented to the council. The item that concerned the water rate increase was worded in legalese that was utterly undecipherable. Some discussion ensued regarding the wording. Evidently, there was fear among some in attendance that the proposition would permit future rate hikes without any warning being given to the public, thereby denying citizens the right to voice their concerns. As luck would have it, the city’s lawyer was in attendance and by the time he and others finished explaining the semantics of the proposition, we were even more confused than when they began. Shakespeare had the right idea when he wrote, “First we kill all the lawyers…”

The public was invited to address the council and I made my way to the podium. I explained that I do not speak legalese, to my eternal credit, but I do understand phrases like “20 percent increase.” “That is a whale of an increase,” I said, and then asked if anyone could enlighten me as to the reason for such a huge jump in rates. The answer, explained the mayor, was that an auditor had gone over the city’s books and determined that there was a substantial shortfall. If the rates did not go up by 20%, the city would be unable to pay it’s bills. I reminded the council that government, at all levels, is reaching further and further into our pockets and that at some point it has got to stop. I explained that, “When I have a problem with my own personal budget, I cut back on expenses. I don’t have the luxury of voting myself more money.” The response from the council was dead silence. They just sat there with the same blank stare I had years ago in algebra class. It was if I had spoken to them in Swahili and they didn’t understand and didn’t care.

Over the past few weeks I’ve watched as Americans from one end of the country to the other attended town hall meetings. People who have never been politically active in their lives stood up to express their concern with a government that is spinning out of control. Veterans who have laid their lives on the line to defend the Constitution are reminding congressman and senators that they too took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. I watched as elected representatives belittled their constituents, refused to take questions in some cases, and in one case even took a phone call in the middle of a constituent’s question. Watching those meetings, and then standing there looking at the vacuous faces of the city council, the same thought kept occurring: They’re not listening.

Last weekend over 75,000 people left their jobs, their home towns, their states, and traveled to Washington DC to make their voices heard. In the past, if a quarter of that number of people marched in support of abortion rights, or in protest of the war in Iraq, or in support of free false teeth for that matter, it would have been all over the major networks and page one news in the major papers. But when a huge number of people march in support of the same ideas that this nation was founded on (limited government, enumerated powers, individual freedom), the major media gives scant attention to it or ignores it completely. And what of our Community Organizer in Chief? He of the grass roots? He flew to Minneapolis, and didn’t deign to address these people even in his big speech to Congress a few nights later. They’re not listening. Those who remind government officials that it is the government that works for the people, not the other way around, are labeled as mobs, Nazis, racists, etc. Our elected representatives are making Marie Antoinette look like a populist!

Bill Buckley told the story years ago of a young man that was infatuated with a certain young lady. To woo her, he invited her to his uncle’s farm for dinner. Before the meal he gave her a tour of the property, insisting all the while that everything there actually belonged to him! “And that’s my barn over there,” he would say. “These are my chickens too.” And on it went until she had heard quite enough. In time they came upon a bull servicing a cow. “I think I’d like to do that,” said the young man. The young lady replied, “Well go ahead. It’s your cow.” Through interactions at all levels, we keep trying to tell our elected officials that America is our cow, but to no avail, they keep servicing us!

I have a feeling, however, that the adherents of big government are going to get a big surprise in the congressional elections of 2010. They’re not listening now, but they will then. After all, King George didn’t listen either.