We The People
Volume 11, Number 43
Issue 539
Last week’s TaxFax™ generated a lot of telephone calls, e-mails and interesting (and sometimes aggressive) discussions about why I have become outspoken concerning government and politics and why I decided earlier this year to run on the November 4, 2003 ballot in Chesterfield County, Virginia for the lowest office on the totem pole--the unpaid position of Soil and Water Conservation District Director.
I was proud to file my first Federal tax return when I was eleven years old because I was fortunate to have turned enough of a profit operating a small mailorder business that one was required. I was also fortunate to have a father who went out of his way to be proud of his country and its elected officials. I guess being one of the first Americans to enter a Nazi concentration camp (as a nineteen year-old Army medic) did that to him. Or was it losing his older brother in combat and never being able to have a funeral? Or was it simply being a patriotic Richmonder? Or was it that he thought making his kid respect elders and--especially--elected officials was, simply, what a father should do?
Some of my fondest memories involve my father walking me over to a politician that he recognized in public--at baseball games and in retail stores. I well remember meeting most all the governors of Virginia, various congressmen and the local officials of Henrico County. Since most people remember best what they think about over and over, I’m lucky to have Dave Satterfield, Mills Godwin, John Dalton, Harry Byrd, Linwood Holton and Ed Willey so well placed in my memories that meeting them is “just like yesterday.” Just the other day I ran across my third grade project of pasted tourism brochures in a scrapbook. The Capitol’s guidebook is signed “Mrs. John N. Dalton.”
I think that the happenings of politics at national, state and local levels should make, literally, politicians of all of us. Let’s face it: we live in a complex world. Having been to recent public meetings involving schools and transportation issues in Chesterfield, I think that all of us, as citizens, have the responsibility to be involved in our Republic. Remember, we are not a democracy, we are a republic.
To review, last week I advocated that there were five minimum responsibilities of every citizen: 1) register to vote and vote; 2) write handwritten letters to legislators and those seeking office; 3) become active in organizations that work to bring about political change; 4) get your checkbook out to support candidates and 5) consider running for an office that you think you can get elected to.
My great friend, Richard Todd, owner of the highly-successful Alpha Systems, Inc. in Midlothian, got me to thinking that if we, as citizens, don’t uphold our own minimum responsibilities of AT LEAST doing #1 to #3 above, then we deserve the type of government that a lot of us think we have. If more citizens had the courage to go to the more advanced levels of #4 and #5, then we would get better government.
In fact, I’m starting to form the opinion that a lot of the people who complain the most and who cause the most negative form of criticisms directed at our elected officials haven’t made sure to do #1 to #3 well and don’t consider doing #4 or #5 at all. In order to fulfill our basic responsibilities as citizens and to honor those who have sacrificed their lives and their fortunes to give us the capitalistic freedom that we have today, we all must be doing ALL of the five steps.
In our republic form of government, the people are the bosses. Through participating in the electoral process doing ALL of the five steps, we will get the kind of political leadership that we deserve--good or bad. Frankly, I think that the majority of citizens in the United States get what they deserve by getting whatever they get because the majority of citizens in the United States generally care less about their government. It’s not like when I was a little boy.
“We the People” get what we earn. If people vote (#1), write letters (#2), form groups (#3), get their checkbooks out to support candidates (#4) and consider running for elected office themselves (#5) we will get rid of apathy towards government and we will, through education (and ultimately EVERYTHING comes down to education), get great and efficient government after being able to choose from a plethora of candidates for every single office.
Running for elected office is the highest form of compliment towards the millions of men and women who have died so that I can go out and put up little green and white signs to try to be successful in my own election campaign.
David B. Robinson, CPA
Index of Previous Issues of Tax Fax
