US Government

[Kingfish]

It is popular to direct displeasure toward our government. It is popular to perceive our government as the “other”. I am sure there are many valid reasons for doing this. The government makes plenty of mistakes. It does not always represent our own individual self interest. And many times it represents special interests instead of common interests. But this is not unique to government. Any human a...ctivity is going to involve mistakes. Collective action, at its best, attempts to act toward a common goal and seeks to balance competing interests. The preamble to the US Constitution has a famous phrase, “We The People”. We the people have made plenty of mistakes and will never reach perfection. However, that one concept of “We The People” in the US Constitution is a portal through which passed some of the best things in our common life. Washington and the Continental Congress persisted against the British and brought us freedom. Jefferson wrote powerful words that shaped a nation. Lincoln along with the Union army freed the slaves. Our constitution now gives the right to vote to women. FDR gave hope in the great depression and with our factories and soldiers defeated Hitler. We the People secured the civil rights of American minorities. There are many things I could decry about our government. These things give me pause to help make our union better and to continue in our common effort for the common good. So, I do not see our government as something as apart from myself from which I expect something. Our government is every single person pooling our efforts to accomplish things that we could not accomplish by ourselves. So if every child is fed and sheltered without our common effort, I say that is great. But as long as there is any person that goes hungry and has no home, I will do my part and will call for every person to express their good will and charity by doing their part and, yes, I will call for us to gather our skills and resources as a common people to help those who need help through what we call our government.