It's Time To Vote

It's time to vote. As a citizen, it is your duty, privilege, and right. You hold it in your hands; you are responsible for it. It is also a tool that you must use to shape our nation. That is how it has always been used.

When the Founders were forming the U.S. Constitution, they voted. These votes came after long, deliberate, and sometimes heated conversations. They wrestled with great ideas and thorny problems. And then they voted.

They agreed with the passage in Jeremiah 17:9 that states, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" So they decided not to put too much power into any one person's hands. Then they voted on Separation of Powers.

They saw the government envisioned in Isaiah 33:22, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us." With that vision, they separated the powers into the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches of government. Their votes created the first three articles of the Constitution.

The Founders agreed with the wisdom revealed in Exodus 18:21: "But select capable men from all the people — men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain — and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens." So they decided to create a republic, where we select leaders who then represent us and are constrained by the law and the Constitution. And they voted to affirm Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution.

They understood the command of God in Leviticus 19:33-34 - "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord  your God." In obedience, they agreed to an orderly accommodation of foreigners in this new country, Rules of Naturalization. Then they voted and approved Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.

They agreed with the warning found in Deuteronomy 17:15 - "Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you." In light of this they decided that the President should not be a foreigner. Then they established Article 2, Section 1 by a vote.

Over and over, the Founders used the truths they found in scripture to inform their deliberations and their votes. They weren't perfect. Sometimes they got it wrong. In 1784 Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill in the Continental Congress that would have banned slavery in the entire United States. It was strongly supported by George Washington, Benjamin Rush and many of the other Founders. Unfortunately, it failed to pass by only one vote. The nation became misshaped.

For nearly 200 years this nation would struggle with an issue that led to things like the Civil War, the Birmingham Church Bombing, and the Watts Riots in L.A. Each of these scars might have been avoided if there was just one more vote in 1784. A vote that was informed by the truths we find in scripture. A vote that would have helped shape our nation for the better.

Now it is your turn. How will you use your vote? You hold it in your hands; you are responsible for it. It is a tool that you must use to shape our nation.

Some day you will have to answer for how you used your vote . . . even if you choose not to use it. It's your choice. Choose well.

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Letter to the Editor - 7 October, 2008

We’ve been robbed. The Bailout Bill is nothing short of election-year robbery. I’ve read the contents of the bill and it makes me sick. You can find it on the internet and read it too. If you do, you will discover that your $700-billion in tax money, money that was “urgently needed to avoid an economic disaster not seen since the depression”, was spent on the following items: renewable energy credits; carbon mitigation and coal provisions; increase and extension of oil spill liability trust fund tax; deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers; extension of mine rescue team training credit; Indian employment credit; railroad track maintenance; seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility; extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds; provisions related to film and television productions; exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children; mental health parity; increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; secure payments for states and counties containing federal land, among other things.

Do any of these items help with the emergency action to free credit markets from being clogged with bad mortgages that were mandated by congress? Even a fifth-grader could answer that question correctly. And yet, the President of the United States pushed for it, both of the major Presidential Candidates voted for it, one Vice-Presidential Candidate voted for it (the other is a governor but would have voted for it if she could), and both of our Indiana Senators voted for it.

I have come to a conclusion. The supporters of this bill are either ignorant, or cowards, or crooks.

Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for or supporting. Do you really want someone that ignorant leading our nation anywhere?

Maybe they knew what was in the bill, but were afraid NOT to vote for it; afraid for political reasons or afraid for economic reasons. Do you really want cowards leading your nation anywhere?

Or maybe they new exactly what they were doing, and for financial gain and/or to maintain political power they mortgaged our nation into the next two or three generations. Do we really want crooks and liars leading this nation anywhere?
There are no other options: ignorance, cowardice, or robbery.

To add insult to injury, the “crisis” was generated by congress who mandated home loans at below market cost, to individuals who could not pay for loans, on houses that were overpriced. This initial mandate was made to pay for the votes of the new home owners, who are now facing foreclosure and/or bankruptcy as a result of their bargain. The banks, who went along with this scheme, made decisions they would never have made under normal market conditions because of corporate greed, and as a result are now facing bank failures of a magnitude not seen in generations.

So the ignorant, or cowardly, or crooked politicians are covering the mess they created by giving more money to the greedy financial institutions, and the unwise and overextended home owners, by taking money from hard working, tax paying individuals who HAVE made good decisions! Does any of this make you upset?

As far as I can see, the only politician, on a national level, who has been looking out for East Central Indiana is Congressman Mike Pence who, even under strong pressure from his party’s President and his party’s Presidential Candidate, has stood strong against this unprecedented power-grab and money-grab-legislation.

I don’t say this as a political endorsement; it’s simply a mater of fact. President Bush, Senators Bayh and Lugar, Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain, and Vice-Presidential Candidates Biden and Governor Palin (by lending her support) have ALL picked our pockets for the next several decades.

What are we going to do about it? Is this still a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, or is it a government of cowardly, ignorant, power-hungry crooks masquerading as political statesmen and women?

If you remain silent, you willingly open your pocketbook to the next generation of what used to be called civil servants. It’s time to do something. Someone just stole $700-billion dollars that belonged to you. Who’s going to hold them accountable?


Thanks for reading!