An acquaintance of mine here in Yorktown, VA emailed me this morning. He simply writes: “Robert, I just re-read your letter……you have it right……now what?” GG
GG is a highly successful businessman in real estate who has been working hard to revamp our local Republican Committee for the last several years. Back in early April of this year, I sent the below email to our local Board of Supervisors and cc’d the “who’s who of conservatives” here in York County, VA. It was a reply to GG having emailed us about a tragic story of property rights being violated by a local government in GA to the point that the property owner took his own life (see below).
So GG left me thinking, “Now what?” If you are reading this, do you have any ideas? If you do, please post them here to share with me and any other readers.
Thanks,
Robert E. Lehman #WakeUpAmerica!
Subject: RE: What county does this sound like? You will be shocked to read this !!
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2012 08:46:39 -0400
From the below linked article http://lfb.org/today/death-by-regulation/ :
“The political class is not really running things. As I’ve written many times, the political class is only the veneer of the state; it is not the state itself. The state is the permanent bureaucratic structures, those untouched by elections. These institutions make up the real ruling apparatus of government.”
I have no doubt that every individual who works for York County government as either an elected official or as a paid employee is just as much in support of the Constitution and individual liberty as most ordinary people. They want to live their lives the way they want as free citizens of these here United States.
But what often goes unnoticed by most people is that despite these individuals who work for the county government being in favor of limited government, as direct workers for the government, they can’t help, no matter how hard they try to not grow the government bureaucracy , to do the exact opposite.
The government at any form at any level is a cancer to freedom. It naturally grows even without conscious awareness on the part of those otherwise good people who work for it who think themselves to be in fact a proponent of limited government. The mere act of participating in a political party and/or serving as an employee for government leads to MORE government and LESS freedom. Why is this? After all, isn’t York County composed of a majority of so-call limited government conservatives?
Why is York County government more of a citizen burden than it has ever been before and inserting itself more and more into the private lives and encroaching on violating the freedoms of its citizens? Because that is what government is supposed to do by its very nature – even when we think we are electing conservatives to keep it limited.
Here is the county BOS mission from its website:
As stewards of the public trust and resources, the Board of Supervisors will maintain and improve the quality of life for all County citizens.
The Board will:
- emphasize efficiency, effectiveness, and openness of County government
- protect the physical, historical, and environmental heritage of the County
- ensure that growth and development are positive forces on the quality of life
- value and respect the individual
(emphasis added)
I have to laugh, as how are they to even truly know how they can improve the quality of life for anybody other than themselves as individuals? Even with their good intentions, they trample the individual, despite the last bullet. The last bullet is complete hogwash when coming from any government. Government by its natural definition is anathema to the individual’s rights.
When good liberty minded, limited-government people get involved in running the government, the government still grows, because those good natured people mean well and through their good deeds as servers to the “cause of government” that is the mission above, get sucked into the black hole leviathan that is liberty killing government bureaucracy.
Yes, you read it right. The otherwise good and caring people who run York County government are conscientious and hard working and successful. They do not fail. So naturally, they become good at running government. After all, working to support government is how most of them make their living and support their families. They need to do a good job to keep earning their paychecks. But make no mistake, no matter what they try to do to prevent it, the government will grow. Nothing they do to try not to grow it will work. They are powerless to stop it.
Only the citizens who support the government through their hard earned tax dollars and by their voting for elected members of the governing board can stop the growth of government. The only tool the citizens have between their freedom and the heavy hand of government is its elected board members. For the BOS members to be successful at keeping government growth at bay, they MUST dig deeper and look past the administrator or attorney and other appointed leaders of the government staff to see the waste and to truly see the initiatives that lead to less citizen freedom and that add to citizen burdens. BOS members cannot rely solely on senior administrative staff for the real picture. After all, they administrative leaders of county government are working to save their jobs. Does it make sense that any of them will commit harakiri with respect to their careers? No, of course they wouldn’t!
Government, no matter how well intentioned its conservative leaders are is a cancer to freedom. If you have read Atlas Shrugged or Animal Farm, you can appreciate the very natural tendency that government has to take otherwise good people who work for it and almost hypnotize them into having to do whatever it takes to grow it. It is a very real system that has the structure of a self-reinforcing feedback loop that inevitably leads to MORE government and LESS freedom.
When permitted to run unabated, you get the tragedy of Death by Regulation and the sad story Andrew Wordes of Roswell, GA. Ladies and gentlemen of York County, VA: do no think that we are immune to the ills of uncontrolled big government. It is happening to us now and many people are blind to it. Use this sad story as a lesson. What will be your role in York County’s history?
Respectfully Yours,
Robert E. Lehman
Yorktown, VA
From: GG
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 22:37:22 -0400
Subject: What county does this sound like? You will be shocked to read this !!
To: list
http://lfb.org/today/death-by-regulation/
Living in America 