I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a package of Jake’s fresh sliced cheese and a few other things I needed. Jake cuts his cheese nice and thick so, when you stick a slice between two pieces of bread, you know you are biting into a cheese sandwich. Willard Smith was sitting on one of the two old wood benches that are positioned on either side of the front door at Charlie’s. The Reverend Johnson was sitting on the other bench and Jake was standing leaning up against one of the new gas pumps that replaced the old pumps that had been there for so long as I can remember. The new pumps have been set up for over a year now, but I still can’t get used to the sight of them. Their modern, block like appearance just does not go with the look of the old store. But Jake had no choice other than replacing the pumps as it had come to the point they were so old and out of date repair parts could no longer be had for them.
I parked beside the store and walked up to where the men were talking and enjoying the fine weather. Jake looked at me and asked if I didn’t need any gas today even though he had seen me park to the side of the store. If I had wanted gas, I would have parked near the pumps. But Jake always asks anyway. It is something to say in a manner of greeting and Jake is in the business of selling stuff. “Not today,” I told him. “Still have over half a tank from when I filled up here last.”
Willard was holding a flyer in his hand. He stuck it in my face and asked if I had seen it. I took the sheet of paper and looked it over. The thing was titled “What Liberals Believe” and was printed in two columns over a pale image of the American Flag. Willard was saying he had picked the flyer up at the company where he works. One of the employees there had a fist full and was handing them out to anyone interested. Willard is a professional Republican who calls himself a conservative on most issues, so I could see right off he was not looking to make converts to the liberal point of view with this flyer. I glanced at it while Willard continued with his monologue. The flyer began with a listing of the things liberals are supposed to believe, at least so far as the flyer was concerned.
According to this flyer, liberals believe Government is required to balance the unfairness and excess of private business interests with environmental regulation, minimum wage standards, and worker safety laws. Government is uniquely qualified to provide for certain needs of society such as public schools, most kinds of health care, public transportation, public safety, public parks and recreation areas. Government is required to protect minorities with regard to basic rights as in civil rights legislation and laws protecting gays and lesbians. The flyer went on to suggest the Government should long ago have made these proposed adjustments and everyone would live in a liberal paradise but for the obstructionist agenda of the bad old conservatives, the unrepentant Scrooges of American politics.
“So who gets to decide?” Willard was asking. “Who is it that decides what is unfair excess in business? Who decides a fair balance between business interests and environmental concerns? Who decides how much constitutes a fair wage and who sets worker safety standards? How does government come to be qualified to provide health care? How is government qualified to decide what constitutes public transportation and who should have access to it? How does government come to have the power to decide which land should be left for private use and which land should be taken for conversion into public parks and recreational areas? How is it government should make special laws to satisfy designated pressure groups such as gays and lesbians? Why, in fact, should any law be legislated for any specialized group? If a crime is committed against someone, then it is a crime no matter if the victim belongs to a certain selected voter block or if he is just an Ordinary American.
“Who decides which groups are to have access to public transportation and which groups are just not important enough to require public transportation? If Washington or New York or, say, Memphis qualifies for government funded public transportation, why not Corinth or Soagie? And do we want public transportation? What would we do with it? Who should decide? The Liberal agenda insists some government bureaucrat should make that kind of decision and not the people who live and work here in Soagie. What about the other issues of our daily lives? What about health care? Who is to decide if little Mary Jane should get braces for her teeth or if Grandma Smith should have that operation to save her eyesight? The liberals would insist that our Nanny Government should provide health care for everyone. This is a rich nation and we can afford to provide for all our people. But, rich as we are, wealth is ultimately finite, wealth has a limit, while unlimited demands are infinite. Much as Liberals may insist the Nanny Government should provide everything we want, that is just not possible in the real world. So who sets the limits? Who decides if Mary Jane should have her braces? Who decides if Grandma Smith should have her operation? Who decides if Willie Jones who has been brain damaged for ten years should remain on life support? Who decides if Nellie Mae who was molested by a street gang should have an abortion? Ultimately the question comes down to who decides who should live and who should die? Who is qualified to decide?
“Liberals would place those decisions in the hands of nameless government bureaucrats. Liberals would place your life in the hands of a man you will never see.”
Jake followed me into the store. “That man certainly has his opinions,” he said.
END
