If we permit government to manufacture its own authority and to create self-proclaimed powers not delegated to it by the people, then the creature exceeds the creator and becomes master. Who is to say "this far, but no farther"? What clear principle will stay the hand of government from reaching farther and farther into our daily lives? Grover Cleveland said that "though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people."

Quote from: "The Proper Role of Government" by Ezra Taft Benson in October 1968 Conference Report

   In light of the LDS general conference going on today, I decided to quote this talk I read the other day. The entire article/talk is extremely provocative and profound. You can read it yourself at this link and I HIGHLY encourage you to do so.

   To begin, the government should only have the authority that the individual citizens have. We have the right to defend ourselves, our family, and our property. We delegate this power to the government and that is its fundamental role. Protection of life and property. Somewhere along the way the government has taken far more power than its citizens have. That's what is meant by the creature exceeding the creator. For example, we, as individuals, do not have the power to take money or property from another citizen. However, the government has taken that authority. From where? I don't know. 

   

   I came across this article from a friend who posted it on Facebook. She is fighting the government to protect her right to keep her children from being tested against her will. She received a letter from the school district saying there is no opt out option and "Therefore your request to opt out of state testing cannot be allowed." This is a clear sign of the government overstepping its boundaries. We hired the government to educate our children when we created free public schools. By "free" I mean tax funded. We pay the government's education bills, we hire the school board leaders, we delegate our authority to them to teach our kids. They can not have greater power than the parents who hired them. Who is the boss here? WE ARE. But somehow that is being forgotten. We can not look the other way as the government continues to encroach from all directions on our freedoms that we created and hired it to protect.  

   Ezra Taft Benson gives some real viable advice. He said, "Three factors may make a difference: (1) sufficient historical knowledge of the failures of socialism in contrast to the proven success of free enterprise; (2) modern means of rapid communications to transmit this information to a large literate population; (3) a growing number of dedicated men and women actively working to promote a wider appreciation of these basic concepts. The timely joining together of these three factors may make it entirely possible for us to reverse the trend." In this spirit I am posting his article to Facebook and sharing it here on this blog. Then, the next step is to vote. Another step that I think many people forget is writing their representatives. Make the men and women representing you aware of your views.

   I almost feel like apologizing for posting such a politically charged post, but it is something I feel strongly about and have become more passionate about recently. It is an important topic though. Next to religion of course. Funny how those two topics are the two that people hate to talk about the most. I believe that it is because we have too many emotions wrapped into these topics and it's hard not to let those emotions out during these discussions. We'd rather talk about what celebrities are up to or what scandals are going on in the world, because there is no emotional attachment to them. I like to talk about religion though. I think it is by far the most important topic that can be discussed. I try to keep emotions out of my discussions and I think I do fairly well at it. I hope that any discussions on this blog will also be respectful and level-headed.