---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 5:43 PM
Subject: Draconian cuts in Domestic Services?
To: President Barack Obama
Draconian cuts in Domestic Services?
"We can't win the future with a government of the past."
PRESIDENT OBAMA, in his State of the Union address.
With all the talk about Draconian cuts in spending, I thought I would do a little research and find out what Draconian meant? "Draco (lawgiver) was the first legislator of ancient Athens, Greece, 7th century BC. He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by a written code to be enforced only by a court. Because of its harshness, this code also gave rise to the term "draconian".
The laws, however, were particularly harsh. The death penalty was the punishment for even minor offenses. Concerning the liberal use of the death penalty in the Draconic code, Plutarch states:
"It is said that Draco himself, when asked why he had fixed the punishment of death for most offences, answered that he considered these lesser crimes to deserve it, and he had no greater punishment for more important ones."" [1]
To put it more honestly and succinctly Draco was the FIRST written lawgiver; he had no greater or lesser punishment than DEATH. The only punishment he had available was DEATH. There was no such thing as jails or prisons. He could not sentence someone to 30 days or to 30 years there was no INFRASTRUCTURE to support this newly created system of laws. We have EVOLVED as a civilization since then. We now have INFRASTRUCTURE.
Jump forward 2,700 years to today and we are making seemingly Draconian like cuts in our infrastructure, not because we have no alternative, but because the G.O.P. wants to PUNISH us for THEIR DEFICIT SPENDING (2000-2008). The G.O.P. proposes to punish us and take us back to 2008 level of spending.
Where is the CIVILIZED good in 2008 at the end of 8 years of G.O.P. lead DEFICIT SPENDING and on the verge of a GREAT depression by all accounts. We are now out of the recession; we could double dip as some fear. To arbitrarily FORCE us to take drastic across the board cuts is both CRUEL and UNNECESSARY. But it is not Draconian, Draco had no other alternatives, he had no comprehension of anything more civilized. He was ignorant; he did not have OUR options. We are not ignorant. We do not need to make severe cuts. The G.O.P.'s current extreme solution is being sold as the ONLY solution. The G.O.P. fails to address the OTHER civilized alternatives we CURRENTLY have at our disposal. They want to destroy our INFRASTRUCTURE by letting it go to hell in a hand basket, with their laissez-faire, gold standard,[2] anti-government,[3] and anarchist's[4] fallacy.
Deficit spending if controlled and prudently utilized is a good thing. Deficits spending if allowed to increase at its current geometric rate will be devastating. But TEMPORARY deficit STIMULUS spending is the issue and that is not the CRITICALLY THREATENING PROBLEM the G.O.P. would lead you to believe. Give me a choice between 2008 "The George W. Bush era" and 2010 "The Barack H. Obama era" and I will take the Obama era anytime!!!!!!!!!!
In 2008, post Bush, if the G.O.P. had been in control with their laissez-faire, gold standard, anti-government, and anarchist's predilection, we could be, today, living in Hoover Ville instead of a EVOLVING into a better civilization. The G.O.P.s stale out of date laissez-faire, gold standard, anti-government, and anarchist's manifesto is what created the Pyramids and every depression / recession of the modern age.
If 2008 taught us anything it should be that the G.O.P.s laissez-faire, gold standard, anti-government, anarchist's manifesto is OUT DATED. "We the People" need to remember our purpose and our power this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We are not in this to build pyramids for the gratification of the financially well healed.
In 2001 when Clinton left office and George W. Bush, a G.O.P. icon, took office we had a balanced budget. Going back to 2001s balanced Budget would be a civilized thing. We need to eliminate the current military spending on the Iraq and the Afghanistan wars. The United States of America can not be expected to be the World's policeman. We need to build consensus, not arbitrarily assert our undocumented unfounded fears of Weapons of Mass Destruction on the world.
Since the initial invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 we have spent 10 of thousands of American Lives and TRILLIONS of DEFICIT DOLLARS all to avenge the death of 3,000 Americans from the 9/11 attacks. To any SANE person that was and is a SELF DESTRUCTIVE ACT of hate. We need to be CONSTRUCTIVE peace makers not DESTRUCTIVE haters.
On a separate note, I would contend that we do not have any individual rights in this country, "Everybody, BUT the innocent victim, has "ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY"" for the deprivation of rights; but that is another story.
[2] Hands off, Balanced Budget and the Gold Standard (Zero inflation) Hands off, Balanced budgets and the gold standard are what created the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Palace of Versailles and the Biltmore estate, monuments to the individual at the expense of the "We the People." Without inflation and budget deficits our wealth would still be concentrated in the hands of the few.
[3] Now the G.O.P. (Republicans) will tell you that Government action is not to be trusted, "Government's efforts to correct a wrong will always result in over regulation and wasted resources." And to some extent that is correct. Not because it is a government effort though. Government's flaws are the result of Government's limited resources, humanity. Anything done via humanity will be flawed as an unavoidable result of human fallibility.
A government of the people, by the people and for the people is - to date - the BEST way to get the onerous work of regulation done. Laissez-faire de-regulation is a seductive theory but if our current economic issues, the result of banking DE-regulation, have taught us anything, "We the People" need government's democratically derived authority to REGULATE and thus keep the GREED of "We the People" in check.
[4] Mankind needs order call it what you will but laissez-faire economy is not a government of the people by the people and for the people. "We the People" can not be trusted; 30 years of banking DEREGULATION should have taught us that in 2008? The greed of a few will take advantage of the many.
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Thanks in advance,
"Time is of the essence"
David G.Jeep
E-mail is preferred Dave@DGJeep.com, DGJeep@DGJeep.com
(314) 514-5228
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