Do We Still Meet the Necessary Qualifications to be Free?

Our forefathers decided our populous met the necessary requirements. History shows how governments can intentionally mislead and misdirect their national population’s attitudes and direction.


This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:




Requirements For Self Government

As our new nation was about to win its independence from the oppressive rule of the British Monarchy in 1775, our nations leaders of the day pondered over what form of government should be created for the new nation. They had all experienced the ills and benefits of living under a Monarchy in Europe prior to their migration to the new America, and they were also familiar with the many Dictatorships which prevailed in other nations. But what kind of government should be created for this fledgling nation and the thirteen colonial governments which were previously managed by Governors appointed by the British Royalty?

The climate and spirit of freedom which prevailed among the leaders and the citizenry created a desire for a Democracy based on self rule of the citizens. But could this approach work? What conditions must exist if this approach to government was to succeed? Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and many other statesmen corresponded and met to ponder this decision prior to the convening of the Constitutional Convention.

Collectively they determined that the general population had to have three prominent characteristics to successfully be able to perpetuate a self governing Democracy. The population had to be; (1) Well Educated, (2) Virtuous, and (3) Moral.

Education-A significant portion of the population had to be educated well enough to understand the principles and operation of the various elements of the government, to properly represent the new nation in the world community, and to be able to make wise operational, monetary, and legal decisions.



Virtuous – The population had to be will able to demonstrate an appreciation for personal virtues. This valuable personal attribute is the willingness to subrogate personal or local interest and gain to the benefit of the common good. This is the element of national patriotism which is required in order to be a good leader or citizen.

Moral - The general population had to be of good moral character which followed the philosophies of social behavior prescribed by the bible.

After deliberation they finally determined that in general, the population of the new nation did indeed have these qualities, and should be able to successfully launch and maintain the new government. There should always be an adequate supply of candidates for positions of power within all levels of government which had these needed attributes. The population could thus always elect representatives who had these needed qualifications.

This leads us to the obvious question of the moment for the reader to ponder…….Does our population, and do our elected officials, still have these attributes? Personally, I question the significant presence of virtue and morality.



Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning

● Examples of A Lack of Virtue: There is a prevailing philosophy which exists at every level of government which creates billions of dollars in wasteful spending and mismanagement every year throughout the nation. This philosophy negates most of the benefits which management should realize through good budgeting practices and through the competitive bidding concept for public expenditures. This is the idea that once monies have been authorized for a department, project, or purchase…all of those authorized funds MUST be spent and should never, never be returned to the authorizing body.

As a result of this management practice, every federal, state, county, and city department is forced to waste valuable taxpayer dollars. Why try to manage your department under budget if you are going to come up with an excuse to spend up to the budgeted amount anyway? Why go through an elaborate smoke and mirrors bidding process for a project if you plan to throw away any left over funds on unnecessary add-on’s or unjustified additional projects?

I see this happening over and over at all levels of government. The action approved by the Marianna City Commissioners to not turn back the left over $340,000 in funds from improvements in the airpark roads as needed by the new industry, Ice River Springs. Instead the staff decided it would be “nice” to four-lane the entrance road to the park with the $340,000. This was presented to the Commissioners as a suggestion to prevent turning the funds back to the state, and the Commission approved it.

In my opinion, this is an unnecessary, unjustified, wasteful expenditure. It is an example of a NON VIRTUIOUS action by government officials. I see this type of self serving, non-patriotic, decision making occurring regularly at all levels of government spending. Taken in total throughout the nation it amounts to billions and billions of wasteful spending and bad management because of a flawed concept.

Their argument is always, “If we don’t spend it…someone else will”. To me, that is no excuse for waste and inappropriate action. If all of our officials were virtuous and DID always turn in monies they had saved through astute management, then our national financial deficit would not be as deep.

● Example of Level of Ethics in Congress - It is my understanding that as the Senate struggled with the health care bill this weekend, an amendment which limited the pay for executive salaries for insurance executives to $400,000 was passed……yet another amendment which would have limited legal fees on malpractice suits to $150,000 failed. Could it be because most of them are lawyers? Another proof that we must oust all of those in Washington who have been part of this corrupt process for far too long.



“The potential loss of our freedoms is always only one generation away,”- Ronald Reagan.

Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.