Sunday, September 13, 2009
T.E.A. party remarks
[This was my prepared text for the St. Cloud T.E.A. Party on 9/12. If you look real hard, you'll find mention of the party in this article from the Times.]
Thank you all for coming today. Thank you to the Central Minnesota Conservative Coalition for the opportunity to speak.
Today is a reminder to those we send to St. Paul and City Hall, and to those in Congress and the White House, that we feel forgotten.
�Forgotten?� you ask.
The economist William Graham Sumner wrote a century ago about the way in which we are forgotten by those who would help others in the name of humanitarianism but not with their own money.
Look around you and say hi to Mr. C and Mrs. C.
What Sumner understood was that in order to produce the good they want to distribute, they must draw on the energy that you create. Your labor, your savings, your creativity, your humanity. Sumner noted �that the State cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.�
That�s you.
And when government takes the produce and savings of the forgotten man, his choices are two. One: You can shrink. My friend and radio host Dennis Prager said it well this week: �When government gets larger, citizens get smaller.� People forget to take care of themselves, they rely on government, they don�t feel like working when they can�t keep what they earn and besides government will give it to them.
If you�re that kind of person, you�re at the wrong party.
Your other choice is to stand on your feet. And shout �forgotten no more.�
You have important work to do here today. If you do not want to be forgotten, you must remember why we are here. You cannot hold up a sign that says �Taxed Enough Already� if you don�t know what your government is supposed to tax you for. The other speakers here today are going to tell you that. They will tell you how to stop shrinking, stop being forgotten.
Because we have forgotten, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, what our �unifying purpose� is. �All we had forgotten,� he said, �was the human soul.� We live in a great country in an unbelievably prosperous time. Life is great in 21st Century America, if we just would understand why. All we have, Solzhenitsyn said, is �a delicate trial of our free will.�
You are on trial. If you fail, you will be forgotten. You will shrink to insignificance.
But I know many of you, and I know you will succeed. You will hear the words that remind us of our great purpose as a nation. And our country will succeed when we can say as one �Forgotten no more.�
God bless each of you today, and God bless our great country. Thank you.
Thank you all for coming today. Thank you to the Central Minnesota Conservative Coalition for the opportunity to speak.
Today is a reminder to those we send to St. Paul and City Hall, and to those in Congress and the White House, that we feel forgotten.
�Forgotten?� you ask.
The economist William Graham Sumner wrote a century ago about the way in which we are forgotten by those who would help others in the name of humanitarianism but not with their own money.
A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes � is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked. I call C the Forgotten Man.
Look around you and say hi to Mr. C and Mrs. C.
What Sumner understood was that in order to produce the good they want to distribute, they must draw on the energy that you create. Your labor, your savings, your creativity, your humanity. Sumner noted �that the State cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.�
That�s you.
And when government takes the produce and savings of the forgotten man, his choices are two. One: You can shrink. My friend and radio host Dennis Prager said it well this week: �When government gets larger, citizens get smaller.� People forget to take care of themselves, they rely on government, they don�t feel like working when they can�t keep what they earn and besides government will give it to them.
If you�re that kind of person, you�re at the wrong party.
Your other choice is to stand on your feet. And shout �forgotten no more.�
You have important work to do here today. If you do not want to be forgotten, you must remember why we are here. You cannot hold up a sign that says �Taxed Enough Already� if you don�t know what your government is supposed to tax you for. The other speakers here today are going to tell you that. They will tell you how to stop shrinking, stop being forgotten.
Because we have forgotten, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, what our �unifying purpose� is. �All we had forgotten,� he said, �was the human soul.� We live in a great country in an unbelievably prosperous time. Life is great in 21st Century America, if we just would understand why. All we have, Solzhenitsyn said, is �a delicate trial of our free will.�
You are on trial. If you fail, you will be forgotten. You will shrink to insignificance.
But I know many of you, and I know you will succeed. You will hear the words that remind us of our great purpose as a nation. And our country will succeed when we can say as one �Forgotten no more.�
God bless each of you today, and God bless our great country. Thank you.
Labels: Freedom
