September 2009 Meeting President's Remarks
Health and Education
According to the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America, one of the purposes
of our federal government is to "promote the general welfare." Naturally, that includes health
and education, e.g., the Food and Drug Administration and the cabinet-level organization, the
Department of Education.
This week, the President of the United States delivered two speeches addressing those subjects,
one to public school children on the
importance of education,
and one to the general public on the importance of health care.
Our adversaries, the Republicans, seem to have forgotten the proper role of government, preferring
instead and ever-shrinking public sector (except for warfare). We need to continue to remind people
that there are many things that are not suited for the private sector alone. These include things
like:
- Civil and criminal courts
- Law enforcement
- Fire fighting
- Public utilities
- Public roads and highways
- Sanitation and water systems
- Military defense
- Public schools
- Public health
And much more. Ask your favorite Republican friend if he or she thinks we can do without
these things, or with only private versions of these public goods. For example, in the bad
old days of private fire departments, the fire company would stand by and watch a person's house
burn down if he or she did not have a placard stating he or she had paid that months dues to that particular
fire company. Protecting your neighbor's house protects your house. These are the common sense
common goods that we have worked out over hundreds of years. The Republicans got a good start
on throwing them away during the Bush administration. Don't let them finish the job!
Benjamin Franklin started the first public library many years ago. My home town of Salinas,
California is also the home town of the noted writer John Steinbeck (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1962).
Ironically, the Salinas Public Libraries were recently in danger of closing permanently due to funding
problems. Don't let the Republicans succeed in their project of "shrinking government to size where it can be
drowned in a bathtub"!
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PresidentRemarks0909.html, this handcrafted HTML file was created September 8, 2009.
Last updated September 8, 2009, by
Rick Wagner.