LIBERTY OR TYRANNY
I have never had much interest in guns. I have only gone hunting once in my life and got no thrill out of seeing an animal die when it was strictly for the hunter's entertainment. Hunting is perfectly acceptable in order to put food on the table and to control animal population; but, as a sport, I personally find it distasteful. It seems like I was the only male member of the Murray clan who didn’t go through a gun phase as part of their passage from boy to man. My brother and cousins all went out and bought a gun. I never did. Although, I must say if any crooks might think my home might be an easy target, don’t be too sure. One of my relatives has passed on a gun for me to use to defend my family. My father felt it was his duty to teach gun use and safety. With this lack of interest in guns, I was less than thrilled when my father and I received an invitation several months ago to attend a gun show to promote and sell books. The day turned out to be a financial success, and we met many nice people. However, I met a lot of what I considered to be paranoid kooks who took the right to bear arms a little too seriously. I kept wondering if I was looking at the next Timothy McVeigh. The favorite jokes passed around usually ended with a punch line about the demise of President Clinton or some other government official. The common theme was that the government was to be feared. Listening to these "patriots" made the U.S. sound like The Soviet Union under Stalin’s reign of terror. I agree that the government is too big, but still have always felt that I can sing the last phrase of the Star Spangled Banner without choking on the words. As I went home that night, I admit that I had doubts about my lifelong belief in the right to keep and bear arms. However, the recent congressional hearings about IRS abuses made me decide that we may really have something to fear from the government and might need to protect ourselves. There is something wrong when whistle blowers cover their heads and alter their voice to testify. It looked liked a scene from the Godfather movies. Even members of Congress, who can strip the IRS of its power, are afraid that the IRS might start snooping into their lives. Thomas Jefferson once said, "When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." The conduct of the IRS has crossed the threshold of tyranny when the mere mention of an audit can make people lose sleep. It isn’t enough to reform it a little by forming a watch dog committee to oversee the IRS, like Senator Kerrey’s commission proposed. Steve Forbes gives the best solution to the problem: "The only thing to do with the monster is to drive a stake through its heart and kill it so it will never raise its ugly head again." If you want information about the cost of taxes, abuses by the IRS and solutions to the problem, then you should check out these sites: http://www.townhall.com/townhall/infotain/irs/ http://www.heritage.org/heritage/library/categories/budgettax/bg1107.html http://www.atr.org/atr/cogdpak.html http://www.atr.org/atr/issues.html http://www.atr.org/atr/tax-presentation/mealoped.html http://www.phonet.com/~bsimon/ http://www.ahgo.org/ |
