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["Melody O." <melody AT crecon.com>]

At 07:22 PM 1/29/05 -0800, you wrote:
>At  1/29/2005 06:13 PM, you wrote:
>>A The only unthinkers
>>I've met are the ones who think that taxes are a way of being patriotic and
>>"pay(ing) (their) share of the burden".
>>
>>Melody
>
>I'd guess with the above comment you don't think there is anything that 
>"you" should have to share in supporting.
><shrug>
>I guess freeloaders are another part of the human race that we will always 
>have. 
>

Hold it.  From my comment, you think that I believe in freeloading?  That
is an interesting assumption.

I will tell you what I believe.  I believe that everyone is responsible for
themselves and their own.  I believe that taxes are forcible thievery,
which then allows people to *be* freeloaders.  It is a matter of taking
from many and giving to few.

If I want a road to my house, who should plow and pave the road?  You?
Others in my community, state, or nation?  No.  It should be *me*. 

If I want to eat, who should pay for my food?  You? Others in my community,
state, or nation?  No.  It should be *me*. 

If I want to live in a house, who should pay for it?  Others in my
community, state, or nation?  No.  It should be *me*. 


If I want an education, who should pay for it?  Others in my community,
state, or nation?  No.  It should be *me*. 

I definitely am not one who believes in freeloading.  I believe that anyone
who thinks that a government should feed, shelter, clothe, or school anyone
else does believe in freeloading, and that that freeloading is done with
other people's money.

Take for instance this story from long ago:
One day in the House of Representatives, a bill was taken up appropriating
money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several
beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The Speaker was just about
to put the question when Mr. Crockett arose: 

"Mr. Speaker --- I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and
as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if suffering there be, as
any man in this house, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or
our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice
to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that
Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every
member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give
away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of
Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money.
Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a
debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close
of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never
heard that the government was in arrears to him. 

So that, in a nutshell is what I believe, and as you can see, it is the
exact opposite of freeloading.

Best wishes,
Melody

"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the
grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We
have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr.
Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as
we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill,
but I will give one week's pay to the object, and, if every member of
Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.