THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9412100008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
I read with some consternation ``America's prosperous are on the march against the poor'' (Another View, Nov. 29). Columnist Bob Herbert's diatribe reveals a gross misunderstanding of the mandate the American people chose to authorize this past Election Day. That mandate, for those of the electorate who are hypocritically impaired, is this: Allow us, from whom the government derives consent and power, to conduct our own affairs, as we see fit, and to be fiscally responsible with the funds that are garnered from our wages.
To impugn prosperity, as if it were some evil to be exorcised from our society, only discloses the naivete that the likes of Mr. Herbert possess. Prosperity, which is arrived at through hard work and ingenuity, has made this the ``most-advanced nation on Earth,'' as well as the most generous. This national character of generosity does not have its roots in the Great Society programs of the '60s, nor the New Deal programs of the Roosevelt era. Our generosity is spawned from the recognition of the contribution of the individual and the responsibility accorded to that individual for his actions. The recognition of this personal responsibility enables the individual to discern the difference between a sincere need of another individual and that of the charlatan.
However, in Mr. Herbert's world the government usurps this personal ``commerce,'' and dilutes singular judgment in favor of bureaucratic bludgeoning. This bludgeoning dulls the public's critical-thinking capacity, and allows the powers-that-be to enact any sort of initiative-sapping, morality-numbing legislation they can throw money at. Should the electorate or the opposition party question the efficacy of such legislation, out come the anecdotes - the poor and the helpless, the meek and the ill. And how does one argue against such misery? One cannot. Thus 40 years of fiscal and moral irresponsibility and unaccountability.
Well, we, the American people, caught on in 1994. We elected a Republican majority and hopefully have sounded the death knell of socialistic, Utopian government. We have given our government a mandate of change. A mandate of reversion; reversion of power, flowing from the people, not edicts from the capital to the environs.
JAMES J. HOGAN JR.
Norfolk, Nov. 29, 1994 by CNB