Free to be dependent?

To the editor:

Reading the last couple of editorials about county government, it made me think, how have we as a people ever let this happen?

I’m thinking of that in relation to our celebration of Independence Day. What were we celebrating? What freedom? The freedom to be free from the responsibility of governing ourselves? Is freedom the right to self-indulgence and consumption with no responsibility?

Looking at the numbers, I wonder who is servant of whom? Is the role of government to preserve self-government or consume it for itself? For government to exist, it has to create dependence and feed itself. And what are its resources? Us, those of us who are productive and taking care of ourselves.

Has dependence become more desirable than freedom and responsibility? Dependency is not free. Somebody has to pay. Is that not robbery? If government continues down that road, there finally will be no one to rob.

How do we make life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness a reality? Consider for a moment those who live under oppressive governments. What do they desire? Don’t they desire individual liberty, that which was given to us and which we have consumed to our own lusts?

What is the end of individual liberty? Poverty, not in economic deprivation but in the loss of personal worth.

Maybe that freedom of independence and self-government that the colonists fought and died for isn’t worth it.

This country was founded on the virtue of self-government. Isn’t that what made for such a great nation and people? And to think that we would give that away for dependence on institutions that would rob us of that?

Jerry Plett
Lincolnville