Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • May 27, 2009 against arrogant, stodgy monarchs whose penchant for dynastic wars did not verge into outright mass murder because they were Christians. Americans today still live in a republic, where the laws are understood to come from Nature and from Nature’s God and not from mob rule, and they enjoy the rights the unfortunate Russians and Germans were promised. But Americans are gradually selling their rights down the river for that most pernicious of democratic delusions – the idea that the government, as opposed to family and church, is the ultimate provider of jobs, job security, and supplemental income for those who will not work and those who cannot work. It is a great idea in theory. I would love to be a philosopher sitting in the marketplace discussing beauty or goodness with my penniless peers, knowing that I had nothing to worry about because Uncle Pericles would find me a meal and a place to sleep. That is a democracy. People vote themselves an income they did not earn while the slaves in the mines produce the revenue, but it is okay because nobody has to watch the slaves being worked to death. Athenian democracy lasted only a couple of generations. It began when a brace of gay lovers assassinated the reigning tyrant because he put out the rumor that one guy’s sister wasn’t a virgin after the guy with the sister turned him down. It ended in what we might call oligarchy when the people who had come to subsist on gainful unemployment voted for anybody who kept the dole coming. Wars of pride and greed broke out and the Athenians, who had saved the world from “Asian tyranny” when they thwarted a Persian invasion became tyrants themselves. After a debate, the Athenians exterminated the adult males of a city named Melos – fellow Greeks, incidentally -- and sold the women and children into slavery because the citizens had disagreed with them. Alexander the Great wiped out a whole city in Asia because somebody hit him with a rock while he was showing off leading his troops into the breech. The Romans did likewise to Carthage and to any number of Gallic or Germanic tribes that showed too much fight. Then they did it to Jerusalem. Having failed to regulate the banking industry, I think the government has a responsibility to prevent foreclosure on houses that were purchased as residences and not as investments. I do not think the government has the responsibility to promulgate non-productive jobs so people can go on working at the expense of the rest of the taxpayers. The government works against its own best interests and the best interests of the American people when it tries to devise ways to keep people working instead of letting them live in their own houses and go on eating until real jobs emerge from the economic shakedown now in progress. Here is an example of governmental double-think. On the one hand, the taxpayers are asked to fund education for people who are not academically qualified or academically interested so we can turn out the largest and dumbest inventory of college graduates on Earth, people who get degrees without being able to write a coherent paragraph, communicate in a foreign language, or master basic skills such as their own nutrition. Then we wonder why they cannot find jobs commensurate with their education. On the other hand, the taxpayers are asked to fund bailouts for the automotive industry so people who admirably passed up the farce of “college for everybody” can make better wages than four out of five college graduates building cars no one wants to buy. We bailed out Chrysler once. Look what happened. GM and Ford are not being ravaged by the former Axis, they are being ravaged by their systematic refusal to build small durable cars that do not burn a lot of gas and are easy to service. The government in its wisdom adds to the confusion by adding so many safety standards that the vehicle is supposed to be able to survive anything short of a nuclear attack. Nothing in the world is going to be able to protect speeders from their own idiocy. Twice in the same day I had motorists drive up behind me and honk when I was driving at the speed limit on twisting county roads with double-yellow lines. One of them passed me illegally and the other one made a crude gesture as I was making a left turn. Jabbering on cell phones is also cute. How about an IQ test for drivers? We would have the global warming problem solved in no time if we could keep the dumb people off the road. I’m sure the accident rate would also decrease. The government seems to spend a lot of its time serving special interests. Check out the attention when they cracked down on a bunch of polygamists out West. Unless the wives were serious minors, why was this the government’s business when teenagers are selling themselves in every major city in the United States and nobody does anything? Why should the government interfere to promote or restrict gay marriage? Whose business is marriage? I think the government has the right and the responsibility to prevent forcible rape, sexual or violent child abuse, and incest, which demonstrably produces defective offspring who are likely to become a public charge. That is where it ends. Wasn’t inflicting monogamy on the Mormons and the Indians and banning interracial marriages in the South actually an assault on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? The government violated the Constitution because “the people” wanted it that way – just like the jury wanted Socrates dead in that first democracy. Democracy in action means that when a lot of people scream they can inflict bad laws on their neighbors. That is not what the founders of the Republic had in mind. Who protects your constitutional rights when you can’t be bothered to protect them yourself? No one does. A certain segment of the media caters to the prejudices of the ignorant by assuming pedophiles and homicidal maniacs are the prime beneficiaries of the Bill of Rights. That is rather meretricious, but it finds a willing audience among people who write unsigned comments under Internet news stories fantasizing about what they would like to do to child molesters, rapists, serial killers, Muslims, black folks, liberals, or conservatives. Based on these comments, there are a lot of sick people out there and I wouldn’t want them to have a hand in rewriting the Constitution. The first thing they would cut out would be the prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” Then they would bring back legalized lynching and gladiators. I think we are better off with as little democracy as possible in the United States which is a republic and not a democracy. Here is the difference: In a democracy, the people make the laws. That is a great idea if you are a demagogue and would-be dictator who wants to seize power. You get enough of the dummies worked up through racial or religious prejudice (Nazi style) or through intense economic envy (Bolshevik style), they topple a government that probably is not especially good and has serious problems, and you get them to replace it with one that is far worse – with you at the helm. Tsarist Russia killed a few hundred people for political reasons. Catholics and Jews were denied certain rights, and political prisoners were sometimes sent to Siberia as unwilling colonists, but not as murder victims. Stalinist Russia replaced all this and killed about 23 million of its own citizens. In 1938 alone, right outside Moscow, 20,000 Russians, mostly Christians and some Jews and Buddhists, were executed for their religious beliefs. Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany got through 47 years without a single political assassination – Kaiser Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck both got shot, but they both lived, and Ludwig II of Bavaria, “the mad king,” may have been murdered, but his death in a boating accident had overtones of suicide. In Bismarck’s Germany, Jews had full civil rights, and protestors against authoritarianism of any persuasion or none were blandly told they would be happier in the United States. The police did not kill them; they took them to the boat. The subsequent Weimar Republic had about 400 political murders from 1919 to 1933, with communists killing nationalists followed by nationalists killing communists. Hitler got in to restore order. He killed about 10 million people. Note that Hitler was not an example of “the right.” His entourage of thugs called themselves the National Socialist German Workers Party. “Socialist” and “worker” are identity keys of the left. The Nazi propagandists generally used the term Bolshevik to describe their communist adversaries, and the Soviets generally referred to Nazi forces as “Hitlerite.” Hitler and Stalin were both evil charlatans, but they were sometimes friends as well as enemies, their support base was among people who took some form of socialism for granted, and their goal was a socialist world devoid of Christianity. Both were brought to power by “democratic” revolutions Usurpations versus the US Constitution Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: Franklin Lakes faces another council election with a choice of candidates. Two candidates, Bill Smith and Frank Bivona, deserve the support of all conscientious voters who want to ensure that our town government is run by experienced professionals who can evaluate problems objectively and without regard for any factor other than what is the best interest of the Franklin Lakes community. Bill Smith and Frank Bivona are long-time residents of Franklin Lakes, each with a long history of participation in public affairs concerning our community. As a trustee of the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District Board of Education writing here only for myself and not for the board, I can personally attest to the importance of having knowledgeable and independent voices of reason on our governing bodies. Mr. Smith and Mr. Bivona will bring these qualities to the Franklin Lakes Council. They deserve our support. Ira Belsky Franklin Lakes We would like to remind you to come out and vote in the June 2 primary. We are thankful for the freedoms we enjoy, including the ability to cast our vote. We are thankful to those who are serving and those who have served us in the military. Please remember to thank a veteran. At this time, we also want to thank you as a borough for supporting us as we serve as your councilmen. By working with department heads, such as the police chief and the department of public works supervisor, we have met the Vote for Smith and Bivona needs of our service providers while keeping the budget down for the best interest of the borough. Recently, the mayor and council asked the borough auditor to give us a report on the financial status. This was reported in the Villadom TIMES in April. The auditor was quoted as saying we are the only municipality in the state that he knows of that is in such a great financial situation. You only have to look at nearby towns to see what is happening and to compare. We are committed to maintaining this financial diligence as we navigate through these times together. We again would like to thank you for supporting us in the past and hope that you will continue to support us as we work together in keeping Midland Park the desirable community it is. Sometimes change is not needed; this is one of those times. Change for the sake of change is not a good strategy. May God Bless America. May God Bless Midland Park. Bernie Holst Scott Pruiksma Midland Park Dear Editor: On June 2, I’m going to turn into a Republican. Right now, I’m an unaffiliated voter, but from time to time, to make sure the right people in Franklin Lakes are on the council, I vote in the Republican primary, because that’s where the action is, rather than in the November election. I know I can easily turn back into an unaffiliated person by filing a simple card with the superintendent of elections, available at borough hall. (continued on page 27) Change is not always needed Republican for a day