Letters to the Editor - Citizens and the role of government - Citizens and the role of government

    The letter by Chris Hiatt ("We have a spending problem") in the June Camden News reflects a common misunderstanding about government.  It is not something separate from us ordinary citizens, like a dictatorship.  It is us.  Rep. Joe Mullery is one of our neighbors. We elected him to represent us. We're the only ones he should represent.  Yes, we occasionally get self-serving politicians, but that kind is in every institution-corporations, labor unions, religions, nonprofits, you name it.  Human nature is what it is.

    It is OK and actually required that responsible citizens question how our government gets and spends our money.  But we have to understand that one purpose of government is to "promote the general welfare."  In that case, Hiatt's grocery bill example won't work.  A more accurate example would be that a lot of people in the community are going hungry and taxes have to be raised to ensure they have enough to eat.  On whom should those tax increases be levied? In Hiatt's example, yes, if his pay increased and he's doing well financially, he might be asked to kick in a bit of that increase.

    What is the alternative? To let his neighbors go hungry? To raise the taxes on people who barely earn enough to live on?

    We are all in this together and we all need each other. The only question Hiatt should ask Mullery is whether government is spending money wisely.  Sometimes it doesn't.  Sometimes it gets wasteful.  We citizens have a duty to watchdog that stuff and make sure our government feeds the hungry rather than, say, some wealthy stadium owner.

Marie Castle

Shingle Creek