Will Manly, a reporter for the Hays Daily News and The Stir has a little gem circulating the States via email titled Dear Barack: You’re wrong about small towns. I have reprinted it at the bottom of this article, but first my response.

Will Manly is wrong about small towns.

Mr. Manly may believe he is from a small town, but Hays Kansas prefers to think it’s a city. From their web site: “Hays Kansas is the largest city in Northwest Kansas at the crossroads of Interstate 70 and US Highway 183. This city, which has approximately 20,000 residents, was incorporated in 1885. Hays is a growing city with excellent opportunities.” (emphasis mine)

I live in a town of less than five thousand. I grew up in a town that boasted 1,100 residents. In retrospect I believe that to be a cumulative total. The point is, I know about small towns. Small towns are made of people, real living people, not the caricatures Manly and Obama have painted.

“We don’t vote for Democrats because we’re self-reliant so we don’t like the government trying to “solve” everything for us.” So I guess Plainville didn’t appreciate the government’s help when the Schult Homes announced it was closing earlier this year. Plainville is a small town of roughly 2000 residents 25 miles north of Hays on US183. The one hunderd laid off workers there are scheduled to receive a workers assistance package that includes classes on resume and skill building, tuition reimbursement and help in relocating.

Recently received this email:

Bar Room Economics
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it
would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every
day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the
owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he
said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.” Drinks
for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the
first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But
what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they
divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted
that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would
each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested
that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same
amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

There was never a justification for invading Iraq. No wmd’s, Saddam Hussein had no part in 911, Al Queda was not using Iraq as a staging ground for attacks against the US or our allies. George Bush decided to go to war and that was that.

After five years and hundreds of thousands dead the war still goes on. It needs to stop. Now.

They held the coronation
Up in Washington
Gallant balls and celebration
If you’re connected, son
I tried to tell myself
It’s only four more years
But it’s the changes in between
That are feeding my fears

King George’s War
Watch your rights just slippin’ away
King George’s War? ?
On the streets of Baghdad
Or right here in the USA

Another mother’s son
Supports the country he loves
Random fire cuts him down
When will it finally be enough
A mother’s cry in any toungue
Still sounds the same
Her child dies in any land
She feels the same pain

King George’s War
Watch your hopes just slippin’ away
King George’s War
On the streets of Baghdad
Or right here in the USA

lyin’ in my bed
Trying to get some sleep
But the problems in my head
Well they just won’t keep
I tried to tell myself
It’s only four years more
If it all don’t go to hell
Fightin’ King George’s War

King George’s War
Watch your dreams just slippin’ away
King George’s War
On the streets of Baghdad
Or right here in the USA

It depends upon how you define freedom. If you believe freedom to be the ability to do anything at all then government by it’s very definition must limit freedom. To govern, which is the essential function of a government, restrictions must be imposed upon the choices and will of the people. How and when these limits are placed help determine the type of government. In oppressive forms of government value is placed upon the state at the expense of the individual.

As Thomas Paine wrote, “That government is best which governs least.” Which Thoreau expanded upon in ‘Civil Disobedience’ – “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe–’that government is best which governs not at all’; and when men are prepared for it, that is the kind of government which they will have.”.