Harbison: Ignoring the Past

Jim Harbison

As we begin another new year we should examine how historically prominent people viewed society - thoughts to ponder as we enter another election cycle to decide who will govern us and set the path for our future.
In 55 B.C. Cicero said "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury must be replenished, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of public officials should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to other countries must be removed so Rome does not go bankrupt. People must learn to work again, instead of living off the state." Thomas Jefferson wrote “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not” and “it is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes”. Both comments are certainly appropriate today.

Marcus Cicero

Franklin Pierce our 14th President said "[I must question] the constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those ... who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded." Read rest of the column here: News New Mexico

Harbison: Ignoring the Past