Lesson 1 Assignment 2
Student Responses:
“Quote: We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt.
-welfare
-Cap and trade
-bailing out companies and banks
-No child left behind
-funding other countries (bribes for military restraint) or chairty projects
-farm subsidies
-stimulus package”—Melva Gifford
January 6, 2011
“Horatio Bunce is a forgotten character that all citizens should know. There is little, beyond this account, to find about this simple man. Many of us will pass this Earth the same way; living a good and educated life with little fanfare and historical remembrance. Yet, what influence is there to be found from those who ‘walk lightly upon the Earth’ while holding those in power accountable to their responsibility.
Horatio Bunce forever altered Davey Crockett’s understanding of the Constitution he had sworn to uphold. Yesterday (Jan. 5, 2011) many took an oath to uphold that same guiding contract yet have no understanding of it due to the adulterations of modern U.S. history. It is our responsibility to be today’s Horatio Bunce. To study, discuss, debate, and then demand the oath be upheld based on our understanding. To study the truth of the Constitution is to understand the simple nature of general government. It is not all powerful and those representing us are not our leaders…we are responsible to be theirs. We need a national Bunce Society of active citizenry rather than the D.C. Dunce Society we call the Federal Government if we are to restore the Blessings of Liberty for our Posterity.”
—Gary Wood
Thank you Mr. Wood. I like the idea of a national Bunce Society. Someone could really run with that. This story illustrates the principle of the limits of delegated authority once again. If I were to collect funds for a destitute family by showing up on your doorstep with a gun and demanding that you contribute I would be arrested and jailed for armed robbery. When our elected officials collect taxes for any activity not within the proper role of government they violate the same moral law with a misuse of force–even if the activity is a worthy one.
—Arlene Anderson
It is unfortunate that many politicians today, when approached by a modern Horatio Bunce, have the opposite attitude of Colonel Crockett. Which only means that we have to raise our voices even more loudly. It is to bad that the dialogue today is cut short to push an agenda. Like Horatio Bunce we all have the responsibility to effectively articulate the principles of freedom so that our representatives have no excuse for voting away our freedom.
—Blake Tuddenham