www.WrensJournal.blogspot.com

I just posted this comment on an interesting discussion about an article in the Denver Post about Adam Smith and what he really meant, for the complete article and discussion click here: http://www.denverpost.com/allewis/ci_13930270

My rights end where your nose starts. Government's role is to protect us each from force, fraud, and harm individual actions do to a 3rd party. Big business, especially, needs oversight by government. But I go back to my original question: What do we do when big government has become just as much a problem as big business? Eisenhower warned us about the industrial/governmental alliance.

Our system of government demands informed and active citizens who think of the common good. Adam Smith never said there is an invisible hand in politics. The problem today, it seems to me, is with the grassroots. Too many people just wait for someone else to do the job, myself included. It's like the Pogo cartoon, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

First, we need to each be "all that we can be." Self-government demands ongoing self-directed learning. It would be a big improvement over what we have now if each citizen just read their local newspaper every day. It is vital that we each be in what 12-step programs call a "fit spiritual condition" in whatever way we each find helpful. There is to be no state religion, but all the political organizing in the world won't help us if we don't really trust in God, and not just give that foundation for personal freedom lip service such as printing it on our money.

Second, we need to be part of the solution through political action. Thomas Jefferson said we'd need a revolution every 20 years or so, and the founding fathers provided for a bloodless battle in the way we choose our candidates for elected public office at every election. The full flowering of that system is our Colorado Caucus. Affiliate with the party of your choice by January 19, and you can be part of the solution starting next spring. It's no accident, in my opinion, that Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was published in 1776.

To find out more about how you can get involved with the political party of your choice (to me it's like playing touch football, it doesn't matter if you are a red or a blue), attend Denver Speakers Corner this Sunday or any Sunday at 4 pm in Denver Civic Center Park, where someone almost always uses their turn on the soap box to talk about our wonderful neighborhood Colorado Caucus and answers questions about how to get involved. http://meetup.com/Denver-Speakers-Corner