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To: Enigma who wrote (9940)	4/14/1998 10:21:00 AM
From: Alan Whirlwind	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116759

Indeed, must I suffer a lecture on hypocrisy from an enigma?!! A bill came before the House of Representatives to provide the widow of a noted naval officer a modest pension to save her from destitution in her last years. This particular social gesture was well received and its passage considered all but a formality when a well-recognized member of congress rose to address the legislation. Everyone assumed he would merely give a few words of blessing and take a little credit for the work of charity. "Gentlemen," he said, "I have in my district a widow of a veteran who fell in the field of battle. She's made a meager living these many years by the industry of her hands. If I were to set forth a bill here to expropriate public monies to fill this woman's needs, I would hardly draw a hand full of votes in support for my constituent. As for the current bill before the House, compared to the great majority here, I am modest of means, still, I propose instead to offer this widow a week's worth of my salary. If every member here does the same, the widow will have more than the pension in question provides. Davy Crockett sat down. A hush fell over the meeting. The bill was overwhelmingly rejected. None of those who had favored the bill offered the widow a week of their salary. Crockett was later pressed for an explanation for his stand on the issue. His reply was a story. The year before from the steps of the capitol, he and some other congressmen spied a fire in Georgetown. They hurried down to fight the blaze, which left many homeless. A bill came before congress to issue $20,000 in public relief. Crockett was among the supporters. It passed. Reelection time came. Campaigning in his district, Crockett happened upon a man plowing in a field. Davy asked to talk with him, but the man replied that Crockett was the last man he would ever vote for. "Why?" Crockett asked, mortified. "Because you don't follow the same constitution I do," was the reply. The man explained that congress had no right to tax other citizens for the $20,000, that he and his fellow congressmen had robbed Peter to pay Paul, and that all of them were free under the constitution to give their considerable fortunes to any charity they pleased, but not the fruits of someone else's toil. Crockett was reelected, but the man's words stuck. Crockett later said of those who criticized him for voting down the widows pension: "Not one of them were willing to give up a week's worth of salary (which some might spend on a single meal) for the poor widow's cause which they passionately fowarded before this assembly. Money to them is nothing but garbage when it is the people at large who are to come up with it. It is, however, the one great idol for which most of them are striving, and for many of them, honor, integrity, and justice are not too much to sacrifice to acquire it." Crockett was right. No Federal charity! It should all be done by private means or at worst by state and local units of government where it can be closely monitored and controlled by voters and not on a Federal level where politicians use people's needs, or in some cases laziness, for building political power--shameless scoundrels! --AG