Eugene L. Conrotto: If government can’t provide for common good, alter the government
Man is a land animal.
The land is his birthright. It provides the food that sustains him; the fiber that clothes him; the energy that sets him apart from his non-human co-inhabitants of the land.
The first duty of government is to protect the land.
If denied his rightful share of the land’s bounty, man is still-born. Lacking meaningful work, job advancement, job security, a living wage, universal health care, free public education and old-age security; he is as much a slave as any in the past who bore that title.
He is made a slave by the nature in all men to control, to gain a greater share of the earth’s wealth. Why else do oligarchs pour millions of dollars into the political process?
The second duty of government is to curb these destructive basal instincts in men, making it possible to promote the general welfare, thus securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. To secure these blessings it may be that we will have to fight a second revolution.
Eugene L. Conrotto, Modesto
This story was originally published January 9, 2015 at 10:31 AM with the headline "Eugene L. Conrotto: If government can’t provide for common good, alter the government."