May 28, 2013
Tuesday PM

Ketchikan, and government in general, caving to special interest groups? Isn't as simple as bending to the will of the majority; government is clearly "the special interest group." ... is the obvious really that hard to understand? To look, to see that we have been asleep as an overweighted minority of power claims the apportionment of taxes as their own; thousands of specific descriptions of property sinking in the quicksand of [fill in the blank] self proclaimed predominant party; reasons this Republic was assembled in the way it was; now orchestrated ignorance proclaims The Constitution is a "living document" obsolete, needing change, to be discarded, for the social benefit of the children... Pathos trumps Logos.

James Madison, wrote of this in The Federalist Papers No. 10: November 22, 1787; fourth President of the United States, if you were wondering.

"Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction - and - by a Faction, understand, a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."

"As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the later will attach themselves - Yet the parties are and must be themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail."

"The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property, is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet, there is perhaps no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to the predominant party, to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they over-burden the inferior party, is a shilling saved to their own pockets."

Madison writes these seven pages in the Publius describing differences and dangers faced by our infant nation of both terms; Democracy and Republic, and how we might be rescued - "to guard against the cabals of the few and make it more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts, by which elections are too often carried..."

To cap these short excerpts with an interesting current event; "No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause; because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay, with greater reason, a body of men, are unfit to be both judges and parties, at the same time; yet, what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons, but the rights of large bodies of citizens; and what are the difficult classes of legislators, but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine?"

If any of this intrigues you, go to the library, buy a copy of The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Imagine thinking we can do better than the Constitution of the United States, the culmination of the insight of men who weren't distracted by TV, cell phones, of 24/7 propaganda? Try turning off the distraction for a couple evenings, go "cold turkey" and read a book... this one.

Salute those who went before, who served, men and women of character.

Ken Bylund
Ketchikan, Alaska

Representations of fact and opinions in letters are solely those of the author.
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