Monday, December 5, 2011

Fundraising...Liberal Style

     Last week our 7 year old came home from school with a letter and a little plastic piggy bank telling us, the parents, she would need to fill the bank up with change and return it no later than December 16th. School fundraising is nothing new, heck it seems like not a week goes by we don't hear about some need for books, field trips, sports equipment etc. This one was different. On the side of the plastic piggy bank, which was in the shape of a building, was the name, in bright red lettering, of our town's library! Yes, the money collected is to go towards the Library Renovation and Expansion Project. Now before you sigh and say it's no big deal I want to point out a few things.
For starters, less than a year ago our town held a special meeting at which extra funds for the library were appropiated to replace an aging oil tank or furnace. I do not recall any discussion about the renovations or requests for funding which I am sure would have been appropiated within reason. Secondly, the letter explained to us an anonymous donor had given the library 2 million dollars towards the project. With that kind of funding, why would there be any need for a couple hundred elementary school kids to collect a few dollars each? Certainly just a few months of interest on those funds would generate many times the amount collected. This is when my conservative mind quickly figured out the real culprit here.
     It seems the liberals among us believe projects like this should involve the whole community. They felt the kids would feel like they were part of the project if they helped raise money for it, no matter the amount. This point was made in the letter we received. Yes,the same thinking which gives us the occupy mess is hard at work creating communal thinking children in our schools. This is the same type of thinking put forth in the original Communist Manifesto! Don't believe me? Read the following which is taken right out of it!

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5.Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State
capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a
common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour
in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.

     In other words, everything is owned by everybody as long as you participate in the community. So what about the kids who, for whatever reason, cannot fill their little banks? Are they supposed to now feel guilty about using the library? Are they supposed to feel like they are less a part of the community for failing to contribute? Of course there was no mention of the taxes already paid by the parents which actually do fund the library. In typical liberal fashion there was no thought of the parent's views on the issue either. Who were they to decide for me this was a more worthy cause than replacing laid off police officers or aging fire stations? Who were they to think I for one would go along with one town department collecting money from my child who is sitting in a classroom in another town department also fully funded by my taxes? Yes, this is a small matter on the surface but I would argue it is a very big issue in our society when thinking like this becomes the working normal.