Tim Hampton's Blog / Comments

Just read an article written by a former co-worker of my wife’s, and fellow libertarian Tim Brownlee.  You can read it here: The Prime Directive.  He makes a very good point about the responsibility of the government in the affairs of Israel, as well as the church’s responsibility.

While I think the use of the “prime directive” term from Star Trek might make some people dismiss the overall premise of his argument, it actually sums it up quite well.  To go even further, I would say “do to others what you would want them to do to you” (a paraphrase of the Golden Rule).  Our country would really be a lot better off if our elected officials bore that well in mind when deliberating on the next big increase in government or opting to go to war against an object or ideal (e.g. War on Drugs, Global War on Terrorism, etc.).

We need elected officials at all levels of government who practice a brand of patriotism and responsibility that seems to be lost on this generation of bureaucrats:  Do what’s right, regardless of the personal political cost, to improve the lives of those you’re responsible for by ensuring that they have a fair shot to succeed or fail on their own merits.  In other words give people the chance to succeed as well as the chance to fail and let them make their own choices and mistakes so long as they don’t infringe on another person’s inalienable (i.e. existing with or without a government) rights.