ACTION

                                                                       MYOB

     It is the wee hours in this small hick town nestled in the heart of Appalachia. The streets are empty, save for the occasional police car making its rounds and a semi trundling by every hour or so. As I sit hear in the quiet of my lonely apartment I found myself thinking of the mess this country is in with all of the incursions on our freedoms of late. I was trying to think of some way the common people could assert their independence in a sane legal manner when I thought of a story written way back in 1951 by a Science Fiction writer named Eric Frank Russell entitled … And Then There Were None. I think I might have given it the title The Gands though nobody asked my opinion then or since.

     This Hall of Fame story concerns the difficulty the people of Earth have in contacting the ‘leaders’ of a planet the had been settled by humans three hundred years before, but out of contact with that species known far and wide as Earthers since that time.
     You see the home planet had come to bring these poor benighted souls all of the advantages of modern Earth society. They were from the government and just wanted to help. Those bureaucrats had only one problem with their efforts in contacting those so called leaders. Whomever they approached to ask to be taken to those leaders received the cryptic response “MYOB” and the locals just went on with whatever they were doing. It didn’t matter who they sent as their envoys – Peacockishly attired military or somewhat less splendiferous ships crew or even nattily attired minor diplomats- each and every one was met with MYOB.

     Finally an exasperated Ambassador sent one of the ships crew, a fellow with a bicycle of all things, as his emissary. This fellow was a bit more curious and friendly sort who wanted to get to know these strange off spring of mother Earth, so he began by just attempting to engage them in conversation. After a lot of confusion caused by some evolutionary language difficulties, he did have some interesting talks. He learned that these people weren’t the least bit intimidated by the huge ship that had plowed a mile long trench upon landing outside their town. You see they had developed what they called the perfect weapon to ward off intrusive outsiders. It had developed out of their love of freedom, but it was an extremely effective weapon none-the-less.
      When the ship’s engineering crewman asked about it he was given a little plaque upon which was inscribed F - I.W. and told that it contained the entire secret of this magnificent weapon. He was even informed that the weapon had been discovered on Earth many centuries before the great diaspora. By a humble man named Gandhi. He also learned that the MYOB they kept hearing was an acronym for Mind Your Own Business. The placard’s meaning? Freedom – I Won’t. You see Gandhi was a man from the then country of India who believed in peaceful civil disobedience. His disobedience took the form of him simply saying “I Won’t” to those intrusive bureaucrats that thought they had the right to infringe on his liberties.
The government says register your guns? I Won’t. The government says you must use their insurance? I won’t. The government says you must permit them to spy on you “for you own good”? I won’t.
     The name they gave their planet? Gand and the people were the Gands.

Could this be the way?

I lived in Nevada when Harry Reid was first elected to the Governorship of that state.  He was not a bad guy then.  He has changed.  He has become infected with the disease of Power.  Not the power to do good or even the power to do evil, but the power to wield Power.  This one aspect of his life has turned a decent guy into an evil man.  We see this every day with our long term politicians.  Take a look at John McCain:  Graduate of The U.S Naval Academy, Captain in the U.S. Navy, Suffered as a POW, formerly a staunch conservative.  He has served in the US Senate since 1987.  He now suffers from that same disease.  You can see it in his every public comment these days.  I could go on with a litany of both Democrats and Republicans that have ‘served’ in both the house and senate for more than one or two terms and demonstrate the movement toward and the succumbing to the disease of Power.  These people are no longer in office to ‘serve’ but to command.  

BOH said after he was elected the first time (he came to office already infected) that the people should leave governing and governing decisions to the professionals.  They should not concern themselves with the process nor the results.  Yeah, he really did!

The Federalist Papers allude to the “citizen politician”; one who would serve his term and go back home to make an honest living.  How would you like to get a job that assured you of an income for life equal to the highest pay you attained while in that job and that income be guaranteed the moment you were on the payroll?  Or how about a position that placed you above the law?  You could actually exempt yourself from having to obey any law you imposed on the rest of society.  How about having the rest of the population pay to protect you from them no matter how unpopular or tyrannical your actions became.

I have an idea.  It is not a new idea and it certainly isn’t original with me, but it may be an idea whose time has come.

TERM LIMITS!  Stringent term limits.  One term for a senator, three for the house members and two for the president, although that last one may be a bit excessive in some cases.

The other suggestion I have is the voter ID.  We all know of the voter fraud and copious numbers of dead people that voted in the last election.  Again I must refer to Harry Reid.  In each of his elections he has trailed in the polls by significant numbers on Election Day yet he keeps getting elected? (He quit the governor’s office to become senator the first time.)  I wonder if every voter had to prove who they were how he would fare.  Am I accusing his committee of voter fraud?  Nope.  I have no proof.  No Smoking gun.  Just asking a question.

The term limitations would require a popular movement to amend the Constitution.  Somehow I don’t think we could get the elected ones to begin that process.