From the New Harford Democratic Club:
New Harford Democratic Club
General Membership Meeting
January 7, 2015
Meeting was called to order by President Ann Helton at 7:06 m
President Helton led members in the pledge of allegiance
President Helton asked for approval of the minute of the December 3, 2014 meeting which had been distributed to members previous. Motion to approve by George Harrison, Seconded by Tishaun Weersuay. Approved unanimously by voice vote.
President Helton asked for a report from the Treasurer, George Harrison. Treasurer Harrison stated that the report was for the year ending Dec 31, 2014. Total income for the year was $3,936.22, of that $3,326.74 was from Dues, and $607/29 was from contributions to cover rental of the facilities. Expenses total $21,962.21, of which $20,074.90 was spent on campaign expenses for candidates supported by the club. The remainder of the expenditures was for expenses was for rental of the facility and costs of mailing notices. The current operating account bank balance is $11,441.28.
President Helton asked for approval of the report. Russ Kovach moved to approve, Jason Fournier seconded. The motion was approved unanimously.
Ann recognized new visitors, Jerry Hersl and his wife.
President Helton called on Democratic Central committee Chair Russ Kovach who noted the committee will be meeting on the 27th to plan for events throughout the year.
President Helton called on Tishaun for news of the Young Dems. He noted that the club meets on the third Wednesday of each month at the Fox and Fern coffee house in Rock Spring.
President Helton presented the slate of officers and board members for 2015 as approved by the board.
President Steve Johnson
Vice President Wendy Sawyer
Secretary Tom Myers
Treasurer George Harrison
Board members: Jason Fournier, Nicky Fournier, Art Helton and Rose Marie O’Brien.
Just wondering; how is this the “New” Democratic Club?
Al Sharpton is a leading democratic spokesperson. Why would anyone want to go to that party?
In early January 2014, Bob Lonsberry, a Rochester talk radio personality on WHAM 1180 AM, said this
in response to Obama’s “income inequality speech”:
To Americans:
The Democrats are right, there are two Americas.
The America that works, and the America that doesn’t. The America that
contributes, and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have
nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans,
obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don’t.
That’s the divide in America.
It’s not about income inequality,
it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a political party that
preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office.
It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its
country. That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone
said it.
The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks
ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income
inequality.” He noted that some people make more than other people, that
some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not
just.
That is the rationale of thievery. The other guy has it, you
want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat. That is the philosophy
that produced Detroit. It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying
America.
It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values
and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support
it, but a betrayal. The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they
have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of
victimhood and anger instead of ability and hope.
The president’s
premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful –
seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare
the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.
Because, by and
large, income variations in society is a result of different choices
leading to different consequences. Those who choose wisely and responsibly
have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly
and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure. Success and
failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family
income.
You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college –
and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a
diploma and pushes on with purposeful education. You have your children
out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a
marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life our
destination is determined by the course we take.
My doctor, for
example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality
between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives
also have had an inequality of effort. While my doctor went to college and
then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a
job in a restaurant.
He made a choice, I made a choice, and our
choices led us to different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than
mine.
Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away
his wealth? No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free
choices lead to different outcomes.
It is not inequality Barack
Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the
freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there is no true
option for failure.
The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less
when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you
more happiness than the other guy. Even if the other guy sat on his arse
and did nothing. Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine
and shortsighted decisions.
Barack Obama and the Democrats preach
equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of
effort.
The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap
– is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get.” Obama
would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as
enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of
society.
Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward
mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He seeks a
lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the
successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity.
He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based
on
using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other. America is
not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the
differences in our efforts. It is a false philosophy to say one man’s
success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s
victimization.
What Obama offered was not a solution, but a
separatism. He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans
against another for his own political benefit. That’s what socialists
offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow.
Two Americas,
coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a
house divided against itself cannot stand.
.
Normally when I see a comment this long my eyes just kind of glaze over as I scroll down to the next one. For whatever reason, I read this one, and I’m glad I did. Good post!