Tell Them:  Find Another Way!

Right now, our elected representatives in Olympia are facing a huge problem:  The lingering recession has reduced money once generated from sales taxes and property taxes in Washington by nearly $900 million.  To balance the budget, programs administered by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) that provide critical services for people with disabilities, the elderly and struggling families may be cut dramatically. 

The Arc of Spokane opposes any cuts to programs that provide critical services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  To balance the state budget, we support the creation of “new revenue.”  This can be accomplished by eliminating waste and fraud, by closing frivolous tax exemptions, and by implementing temporary, low-impact tax increases as necessary.   
    
There is fierce debate in our country today about how government should govern.  The issue affects people's taxes, and it affects some people's well being.  Many believe that government spends too much money.  Others argue that services like those offered by DSHS are too important to eliminate.  Both perspectives are legitimate—a government that can’t pay its bills is in danger of collapse.  On the other hand, a government that fails to provide basic services for its citizens isn’t really governing, is it? 

What role government should play in the lives of its citizens has been a topic of debate since ancient times.  Over 2,000 years ago Plato and Aristotle worked out that the worst form of government is no government at all.  We call this anarchy.  The next worst form is too much government.  We call this tyranny.  When America’s founding fathers established a new republic on the far side of the known world, they were hoping for something between the two extremes—a system that provided order and protection while giving people the freedom they needed to pursue their dreams.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

What a noble idea:  A government that isn’t just a system of social order but a means for free people to pursue their ambitions without fear and without hindrance.  It is this noble idea that has made American democracy truly great among the long train of anarchies and tyrannies that have marched across history. 

It has only one flaw.  The truth is that not all people are endowed with the ability to pursue their dreams equally.  Some need help.  Not a handout.  Not a free ride.  Just some help to chase a dream—a job, an enterprise, a home of their own, a meaningful place in society.  Some, without that help, would immediately be subject to exploitation, injury and death.  If history teaches us anything, it is that those who are vulnerable always—always—suffer most when the pendulum of government swings too far one way or the other.  Noble democracies like ours do not allow such things to happen.  Thomas Jefferson himself captured it best when he wrote, "the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

Balancing the budget is important.  But mere fiscal policy should never be allowed to override the most revered principles upon which this nation was founded.  We should not—we must not—attempt to solve our differences over spending on the fragile backs of our most vulnerable citizens. 

In a democracy, the people govern.  Yours is the voice that needs to be heard.  Tell your state representative: 

Find another way.  Cutting DSHS services to people with disabilities, the elderly and struggling working families is unacceptable.  Find new revenue.

The Arc of Spokane
Advocacy & Family Support
November 30, 2011