In a recent letter to the editor, David Spackman spoke disdainfully of people in a town hall meeting who supported programs like Social Security and Medicaid. Looking around the room, he saw childlike adults cheering for laziness and selfish dependence on the government.
If I had been there, I would have told him what he was really seeing: taxpayers. In fact, he was looking at a roomful of government.
Spackman and others like him speak of the government as if it were an alien entity, funded and managed on Mars. Instead, the government is us. We pay for it, and through our representatives we decide on a budget — maybe even one that funds fighting back against our dysfunctional health care system and helping the elderly and disabled. The government helping people with so-called “entitlements” is us, a whole bunch of people helping other people. And helping people with our tax money does not turn us or them into children.
People’s lives are complex and often filled with difficulties many of us never have to face. Dismissing anyone who needs help as lazy and lacking in character is simplistic, not to mention mean-spirited. I’m guessing Spackman has gotten some help in his life, unless he’s been far luckier than most. Maybe it was his family or his church instead of a huge group of Americans, but he probably needed help.
Of course, David Spackman is welcome to disagree about how our taxes are spent. But he should have a little more respect for his fellow taxpayers.
Kate Coombs
Bountiful