To the Editor:

Last Friday’s Plainsman contained two articles chronicling a number of “Successes.” The piece on Page 6 touted all the wonders of what the USDA has done. On Page 11 we read of all the benefits for the state’s residents from the “Future Fund.” The commonality of both articles is how taxpayer dollars are, in effect, being used to buy votes.

While certainly not a new phenomenon, the practice seems to be growing exponentially nationwide. So long as it is successful, it will continue.  And it will remain successful only so long as we the people continue to fall for it.

These practices are anathema to the values of integrity and self reliance I learned growing up in South Dakota. I submit that if we are to keep the republic Ben Franklin spoke of following that long, hot, Philadelphia summer of 1787, we must reject the selling of our birthright as citizens for the inevitable bondage lying beyond the “free” porridge of government largesse.

Consider the example of our 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, who made his summer White House the Black Hills. We would do well to emulate his policies of fostering morality, frugality, and the virtue of work as well by not extending government into areas beyond defined constitutional limits.

Don Neuharth
Camdenton, Mo.  
Beadle County native