Beware of Moderate Wolves in Constitutional Clothing.

“I do not think we are more inspired, have more wisdom, or possess more virtue than those who will come after us.”  George Washington

This may have been the only time Washington was wrong.

Yesterday, at a Health Care Roundtable, sponsored by the Heartland Institute, Americans for Prosperity, and the Mackinaw Center, Greg Scandlen from Consumers for Health Care Choices spoke on the dangers of the proposed system of health care in America.  He did a stunning job of satisfying the average citizen’s inner quest to rebel against elected authority and its abuses of power.

How thrilling it was for me to hear him finally mention the constitution, though briefly, in the context of policy maker’s inadequacies.  What a joy to think that an influential someone understands that government has somehow loosed itself from its constitutional leash.

Without delay, I decided to expel a portion of my vast wisdom and good old country horse sense by taking the microphone and making the case that the cause of our currently failing health care system may be two fold.  The first being a judicial system that is no longer interested in the application of justice in civil cases.  The second being heathen politicians who are bent on exercising their own wisdom in matters forbidden them by the constitution.

My wisdom was soon disappointed when met with an aggressive disputation by Mr. Scandlen.  It seems that, even though he was quick to acknowledge that lawmakers have little regard for constitutional adherence in law, he was not able to connect current societal problems with that cause.  Five minutes of everyone’s time was taken so as to allow him the privilege of coercing us to believe that the sole problem with health care is the third payer program we now use.

Though the case could be made that the third payer system of health care finance is a great contributor to the overall problem we have in the industry, there is a greater thief which is feeding the suspect.  It is indisputable that the love of money is the root of all evil and it is a difficult maneuver to entrap the middle class for profit when the middle class has rights and liberties.  From what source does the middle class obtain those privileges?  Ultimately from God, but protected by the constitutional limitations placed on government.  If a person, corporation, organization, government or industry is able to surpass the constitution, it can proceed in the usurpation of personal rights and liberties, and thereby proceed to wallow around in you wallet.

Having left the roundtable event, while driving to my next meeting, I turned the radio on intending to find some random airborne string of intelligence.  To my dismay, the very first audio projection from my speakers was Rush Limbaugh saying that there is nothing in the constitution that guarantees the right of the American people to own gold!

Poppycock!  Surely a man with as much intelligence as Limbaugh has read and understands the constitution, right?  That is apparently not the case.  One does not have to read very far in the 10^th amendment to find that the constitution grants all power to the states or to the people that are not specifically given to the Federal Government.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

Given that the constitution does not allow for the Federal Government to prohibit you from owning gold, you have the right to own gold.  That is an undisputable fact granted by God and upheld by the constitution.

The two men noted above are unquestionably intelligent men.  Why, then, can they not understand the root problems?  Those interested in curing the health care crisis are treating symptoms, and those claiming to be instrumental in the restoration of conservatism are undermining truth.

Knowledge and wisdom are as time and activity.  A person may have time, but unless the person is active the time is wasted.  A person may possess knowledge, but without its proper application, knowledge is wasted.

This and all other illustrations attempting to define wisdom are unfortunately woefully inadequate, for wisdom is so much more than the proper application of knowledge.  Unlike the time/activity illustration, the improper use of knowledge (foolishness) is not only a wasted knowledge, but becomes counterproductive and destructive, which is evidenced in Lansing and Washington almost daily.

Solomon, the icon of wisdom writes, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Conventional, so called, wisdom today instructs men to come up with the means by which societal problems may be corrected through increased legislation.  Authentic wisdom however, demands that we consider the fact that the problems requiring our attention are new problems consisting of ingredients recently developed or created by our own acts.  Remove the ingredients nurturing the problem, and the problem will soon starve and we can give it a proper funeral.

Are we wiser than our fathers as predicted by Washington?  You be the judge.  It seems to me that wisdom would lead us back to adherence to the supreme law of the land.  It worked once.  Let’s try it again.