It is my right to be uncommon…if I can. I seek opportunity….not security.

I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficience nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, “This I have done.” All this is what it means to be an American.

- Dean Alfange

THE TAXPAYER’S POEM

I’m an ordinary taxpayer, the kind that bears the brunts, I’m assigned to fight three heavy weights, all three of them at once. Federal, state and local, each with the power to tax, Are ganging up to cut me down, as woodsmen with an ax.

A federal to the midriff, a local to the head, A state tax drives me up the ropes, my arms and legs are dead. I cannot block six fists at once, each blow is keenly felt, I’m doubled up, half paralyzed, from blows below the belt.

Murder the bum, the planners scream, the bureaucrats agree, I’ve a sickening feeling knowing that the bum they mean is me, My crime is that I like to work, and profit from my labors, They heard me say, don’t loot my pay, and fling it at my neighbors.

But in the early light of dawn, called truth will stun these sages, For they’ll find the bum who’s death they cheered, Was the bum that paid their wages.

- Author Unknown

• The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

• To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

• I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

• It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

• My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

• The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

- Thomas Jefferson