Hypocrisy

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “Hypocrisy” as a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion. While listening to everything that has happened over that last several months it came to my attention that this country is full of hypocrisy, especially in our Governments, Federal and local.

It really hit me when the President made his speech to justify getting the American Military involved in the uprising in Libya. The President at one point said that we Americans are a noble people, we’re a what? Noble is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as possessing outstanding qualities. In my job I get to travel to all corners of the lower 48 States and nobility is not something I get to see a lot of. Nobility is severely lacking in our inner cities where many Law Enforcement Officers won’t go without backup, even for routine patrols. Nobility was not a factor in the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford; nobility was not displayed in the union protests in Madison, WI nor in the death threats to the WI State legislatures that followed. There is a severe lack of nobility when the main stream media demonizing the peaceful protests of the Tea Party and then turns around and supports the violence surrounding the WI Teachers Union protests. Where are the noble people you speak of Mr. President?

I finally decided to write this piece when I was listening to the quibbling going on over the Federal Budget. One of the programs that was on the Republicans list for cutting was Planned Parenthood, a sacred cow for the Democrats. During the debates a left leaning talk show host attacked the Republicans for trying to cut the funding by saying they were trying to take the formula from premature babies; in other words the left wants to use the argument of feeding premature babies to keep open an organization that is pro-abortion; seems a bit hypocritical to me. If that is the way the left is looking at it then it seems to me that smoking cessation clinics should be handing out cartons of cigarettes and making reservations for iron lungs, oh yea, they will also give you info on ways to try and stop smoking.

The Federal tax code and the debates for increasing taxes brings to light a whole crop of hypocrisies. Our public schools need more funding to keep operating; notice I did not say to better educate our children, that’s a lost cause; but in the tax code the more children you have the more you can deduct off your taxes so that means less in the schools coffers. We need to increase the taxes on the rich but the rich are the only ones that can afford the tax attorneys that can find all the loopholes written in the tax code that allows them to claim less of their income as taxable. Medicare and Medicaid are funded from taxes but we can write off health care costs. Federal housing is subsidized with tax dollars so we allow home owners to write off mortgage interest. Does any of this make sense? If we got rid of the entire tax code and lowered the tax brackets for everyone there would probably be more money collected while still leaving more money in the tax payers’ pocket. It probably wouldn’t hurt if all the other taxes that were collected, such as fuel taxes, were actually used for the reason it was collected, not on some Congresspersons pet project.

Unfortunately our Military has become one of the bigger examples of hypocrisy evident in the United States. We will protect the border between North and South Korea while our own Northern and Southern borders are as secure as an open gate. We will send our Military into the Middle East to support uprisings against Governments while ignoring the cries of our own people in this country. In Libya we are embracing those that are against the Government even when some have been proven to be the very people we were fighting in Afghanistan; in other words when in Africa you’re my friend, when in the Middle East you’re my enemy. Along those same lines we are trying to install Democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt while displaying the early stages of Socialism in America. While our Military is supporting humanitarian efforts to over throw brutal dictators all across the globe we have Judges, both Federal and local, supporting Shria Law in various cases; isn’t Shria Law itself considered brutal and inhumane? There is hope in this case; just recently an Arizona judge upheld a murder indictment for a Shria style killing. A father ran over his 20 year old daughter because she had become too westernized and was not following his traditional Muslim views. What message are we sending? You too can install Democracy and end up with a dictator that looks good when on camera.

Our treatment of the poor and attempts to reduce unemployment are also great examples of hypocrisy. The welfare program in this country is not designed to try and help people; it’s designed to enslave them forever by making them totally dependent on the Government. I am not personally aware of all the programs that fall under welfare but there must be a whole slew of them and there must be classes taught on how to get your slice of that pie. I would expect welfare to provide basic funds for survival and job training. Welfare should not encourage people to bring more mouths in to the family that would require feeding and it should not be something that you would expect to be handed down from generation to generation, but it seems to do both of those things. The more children a welfare mother brings into the world the more Government money she will find in her mailbox. There are stories of generations of families that have survived solely off of Government subsidies, welfare. There are welfare recipients wearing name brand clothing, driving new cars, talking on the latest and greatest cell phones, and drinking beer in front of their flat screen TVs.
Reducing the unemployment rate in America is another great example. The people that create jobs are typically the ones that have the money, the capital, to invest in starting businesses. In this country that is the very group that is being targeted for increased taxes thus reducing their available capital. When investors capital is reduced they have two options, one is to reduce their overhead by either not opening new business or by cutting back in existing business; and two, move their business somewhere that costs less to operate, typically overseas.

Before I started writing this today I was checking my e-mail when I came across an article that just hit me square between the eyes because it affects me personally and professionally. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is funneling money through the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to provide for emission retrofits of trucks owned by Mexican trucking companies. This affects me in a couple of ways. It affects me personally since it’s my tax dollars being used. It affects me professionally since I can not go to California because of the emission rules in CA relating to the refrigeration that is on my truck. There is no program in place that the owner I drive for can use to update this reefer so it takes potential revenue from both his pocket and mine. This is the same kind of hypocrisy that is shown when we watch sites like Detroit fall apart while we send money overseas to rebuild countries devastated by both natural and man made disasters, help everyone else but ourselves. Don’t get the wrong idea from that statement, I still believe that all programs should be at the State levels, including funding for the Federal Government, I’m just saying that if you are going to spend my money regardless of how I feel then spend it in America.

So just what kind of great and noble country are we when we are rife with hypocrisy, especially at the Government level, in the people we have elected to do our bidding and to look out for our interests?

Steve Avery
4/17/11