Published: June 24, 2009 10:28 pm      

HARBESON: Clarksville is being too charitable

If you’ve been thinking there’s no way I can resist writing about a recent event involving a government official and his adventures with receptacles in the street, you’re exactly right.

But if you think the official and containers I want to talk about are in Jeffersonville, you’re wrong. The event I’m talking about happened in Clarksville.

Yes, the town of Clarksville has given us a great example of how well government works — for government employees. A few weeks ago, the Clarksville Fire Department illegally collected funds for charity on government roads. They knew there was an ordinance banning such action in Clarksville, but Town Council President Greg Isgrigg granted them special permission, which means he disregarded the law as well.

When a resident complained, Mr. Isgrigg proudly said he’ll take the blame. I don’t know about you, but I found his honesty absolutely breathtaking and was very interested to see what might happen next.

Just what did it mean to “take the blame?” What consequences would he have to accept for knowingly breaking the law? Would he pay a fine? Would he resign? Would he have to do time in his neighbor’s trash can?

Well as far as I can tell, all it meant was that he really had to get moving so he and his government buddies could quickly legalize what he did. They passed an amendment to their ordinance banning roadblock collecting on government funded roads and gave special exceptions to firefighters for the Crusade for Children and police officers for Shop With A Cop.

This means if you decide that your group would like to do the same thing and collect funds for a charity that makes a difference in the life of someone you know, it’s illegal in Clarksville. But when the cops and firefighters do it, it’s legal.

You will get kicked off the street for breaking the law, but they won’t.

What reason did they give to explain why these groups were granted special permission to collect for their favorite charity and not private residents? Safety.

Which makes sense doesn’t it? I mean, of course people who like to control others would think you and I are way too stupid and untrained to perform complicated tasks like standing in an intersection and shaking a container of coins.

Of course, the only reason this is even happening in the first place is because we’re not talking about private property. We’re talking about property funded through government coercion.

Government apologists love to tell us how everyone owns government property collectively, but what we can see very clearly here is that more often than not, those holding the power give special treatment to favored groups.

Somehow it’s considered moral for those groups to have the right to do something on collectively owned property that the average taxpaying citizen doesn’t. Do you still buy the line that government ownership creates fairness and equality?

The Clarksville Town Council might think we’re pretty stupid, but I don’t. I’m confident that we’re all smart enough to understand that if an activity is banned on government property — property we supposedly all own together — then that ban should apply to all owners. Let’s abolish this “some are more equal than others” arrogance.

Volunteering your personal time to help others is a charitable thing to do. Donating money to freely chosen causes, whether those causes are “for the kids” or for others in need, also is a charitable thing to do.

But creating laws with exceptions that give special treatment to certain groups isn’t charitable at all. It’s a blatant misuse of power.

Sellersburg resident Debbie Harbeson recently purchased a trash receptacle to pitch laws containing special exceptions, but someone keeps throwing in wasted government attorneys. Write her at Debbie@debbieharbeson.com

  

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