Acommon ploy of collectivists who wish to disparage individual rights is to play the “selfi shness” card. If you support the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (i.e. oppose government redistribution of your wealth), then you are “blinded by self interest,” in Greg Harton’s words (Jan.
14).
Your right to the fruits of your labor is off his radar.
Instead, the good citizen should sacrifi ce himself to “serve the community’s children.”
Why is someone paying their own way, paying for their own (or own children’s) education, a bad thing? What justifi es shoving the cost onto single and childless people?
Harton implies thatfunding government schools by tax robbery is necessary to have a good and educated community. This is like saying since corn is good for the community, government corn subsidies are necessary to grow corn. Clearly, neither corn farmers nor breeders have a right to subsidies.
Harton’s example of road funding undermines hispoint, since gas taxes are a type of user fee - one that nondrivers don’t pay.
Collecting from actual users of schools rather than property owners in general is just and fair. Forced collectivism is not.
If supporting individual rights makes me selfi sh, so be it.
BILL ORTON
Fayetteville
Opinion, Pages 5 on 01/19/2013