Taxes and government are not the only means for helping those less fortunate in our community.
I was reminded of that principle Friday morning during my commute. Libertarian radio talk show host Neal Boortz used the first 45 minutes of his show to raise the funds and volunteers to build an access ramp at the home of a disabled Atlanta police officer. For some reason that I do not understand, the city and the city’s healthcare provider were not meeting those needs. The officer was wounded in a shooting while on duty.
During the same 45 minutes, Boortz told listeners that Angel Flight, a group he volunteers for, helped a little girl get to Florida Thursday where she underwent the transplant of six organs. He used his show to help get her there and will fly her back home in his own plane.
Radio talk show hosts have been very much in the news lately for the various controversies that they generate or get generated around them (see Rush Limbaugh with Dick Cheney, Michael Savage banned from Great Britain, Mark Levine’s new book, Sean Hannity for too many things to list). The non-listening general public only learns that these people are brash and angry, rarely is there news about their charitable work.
Helping others is good when you give that help of your own free will. The government did not compel Boortz to support either of these causes. Boortz did not try to compel the government to tax the public for his cause. He did not assume that his cause was so great that he could demand the government take money from people that have other causes to support. Note that he did question the healthcare providers obligation to pay for the ramp and the Atlanta mayor’s office for not meeting with the disabled officer’s representatives. That is questioning a contract, not demanding taxation to perform the charitable work he supports.
There are multiple lessons in this story. Americans don’t have to be compelled to help others and, the above is yet another example of one of the first columns on this blog; We Have To Get Past the Name Calling; too many people simply refuse to believe that the evil talk radio hosts and their evil followers do good.
Take that, Fairness Doctrine.
