Rick Lowe

The question of compassion often gets bandied about by the political class. This candidate or political party is more compassionate than that standard bearer or organisation.

Groups like the Rotary Clubs in The Bahamas, The Bahamas Association for the Physically Disabled, The Bahamas Crisis Centre, and the Cancer Society of The Bahamas, and many of the people involved in them, to name but a few, are compassionate. Political candidates do not fit an honest description of compassion.

As Mr. Lawrence Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and president emeritus of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy tells us in this article…

"True compassion is a bulwark of strong families and communities, of liberty and self-reliance, while the false compassion of the second usage (government compassion) is fraught with great danger and dubious results. True compassion is people helping people out of a genuine sense of caring. It is not asking your legislator or congressman to do it for you. True compassion comes from your heart, not from government treasuries. True compassion is a deeply personal thing, not a check from a distant bureaucracy." (Emphasis added)

In other words, are we really compassionate when we call on the government to help people or simply fobbing the problem off to every taxpayer in the country?

Obviously there are many people in need and we should all do our part, but as Professor Walter Williams said in this article…

"The act of reaching into one's own pockets to help a fellow man (or pesonally volunteering) in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation." (Empasis added)

Before we ask Parliament to do something, should we consider doing something, anything, ourselves?

How or why some people come to the conclusion that the government is the last bastion of all that is good is a mystery. Just look at the evidence!

Anyone can be a hero with the power to take money from the general population under the threat of fines or jail time and hand it to whomever they choose. It's the morality of it that the taxpayer should consider.