Hello Ward 3, and the rest of Westfield. It is really good to our downtown on channel 22 again. It looks good. It is not the same one it used to be, but neither are we. And, I noticed another spokesperson for public responsibility in Pulseline, YES, get in touch please; we could start a positive trend.
I will be suggesting a few things to our City Counselors, and want you to join with me if you agree. You know I am big on public safety. I would like to see temporary signs put in on Smith Ave by WTA, caution sleders, or something like that. With our first snow the kids are back having fun. Kids do not pay attention, when they are having fun, and with some many focused on their devices it is going to be easier to hurt them. Or, do we wait the blood sacrifice to get us to do so?
A baffle: everyone I hear says that how we do things doesn’t work as: taxes… While I know a lot of people have renounced their civic and civil responsibilities to the 1980’s political call it is your money, and the GOV. should not tell you how to spend it; to replace those responsibilities with: go shopping, play, you work hard so indulge yourself; be popular, not involved! The Dem.s told you they will take care of you and the Republicans that they will handle everything for you. Neither did and it has obviously not worked. You self-excluded yourself from the decision making process (then complain about the decisions), and took up the chant not my responsibility, (the Me generation). And, from the dissatisfaction that did not work so great either. Worse we allowed ourselves to be used and pit one American against another because they are different. OK, not sorry for the rant, but I hate to keep stuff bottled up.
Back to taxes and paying for our civic and civil responsibilities… The original premise for the property tax was that most homes also housed the family business. And if you were a worker, your salaries really did not equal being taxed (even with the WWII income tax of 80% on income over $25,000). Since the end of 50’s, that has changed. Now, even staunch pro-business people do not want a business in their neighborhood. Our America was founded on small business, farms, fishing, and lumber, etc. And, with new delusions we have come to reject the any new ideas and practices. That is the baffle, we do not like how things are but also reject changing them??? But, I still hear the proud rhetoric of Hamilton, and The Federalists. I guess it is based on myth rather than having read the Federalist Papers. If you read them, especially Hamilton’s, you would have read that the most prosperous and successful, owe their prosperity to the hard work and sacrifice of the many. And it is then the obligation of those who profit the most to pay the most. Thus: our first Federal taxes were tariffs and excise taxes. And, he wrote we do not tax or tax much less the lower income so that they are not burdened, and are enabled to expand their business growth, and contribute that way to a stable economy that benefits the more successful.
Back to us and you…how do we generate revenue to pay for our civic and civil responsibilities… I am always hearing criticism, but not alternatives. I was taught early on that it is not enough to complain, unless you have an alternative. We cannot just say we refuse to pay for the things we need to have a stable and prosperous community, and the community is more than just you. Costs do not go down. The city depends upon purchases from the private sector to do things from text books to police cars, to safety equipment for our firemen to simply paper, and envelopes. And, regardless of all their patriotic rhetoric it is for too many, all about the money and while they too complain about taxes they do not care about the other tax payers and still want us to pay to educate their employees, proved for their public safety, roads and bridges etc.
Your thoughts…Your former Ward 3 City Councilor Brian Hoose
