Is the YMCA a Governmental Function??

I was quite surprised the other week when I saw an article in a local newspaper titled,”P.E. Supervisors May Spend More Than $250,000 On YMCA In FY 2015”. This was a wake up for me, as I was wondering when and how did such expenditures come about?  I have been a member of the “Y”, they are a good organization, with an excellent purpose, but should my tax dollars be subsidizing such an enterprise?  Is this enterprise a function of government? What is the purpose of government?

According to James Madison in his Preamble of the US Constitution we find:

1.To establish justice; to punish evildoers and protect those who do right.

2.To insure domestic tranquility; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

3.To provide for the common defense; the protection of innocent life; an army to protect us from external fears.

4.To promote the general welfare; that civil rulers are servants “to you for good.” The common good of all classes must be promoted, guaranteeing equal opportunity. It is not proper for government to provide money and aid to special interest groups.  It is to promote, not provide, and to do so for all people in general, not for special people.

5.To secure the blessings of liberty; blessings are the Creator’s gift, not a privilege granted by government.  Blessings include life, liberty and property.  Government can not provide these, only secure them.

We see from section 4 that the “Y” is a special group who is being provided for by the government, our Board of Supervisors (BoS).  For further explanation of this situation I went to Frederic Bastiat’s book “The Law.”  We find that in the beginning people have the natural born rights of life, liberty and property.  To protect those rights, the people gathered together and gave consent to form government.  The government then drew up guide lines for behavior, laws.  “The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense.”  Law is force.  “And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural right to do: to protect persons, liberties,and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all.”

Law has people as its creator and just as people are subject to downfall or failure, equally so is law.  One way of when law goes astray can be referred to as plunder.  Though plunder is an offensive word, it does describe a reprehensible act well.  “When a portion of wealth is transferred from the person who owns it— without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud — to anyone who does not own it, then I say that property is violated; the act of plunder is committed.”  “When the law itself commits this act that it is supposed to suppress, I say that plunder is still committed, and I add that from the point of view of society and welfare, this aggression against rights is even worse.”  “Legal plunder has two roots: one, human greed; the other is false philanthropy.”

You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law.  But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk, nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside society.  Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to send it in.”

So what happens when I see that I am being plundered, object to it and refuse to pay my apportioned part of he plunder?  The plundering authority brings to bear ”the whole apparatus of judges, police and prisons at the service of the plunders, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal.”   In short there is legal plunder or in other words an armed robbery has been committed against the victim, the police are the armed body.

Sadly, the gifts and funding of the “Y” are not the only acts of armed robbery being perpetuated against the citizens of Prince Edward.  There is a follow up article in that local paper titled “P.E. Co. Will Spend $329,599 on Utilities in 2015 with Revenues of Only $1632.”  The article goes forth to list a number of projects on which considerable amounts were borrowed and spent, with nothing coming to fruit, all at the expense to the suffering tax payers of this county.  The article also lists those supervisors who voted to plunder the Prince Edward citizenry, both presently sitting on the BoS and those no longer there.

What recourse do the citizens of P.E. have?  One improbable action would be for them to unite and say, ”We object!”, and refuse to pay this illegal plundering.  Then, probably the BoS would turn the sheriff’s department loose with their guns to arrest the defiant citizens.  When the sheriff feels inadequate to carry out the arrests, would the state police and national guard be called with their machine guns and tanks to contain the protestors?  Other actions could be approaching the plundering party and say, “I forgive you, go forth and plunder no more.”  Should I tell the plunders, “You are robbing me, I want your resignation,” or could I decide, “I have been plundered enough” and work with a candidate who runs for office against the plunderer at the next election??

Prince Edward County board of supervisors, I put you on notice, you are there to protect my life, my liberty and my property, you have both a moral and a written guide line to follow.  Your false philanthropy and actions outside governmental responsibilities have now been noticed.   There are those who are not doing a proper job. Go forth and sin no more, but if need be, I will find someone will do a proper job.

Respectfully, Richard Altice

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