life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

i had an interview on monday for a temporary position within the louisiana house of representatives. it felt pretty cool going to the state capitol for a reason.. not just as a tourist. the interviewer kept focusing on my lack of qualifications for a full-time position because they "haven't hired someone with just a bachelors in over 25 years".. thanks for that tidbit of trivia sir, but i'm pretty certain i went in there seeking temporary employment. which is why i started off by saying i was looking to get my foot in the door, make connections, and improve my experience. when i apply for a job in august, me in august would be a heck of a lot more marketable than me right now, if i were to get a legislative position of any kind.

as i walked down the hall leaving his office in the underbelly of the state capitol, my emotions overwhelmed me - not to the point of tears, but of some level of grief. i thought to myself, why am i getting emotional.. i soon realized these emotions weren't the product of one not-so-successful interview.. it was a culmination of over 3 months of continued rejection. that sort of crap starts to weigh on you after a while. and, i'm not going to lie.. it sucks. i hate not being good enough in practically every employers eyes.

i met my dad for lunch after and we had a good long talk that i really needed, to be honest. he told me some stories i hadn't ever heard of his and mom's life just outside of college graduation. it helped encourage me to keep my chin up and not allow the constant rejection to weigh on me. the rejection does suck, but i'm bigger than that. and frankly, what they think doesn't matter anymore because they aren't my boss. and it helped me also remember that i need to do what i enjoy. i want to enjoy whatever my life is and what it will become. i'd rather make $2 dollars a year doing something i absolutely love than $200,000 a year and hate my life. i am passionate about analyzing and debating government policy.

today, the u.s. house approved obama's 3.55 trillion budget for 2010. as i've now listened to floor debates for numerous massive spending bills (including ones during the end of the bush administration) i've always come back to one thing: sure these plans sound lofty and admirable, but is it the federal government's place to do these things? and the resounding answer is HECK NO! aside from bailing out banks and homeowners, those are obvious no's.. we get into things like ramping up emission standards on cars, throwing billions of dollars at an endless war on drugs, paying for volcano monitoring, bike paths, atv trails, raising taxes and mandates on cigarettes, reinstilling the death tax (not only are you taxed all your life, now you're taxed when you die!)... i could go on and on. 

the increasingly intrusive government has taken away more of your freedoms and more of your hard earned money over America's lifetime. we have abandoned what this great nation was established for - individual freedom and liberty. to make decisions for yourself. thoreau said it best in his essay "civil disobedience" when he said "that government is best which governs least." i had jury duty one day a while back and had the opportunity to read this essay during my free time. many people in today's society attribute it to the abolition of slavery, but i propose those are the people who have never actually read it. i too thought it was going to be all about the abolition, however, the subject only arose in one paragraph. i suggest everyone read this essay. its as applicable now as it was then.

this post turned out to be much more political than i originally intended, but i hope it encourages independent thought. i'll leave you with some more quotes to chew on.. (note: these are all founding fathers)

"the liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."  - patrick henry

"the natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule."  - samuel adams

"in all our associations, in all our agreements, let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim - that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people."  - george mason

and finally..

"when the people fear their government, there is tyranny. when the government fears the people, there is liberty."  - thomas jefferson