Friday, September 07, 2007

The State and the People

Clayton Cramer, who is a fan of The Fred's, makes some remarks now that Fred's in the race, and discusses how federalism, or leaving decisions up to the states, means that some people may not get everything they want. Now I think states should be allowed to make their own decisions on a lot of things, but I'd like your opinion on one thing Cramer said: "If you don't like the particular policy decisions that your state makes, moving isn't so difficult." I realize that a lot of people in Ohio are already "voting with their feet" and moving to other states, and the economic policy decisions our local legislators make may be behind a great deal of it. However, I would say that moving can be very difficult for a family, for example, with younger children. Moving out of state can be an enormous expense as well, one our family just isn't prepared to take on the moment. Not to mention my husband is currently blessed to have a job he is comfortable with and he'd like to build up some seniority, not start over fresh someplace else. I don't know, the comment just seemed a little flippant. For that matter, aren't there already people fleeing more liberal states because the socialist economic policies are bringing the state down, but wanting to keep their liberal ideas, in essence trying to recreate life in their old state? What if you do move to another state and then the voting make-up of that state changes within five years or so? Move again?

And while Cramer sees reason in allowing states to have their own laws on partial birth abortion, he finds the idea of cross-breeding humans and animals at the embryonic level disturbing, although to be fair, he makes no comment about whether it should be legal in this country or not. Well, I find the practice of sticking a sharp object into the head of a perfectly viable, feeling human being extremely disturbing. Aren't there some things so beyond the pale that we as a entire nation should be able to decide against them?

1 comment:

Kim said...

Moving may be difficult but it's not undoable with a family. Yes there is some expense but, if done right, the expense doesn't have to be enormous.

We've made 3 moves to different states over the past 4 years. The first was the most expensive because we hired full service movers. The last wasn't much more than we paid to move within a state in the past because we did it all ourselves and seriously pared down what we had.

If you care enough to want to move because you don't like the policies of where you live, the expense and hassle aren't insurmountable. The hardest part of moving was the animals, we had 4 dogs, 2 cats, and a horse this last time. Maybe because we've moved so much and have never had roots where we've lived so the idea of moving isn't as big of a deal for us. In the situation you are talking about you either have two choices, move or fight to change what you don’t like…