I have been asked to set out a quick statement of basic beliefs. Here’s a quick, but not exhaustive — as it would not be for anyone’s own — list. There is no meaningful order to the list.
I believe in the radical, dynamic power of free markets to enrich and liberate. Where there is distress or need, private charity (like our food pantry) is a preferred, initial recourse. Where these possibilities, together, temporarily fail, state action may be needed to alleviate suffering and distress.
Our deepest tradition, and the constitution from which it derives, embraces a robust exercise of free speech, assembly, press, and worship. These are the rights of the individual, and attempts to discourage their exercise should be resisted. The state is wrong to restrict these liberties; people are wrong to stifle them in support of social sentiment or imagined politeness. No matter — press on, and write, read, speak, assemble, and pray as you have a right to do, and as no other may dictate.
Public officials, accorded a temporary and limited authority from the people, should be both honest and humble. These traits in public office matter more even than competence.
Exercise of public authority and enforcement of regulations must be fair and impartial. Harsh or selective enforcement is worse than no enforcement at all. Favoritism is the coin of petty corruption. It operates as the social equivalent of graft, and undermines trust.
Government should be impartial between races, faiths, and men and women. Civic organizations do best when they reflect this same principle.
Our schools should maximize opportunities for technology, curriculum, and parental choice, without bias toward local vendors, or entrenched ways of thinking.
I believe in the beneficial influence of our many churches on our community. A serious faith rejects dishonesty, arrogance, prejudice of race and ethnicity, petty self-interest, and the empty embrace of small matters.
We have nearly sunk our small community by too-long ignoring its university, and failing to seize the potential that the campus represents for us. The ceaseless hostility toward it is ignorant and self-destructive.
(For a more comprehensive list of concerns about the status quo, please see my earlier post from May, “Fundamental Challenges Facing Whitewater.”)