I am not a protestor by nature. I respect the rights of the public to elect representatives, even when I strongly disagree with them. This is America, and that’s how we do things. We must be supportive of the will of the people.

But I am a concerned parent; hence, my dilemma. Do I sit quietly and let the lesson of rewarding hard work be diminished by the actions of the government? Or do I speak out against the flawed logic of rewarding failure at the expense of success?

Let me emphasize that this is not a complaint about our current administration. It is an indictment of all politicians who support this flawed attempt at behavior management. It most recently began during the 2008 presidential campaign, before our current president was elected.

So why are so many people suddenly voicing their concerns so loudly now when we vented on a much smaller scale previously? We disagreed with the previous administration, and we voiced our frustration on blogs and radio shows, but we knew the administration would change soon. We vowed to honor the will of the people and give the new administration a chance to do what is right. Instead, we have found that the new administration has expanded the spending that was unchecked by the previous administration. Their rationale seems to be that the previous administration caused the problem by overspending, so they must overspend even more to correct the problem caused by the overspending of the previous administration.

Yes, it is that insane.

And that is why I, a man who tries to reserve all my spare time for family togetherness rather than political involvement, have decided to take a stand. With the full support of my wife, I attended the Houston Tax Day Tea Party, along with upwards of 8,300 others who signed in. I strived to come up with a clever sign that would capture the imagination of the masses. Instead, I resorted to this simple equation expressing the inverse relationship between government and liberty:

It’s the same principle that was used to decry the Patriot Act. That was perceived – and rightly so – as an intrusion on our personal liberties.  However, that was a response to a direct physical attack on the country, with the threat of additional severe attacks to come, and it proved to be a temporary – and successful – measure in protecting the citizens of this nation. The current spending plans are a promise to permanently expand governmental powers to enforce charitable giving by one segment of the population to another segment.

Charity is a religious principle. As such, enforcing charitable giving by confiscating income from some (according to their abilities) and redistributing it to others (according to their needs) is a violation of the principle of separation of church and state.

I have always believed that paying taxes is a patriotic duty. Yes, I agree with the vice president on that issue. I do not feel that I am personally overtaxed, but neither do I believe that those who are more successful than I should be punished for their success.

Even my children understand the consequences of such actions. I must protect their Creator-endowed unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.