My Opinion
GOP Contract promises freedom, but delivers shackles

The House of Representatives under the leadership of Newt Gingrich is working feverishly to vote on all of the provisions of the Republican Contract with America. Every time I turn on the television, I hear another sound bite from some Republican House member stating how this is one more step to less big government and more individual freedom. I think to myself, "Boy, this must be great. Individual freedom is a wonderful idea." So I looked at the Contract with America to see how it enhances the individual's right to live the way he or she chooses.

In a speech after the November elections, Newt Gingrich said the following: "There is no other society in history where as many people from as many cultures speaking as many languages could come together and become a nation, and where they could then be liberated to go off and be who they wanted to be."

To which society is the speaker referring? His vision for America does not support such liberation. It would have been more accurate for Gingrich to say that people can come together and be who they want to be, as long as they are who the Republicans tell them to be.

Speaker Gingrich goes on to say: "This is a country where Colin Powell and John Shalikashvilli can both be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and nobody thinks about the remarkable difference in ethnicity because they're Americans, and that's the way it should be."

Well, Mr. Gingrich, there is more to liberation than having different colored skin and ancestors from different parts of the world. Instead of granting freedom and empowerment, the Contract preaches uniformity and homogeneously white, Christian values which allow for little difference in lifestyle.

One of the cornerstones of the Contract is "protecting the American family." I don't argue that children should have nurturing homes and be given the opportunity to realize their potential. I do have a problem with the way the Contract outlines accomplishing this.

It states that the government and educational establishments have no business telling families how to raise their kids or what kids should be taught, but rather families can determine this themselves. Then, the Contract, written by our elected government officials, goes on to tell us how we should raise our kids and who should raise our kids.

For example, the Contract with America provides a tax cut of up to $5,000 to low-income families to adopt children, thus expanding the "pool of parents to those who would like to adopt but cannot afford it." At the same time, Republicans have suggested that children of single mothers should be put into orphanages. That infringes seriously upon the freedom of the single mother who may have the emotional and financial resources to care for her own child. Her rights may be given to a family that can barely scrape together the change just because it consists of a man and a woman.

The education system of which Speaker Gingrich and the Republicans are so afraid is powerful because it exposes people to other people and ideas. When you don't challenge people to think about conflicting ideas, you can legislate morality and have people who think like you do. You can convince them that anyone who is different is bad. It worked for Hitler.

Some Republicans say that what they are actually doing is cutting entitlements, because society cannot afford to care for every single person. They say that this is not the job of the federal government. If they want to leave entitlements to the community, that is fine. But they do not really cut entitlements. They re-distribute the entitlements to a different group.

There are tax credits for married couples. What happens if two men or two women decide they wish to live together as a family and share in life's responsibilities in the same way a man and woman do? They do not receive the same benefits. They are even shunned from society, as Newt Gingrich refers to these human beings as "counterculture." So much for their freedom.

In a song about a homeless person named "Mr. Wendel," rap group Arrested Development says: "... we got this far 'cause on him we walk. Mr. Wendel, a man, a human in flesh but not by law." The laws outlined in the Contract alienate not only the poorest members of our society, but any other member who is different from the narrowly defined norm. They take entitlements which were designed to empower the truly needy and give them out as bonuses to those who live in traditional, Christian ways.

As long as people aren't harming others, they should be free to live their lives the way they choose. The nation should recognize the Contract with America as the farce that it is, shrouded in the ideal of freedom.