Sunday, July 25, 2010

Taking the Census

So with it being 2010 the government decided to take a census of the population. Here is my experience with it. I would like like to quote a section of our "Constitution of the United States of America"...

Article 1; Section 2

(Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.) (The previous sentence in parentheses was modified by the 14th Amendment, section 2.) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three.

Let's narrow that lot a bit so I get get to the meat of the issue...

"Enumeration"

That was easy wasn't it? So, the government is allowed to "enumerate" the population once every ten years. Let's look at what the word "enumerate" means...

e·nu·mer·ate
–verb (used with object), -at·ed, -at·ing.
1. to mention separately as if in counting; name one by one; specify, as in a list: Let me enumerate the many flaws in your hypothesis.
2. to ascertain the number of; count.

So, our government is allowed to count the population -- as in one, two three, the end!

With that in mind we -- under the Constitution -- are ONLY REQUIRED to state the unber of people within our households. (Now to the actual story.)

My father, being the leader of the house, received his copy of the census and answered the only question Constitutionally required (the number of persons in his home). He wrote down then number 4 and mailed the census back, all other questions blank. Several weeks later (just a few days ago now) a person who was part of the census bureau came knocking on our door. Dad answered it and the lady proceeded to ask him questions. My father politely stated the facts to here, the only thing he was required to give was the number of people in his house -- four. Not even his name or the names of the persons are required.

The lady was quite flustered and stated that if he -- my dad -- did not give the information to her someone else would come. Dad staunchly stood on his rights and refused to give out any personal information.

What in the world is the government trying to do by taking ALL of our personal information??? What business do they have with my social security number? my salary? my bill information? my personal setup? my standards of living? or whatever other questions they could possibly come up with?

My family has desided to stand upon our Constitutional right to NOT give out our personal information to strangers! -- yes my friends, I consider any government employee a stranger! We do not have to stand for giving up our personal information! Stand on your rights and give them their only legal, Constitutional answer, the number of people within your home!

This video says it all...

7 comments:

D.B. said...

Thanks for the post, Christine. Had not seen you on here in a while. Not that I have had too many either.

Christine Ericson said...

I've been so busy working, I haven't had time to really blog much. When Dad told me what happened with the census people, I just HAD to post it!

Kwame E. said...

Actually, the dictionary definition you quoted without citing mentions a usage of the word in question which goes beyond merely counting things.

In any case, personally I don’t mind all that much if the Census Bureau goes around asking for lat and longitude of people’s homes (which they can always get from Google Earth, and which are useful in the first place in the case of houses which are in the boondocks and have no postal service). And I don’t mind if they ask for SS#s as a preventative means of fraud or error. No, there are much more pressing and important things to think about right now. To quote Dead Kennedys twice in one sentence: We’ve got a bigger problem now in America concerning Judge Bolton’s fiat, er, rather, decision; the sum of this decision and other wrong-headed actions and inactions by the federal government over the past twenty years shows that now is the time to talk about bedtime for democracy, because as surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, democracy in this country is currently half-asleep at best.

As for foolish liberal democrats who actually dig the whole idea of deconstructionist legal rulings, mark my words that conservatism is the canary in the coal mine: you guys are next.

Christine Ericson said...

I'm sorry, the dictionary I used was dictionary.com

The point I wanted to make was the government does not have the right to any information other than the number of people. I happen to be a very private person, and considering the way this country is going, I wouldn't put it past the government to mark the homes of known Christians or conservatives for special interest. I don't mean to insight fear or panic, but Satan is the god of this world and if he can put the government in a position that can take everything away that we have, he will.

This is, of course, my humble opinion.

Kwame E. said...

«I'm sorry, the dictionary I used was dictionary.com

The point I wanted to make was the government does not have the right to any information other than the number of people. I happen to be a very private person, and considering the way this country is going, I wouldn't put it past the government to mark the homes of known Christians or conservatives for special interest. I don't mean to insight fear or panic, but Satan is the god of this world and if he can put the government in a position that can take everything away that we have, he will.

This is, of course, my humble opinion.»

It actually is important to cite sources, always, whether it’s Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, OED, or anything else. Anyway, it remains that “enumerate” does not always mean count, and it would be interesting to research and discover exactly what is meant by this word in the Constitution; indeed, you want to be able to discern one person from the other in the process of a census, lest anyone be counted twice with all the political ramifications that can result from this.

Meanwhile, a lot of us thought the country was on the brink of civil war back in the mid 90s after Ruby Ridge, Branch Davidian, black helicopters, supposed internment camps, etc.; but the war never came, and it turns out that it was never near either.

Likewise, we’re really nowhere near the creation of ghettos for social undesirables, midnight disappearances of political opponents, or confiscation of the property of social and political undesirables. Even in Canada and the UK where the freedoms of conservatives and people in general are less than what you have in the U.S., they haven’t reached the point of persecuting anyone beyond the point of occasional or rare news stories of someone getting busted because they offended the sensibilities of the Gay Lobby or something.

However, if you do end up making enemies with the people up in Washington, D.C., it’s not the Census Bureau who will be the tool or means of punishing you for your political or religious beliefs. The IRS knows who you are, where you live, and they surmise how much money you make; they can legally imprison where other facets of the federal government try and fail to do so, and they can also be used to make you pay for your transgressions against liberal dogma. Congress is also an entity to be on the lookout for, because like the IRS their influence is and has been felt by ordinary Americans in the past; in fact, they along with the current POTUS have made sure that your taxes will increase if you refuse to pay for health insurance vs. paying out of pocket as needed. Meanwhile, not all political strong-arming and arm-twisting will come directly from the federal government but will be outsourced to non-government groups or entities such as ACORN who may bully and shake people down on the behalf of those they support. Compare this with the history of the SA in pre-WWII Germany.

Covnitkepr1 said...

I honestly wish that the entire world were your followers so they would get this particular post. Most Americans allow themselves to be pushed around by the government. And this is the most corrupt and Godless administration America has ever known.
Proud to be your follower and once again...I invite you to follow my blog as well..if you wish.

Solid Rock or Sinking Sand said...

Great post and very informative. God bless, Lloyd