A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”
I recently received an email message that was thought provoking and I want to share it with O’Fallon citizens. Excerpts from the message appear below.
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic 2,000 years before: “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
Tyler also said that “The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage”.
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40% of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.
If Tyler’s definition of democracy is accurate and Olson’s belief that our great country is somewhere between complacency and apathy, we are on a dangerous path that could eventually lead to our loss of freedom.
Please make the effort to go to the polls on Tuesday, November 7th and vote for the candidates of your choice. Let’s not let voter apathy endanger our freedom.
The strong working relationship between City Hall and the residents we serve is yet another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.
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