Geoff Schoos provides some reflections on what it means to adhere to the core value of equal protection and equal access to opportunity in America:    

Recently, I came across the following passage that I’d like to share:

“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages, artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society – the farmers, mechanics, and laborers – who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.”

The above statement was not made by some disengaged philosopher with his head in the clouds. Nor, was it made by some statesman long lost to antiquity.

Rather, this statement of democratic ideals was written by our seventh President, Andrew Jackson and quoted in American Lion, Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham.

The language quoted above was contained in Jackson’s message that accompanied his veto of legislation that would have renewed the charter of the national bank. He saw the bank as a vehicle through which public money was loaned out to the wealthy and powerful to the detriment of the average man.

The parallels from that time to this, especially here in Rhode Island, are striking. With each passing year, too many in the executive branch aided by a significant number of legislators have placed state government on the side of the “rich and powerful”.

Recently, in my column for the Cranston Herald, I wrote about the power of ideas and their affect on policy outcomes. The role of government in a democratic society is a big idea with outcome implications. The budget submitted by the Governor clearly places the state government on the side of the few against the many. As Jackson might say, this budget is the embodiment of an evil.

The notion that government, “shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor” transcends mere partisanship. Rather, it is the core value of our society. It is what separates us from most of the rest of the world and for so long made us that “shining city on a hill” for the rest of the world. When we permit the perversion of that core value, we lose the essence of who we are and what we strive to be.