One of DC’s architectural treasures is Georgetown’s Riggs Library. Quoting Atlas Obscura, “Riggs has four floors of cast iron walkways laid out around a central light court. Sixteen columns divide the hall into smaller alcoves and two spiral staircases connect walkways.”
Trust me, Riggs is one of those spots for which viewing electronic images is one thing, being inside is quite something else.
The problem with Riggs is that it doesn’t have an original copy of John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. No library does. Locke felt he needed to publish the work anonymously for fear of retribution (similar to many bloggers at Clean Slate MoCo), and that may be why those originals were hidden or destroyed. Nevertheless, Gutenberg has a copy for everyone to read.
In chapter 18, Locke makes an observation about tyrants:
…the difference betwixt a king and a tyrant to consist only in this, that one makes the laws the bounds of his power, and the good of the public, the end of his government; the other makes all give way to his own will and appetite.
A government is restrained by its charter and laws, both of which are determined by the people’s representatives. Exceeding those laws, particularly for the leader’s benefit, is tyranny. Are there examples of tyranny in MoCo?
The most obvious example is MCPS. When Locke talks about “will and appetite,” we can certainly include the payoff given to former MCPS superintendent Monifa McKnight, who was awarded $1.3 million for covering up sexual harassment. And the proposed $1000,000/year increase to the Board of Education’s members. And the Board of Education’s squashing parents’ desire for a charter school. More fundamentally, forcing children of underserved families to attend failing schools under the guise of “boundary studies” is a shameless betrayal of representation.
Another act of tyranny is the environmental legislative nonsense. Article I, Section 101 of the county’s charter expresses a key power for the county council: “to legislate for the peace, good government, health, safety or welfare of the County.” That is quite reasonable. What is less reasonable is that council members place regulations on us in the name of global climate change. Enacting local regulations will not solve a problem 99.99% of which is caused by humans outside this county, and placing burdens on us to protect beachside resorts under threat from rising sea levels is betrayal. Such is the nature of the county’s subsidizing electric bills or construction loans for clean energy. The residents who benefit from these kickbacks are wealthy enough not to need them.
Is MoCo a tyrannical jurisdiction? Certainly not in the dictatorial sense of the Soviet Union, China, or North Korea. While we don’t have fair elections, we do have the freedom to leave—and many of us are doing just that. Nevertheless, we can internalize that our local government is working to some extent for the residents, but working for special interests’ “will and appetite” to an extent far greater.
