Promote General Welfare - Learning

When it comes to general welfare for the people, I think I am pretty neutral; or possibly don't know what I believe in yet. In my household, my family believes that government control should be very minimum, while the people around me think the opposite. I see both sides of the spectrum so some things I believe the government should control and some, I think, should be left to the people. I believe the people should be able to vote and be represented in Congress, just like it is now. Though, I do think that government should be left to control and handle money, crime, big organizations, etc. I might be saying this because I don't know any different and its hard for me to imagine any other type of government. I think there is a "right" government but I don't know what that is.

There is a limit of equality we can have in a country before it turns into chaos like in the short story, Harrison Bergeron where no one is smarter, prettier, stronger, or more talented than anyone else. Equality is achieved by making handicap laws that say good looking people have to wear masks, the strong and talented have to carry around weights of metal balls, and the smart have to wear an ear piece that makes an irritating sound every 20 seconds to stop them from taking advantage of their brains. The two main characters, George and Hazel are the parents of an imprisoned, 14-year-old boy named Harrison who is jail because of his beliefs that people shouldn't have these handicaps. While George and Hazel are watching the TV, they see that Harrison has escaped from jail and has shown up on the screen where the ballerinas were performing. Harrison announces very obnoxiously that he is the emperor and that he needs an empress. One of the dancers takes off her handicap mask and joins him but before they could leave, the Handicapper General shows up and shoots and kills Harrison and the dancer. From the way Harrison was talking about being an emperor, I think knew he was going to be killed by the officials but couldn't stand the idea of living with handicaps. He felt so strongly about his opinions that he didn't care whether he lived or died.

I have read this short story many times in different classes as it is a piece of righting I don't ever forget. I always remember different handicaps everyone has to wear and that the time period was set into the future instead of just being a "different today." This story reinforces the way I think about our government and the way we live because it shows that it's good to be different and portrays what life would be like if we were all the same. I believe people will always disagree on how involved the government should be in the peoples' lives but for now, I think the government now is good enough since I do not know any other.