Cutting Government

As we go about cutting and reorganizing our federal government in the year ahead, we would do well to remember the words of one of our lesser-known Founders: Dr. David Ramsay. He was a physician of Charleston, South Carolina, and a leader in the Revolutionary War who spent time in a Redcoat prison camp. Later, he became a member of our first Congress, the Continental Congress, from 1782 to 1786, serving as its president for one year. To paraphrase: Without reverence for government, society is “but a rope of sand.”

Though we often pride ourselves on our dislike for Washington and, rightly, reject overgrown and inefficient bureaucracies, we should recall that our institutions help to unify us. So our goal in reforming them should not be to weaken them, but to make us proud of them again. If we succeed, perhaps first-year college students will place an interest in politics at the top of their lists of interests again, instead of at the bottom (“Survey Finds Political Apathy Among Freshmen,” Jan. 9). This change in attitude is vitally important if we are to continue our outstanding tradition (unique in the world) of avoiding manipulation by demagogues!

WALTER JANSEN

Riverside