I have some more news about the Census. This time it’s a little more personal. The United States Census Bureau sent a notification to my address today. My household will be getting our Census form in about a week. Plus, the form has a handy explanation of why filling out the form is important.
Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.
I guess the Constitutional explanation was too difficult. The Census was designed to determine representation and taxation only, not some kind of income redistribution giveaway. The exact quote from the constitution reads: “representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers.” The words “fair” and “share” are conspicuously absent from Article I of the Constitution.
The notification is also in Spanish, just in case illegal immigrants wish to participate in the American experiment. If you happen to speak French, German, Chinese, or Italian, I’m sorry; you’ll just have to learn English first. Then there’s the plight of the the Taiwanese American.
Thanks to this progressive approach to counting people some people feel disenfranchised. Who can blame them? If the government is becoming one big candy store everyone wants a piece.
I’m part Native American, German, English, Scottish, Irish, and Jewish. What am I? Do I need to take a blood test to see how many races of people I am? If it means that I get a fat check from the Federal Government where can I sign up? If this keeps up we’ll need 100 check boxes for every racial combination.
The PR campaign almost encourages people to over count. Oh no! My race is being under counted! Oh no! They’re not going to build roads!
This is absurd. We don’t need a Census to build roads. If this was the case our state and city governments wouldn’t be spending money on feasibility studies measuring traffic. Why can’t the Census Bureau just say it’s a constitutional requirement to count each person to determine representation.
The Founding Fathers never intended to create Republic full of lobbying groups based on race. The fact that the government conveys this message is appalling, but it’s not surprising considering that government employees come up with the messaging.
“The Founding Fathers never intended to create Republic full of lobbying groups based on race.”
Did you not get the memo? Our Founding Fathers weren’t the biggest advocates of racial equality. Just maybe the lack of lobbying groups based on race had more to do with the fact that things like slavery were legal back then. The “eye candy store” has always existed. The only difference is every race can shop there now.
Have you always had a problem with the census poll? I only ask because it seems like you are connecting this years wording to a certain person. You don’t really believe Obama’s socialist views are responsible for things like counting illegal immigrants in the census are you? If so, check out this quote:
“The U.S. Constitution says that you count everybody who resides. It doesn’t say you count just citizens. We’ve always counted everybody, although in the early censuses, when we got to reapportionment, we counted slaves as 3/5 of a person after 1790 and for several decades thereafter. But everyone is always counted because the Constitution does not say ‘citizens of the United States’ — it says people residing. So, the undocumented should be there. In terms of the census, it doesn’t differentiate. It’s got to count everybody.”
Looks like having a Spanish translation makes constitutional sense after all! And just to be clear, not all Spanish speaking citizens are illegal immigrants. My grandmother at best can say two English words and has been here for 30 years. Don’t worry, I am used to hearing people tell her she should speak “American”.
BTW, the quote above was found at this. I encourage you to read it since the person being interviewed was chosen by the past Republican president. But I am sure you spoke out against such atrocities every census polling.
http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/mar/10/murdock-1/
My interest in the Census is just because it’s relevant this year. I’m sure much of the preparation and marketing took place long before Obama was in the White House. My take is more on the “entitlement” attitude that is slowly swallowing up the nation. Instead of simply just counting people equally, we’re breaking everyone up into different races.
[...] to fill out with such pertinent information as my race, gender and so on and so forth. As noted in Henshaw’s earlier post about the Census Bureau notification, it reads in part: Your response is important. Results from [...]
I can understand your point. However, this country has always broken people up into different races and, if anything, our equality treatment has greatly improved.