[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3156]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       ESSAY BY BAILEY ARLINGHAUS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. PETE OLSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 7, 2012

  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to interact with some of the 
brightest students in the 22nd Congressional District who serve on my 
Congressional Youth Advisory Council. I have gained much by listening 
to the high school students who are the future of this great Nation. 
They provide important insight into the concerns of our younger 
constituents and hopefully get a better sense of the importance of 
being an active participant in the political process. Many of the 
students have written short essays on a variety of topics and I am 
pleased to share these with my House colleagues.
  Bailey Arlinghaus is a senior at Clements High School in Fort Bend 
County, Texas. Her essay topic is: In your opinion, what role should 
government play in our lives?

       Government is crucial in our lives. Without government, we 
     would all be barbarically fighting for the limited amount of 
     resources we have available. Government helps our society 
     function the way it is, but just like anything else, too much 
     of a good thing can be bad. Therefore, government 
     intervention should be limited on our lives. Too much 
     government control can lead to dictatorships or the 
     government playing a ``Big Brother'' kind of role. This ``Big 
     Brother'' type of rule would be bad in the long run because 
     the people would lose faith in the government, so the 
     citizens would try to find any way they can to overthrow the 
     government. Government's role should be to help society but 
     within its boundaries set by society. Crossing these 
     boundaries can lead to too much government intervention in 
     our society. I think the boundary that the government should 
     never cross would be the boundary of the government tracking 
     your every move and everything you do. The government's main 
     role should be to lay down the expectations, make laws that 
     people should follow, help society when needed, but don't 
     interfere in society so much that it makes the people 
     dependent on the government to run effectively. The 
     government's role is important to how this society functions. 
     Therefore, the government needs to let society work in a way 
     so that it isn't making the society completely dependent on 
     them. Every individual should be able to speak their mind, 
     without control, to promote new ideas that better society. 
     That can only happen with a limited government role, to make 
     society work on its own. The government should do nothing 
     except give a little push to society every now and then to 
     keep it running. With this, the government isn't running our 
     everyday lives but just helping us to be able to run it 
     ourselves. We should all follow the government's laws but, at 
     the same time, be able to have a mind of our own. To 
     conclude, the government shouldn't play a huge role in our 
     every day lives, rather a limited one, so we can be more 
     effective on our own and be able to think for ourselves.

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