Rick Allen: “In 1854 Abraham Lincoln wrote, ``The role of governments is to do those things that a community of individuals cannot do…”

“In 1854 Abraham Lincoln wrote, ``The role of governments is to do those things that a community of individuals cannot do or cannot do so well alone.'' What he was talking about is, our governments are there to do things that we, of necessity, do together. And so many of the things that relate to homeland security are just that. We cannot have an individual Coast Guard. We cannot protect our borders individual by individual. We cannot deal with the threat of terrorism. We cannot provide vaccines. We cannot deal with all of these threats to our existence, these national security threats, as individuals. We can only do it through our government, our governments really at all levels. It is a tragedy that in the aftermath of September 11, when we think about the way people in this country have responded, this is, in my opinion, the greatest sense of common purpose, the most resolve, the greatest unity that we have had in my lifetime. And to squander that unity, that resolve, by returning to an old agenda of giving corporate tax breaks in the $25 billion range for this one tax cut alone, at a time when the country as a whole needs attention, not just aviation security, not just threats of bioterrorism but trying to deal with health care and education needs in this country, it is a tragedy that we would be so divided this way.”