I WANTED TO REFLECT UPON AN INTERESTING — actually startlingly dramatic — contrast of political and economic views and share that experience with others.

First, I refer you to the vision of Dr. Walter E. Williams of George Mason University as drawn from a recent piece published in The Herald, “Parting company” (Jan. 1):

“I believe our nation is at a point where there are enough irreconcilable differences between those Americans who want to control other Americans and those Americans who want to be left alone that separation is the only peaceable alternative. Just as in a marriage where vows are broken, our rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been grossly violated by a government instituted to protect them.

“There is no evidence that Americans who are responsible for and support constitutional abrogation have any intention of mending their ways. You say, ‘Williams, what do you mean by constitutional abrogation?’ Let’s look at the magnitude of the violations.

“Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution lists the activities for which Congress is authorized to tax and spend. Nowhere on that list is there authority for Congress to tax and spend for: Medicare, Social Security, public education, farm subsidies, bank and business bailouts, food stamps and thousands of other activities that account for roughly two-thirds of the federal budget. Neither is there authority for congressional mandates to citizens about what type of health insurance they must purchase, how states and people may use their land, the speed at which they can drive, whether a library has wheelchair ramps, and the gallons of water used per toilet flush. The list of congressional violations of both the letter and spirit of the Constitution is virtually without end. Our derelict Supreme Court has given Congress sanction to do just about anything for which they can muster a majority vote.”

Surely on issues like speed limits, water use in toilet flushing, wheelchair ramps, public education and land use our founding fathers would have given such authority if they thought them crucial to the health of the young republic. Obviously, we merely give lip service to the wisdom of our forefathers, whilst insistently violating their foresight and vision.

Williams concludes, “Americans have several options. We can like sheep submit to those who have contempt for liberty and our Constitution. We can resist, fight and risk bloodshed and death in an attempt to force America’s tyrants to respect our liberties and Constitution. A superior alternative is to find a way to peaceably separate into states whose citizens respect liberty and the Constitution. My personal preference is a restoration of the constitutional values of limited government that made us a great nation.”

In short, civil war, separate by states or stop this insane drive toward monitoring flush toilets, wheelchair ramps, urban planning and universal education.

But imagine the excitement of state-by-state votes for separation. Perhaps the South could rise again, Utah become a real Mormon country, the West Coast establish its own progressive agenda, Boston become the capital of the Northeast — the possibilities are endlessly exciting and fascinating. A marvelous way to break up the monotony of our current boring daily rituals.

And think of the family debates about which state to move to — each its own separate country! (“Stop that wrangling boys, your mother says Utah is absolutely out!”)

To close this excursion into the wisdom of Walter Williams, I add the following on the man’s mentoring. He is a black man who, on another occasion (Dumb politicans won’t get elected,” Dec. 25), wrote admiringly and approvingly of several lunches with Jesse Helms that enlightened him on politics and leadership. That this guide of his to life in politics, this fount of wisdom was the leading racist in Congress seemed not to enter Williams’s consciousness.

The following Helms quotes and references are taken from Yahoo Answers.

• Helms dismissed the civil rights movement as a cabal of communists and “moral degenerates.”

• “(Helms’) disdain for people of color (exemplified by his ‘humorous’ habit, in private, of referring to any black person as ‘Fred’) continues to find ways of expressing itself. He is the Senate’s most reliable opponent of any measure aimed at securing the rights or improving the conditions of African Americans. In 1994, when Nelson Mandela visited the Capitol, Helms ostentatiously turned his back on him.”

I guess that when you agree on the fundamentals of limited governance, vicious bigotry is of small account!

In contrast and in a segue to the real world, I quote at length from a piece by Robert Reich, “Economic fairness becomes a thing of the past,” Dec. 27:

“Our chances in life are now determined to an unprecedented degree by the wealth of our parents.

“That has not always been the case … And equal opportunity was the heart of the American creed. Although imperfectly achieved, that ideal eventually propelled us to overcome legalized racial segregation, and to guarantee civil rights. It fueled efforts to improve all of our schools and widen access to higher education. It pushed the nation to help the unemployed, raise the minimum wage, and provide pathways to good jobs. Much of this was financed by taxes on the most fortunate.

“But for more than three decades we’ve been going backward. It’s far more difficult today for a child from a poor family to become a middle-class or wealthy adult. Or even for a middle-class child to become wealthy.

“The major reason is widening inequality. The longer the ladder, the harder the climb. America is now more unequal than it’s been for 80 or more years, with the most unequal distribution of income and wealth of all developed nations. Equal opportunity has become a pipe dream … Taxes have been cut on the rich, public schools have deteriorated, higher education has become unaffordable for many, safety nets have been shredded, and the minimum wage has been allowed to drop 30 percent below where it was in 1968, adjusted for inflation. …

“But it’s not at all back on the track it was on more than three decades ago. It’s certainly not on track for the record 4 million Americans now unemployed for more than six months, or for the unprecedented 20 million American children in poverty (we now have the highest rate of child poverty of all developed nations other than Romania), or for the third of all working Americans whose jobs are now part time or temporary, or for the majority of Americans whose real wages continue to drop.

“How can the economy be back on track when 95 percent of the economic gains since the recovery began in 2009 have gone to the richest 1 percent?”

As one contemplates the full impact of Reich’s analysis and figures, the sheer blind obstinacy of the right’s resistance to increased taxation on those burgeoning fortunes in favor of further multiplying the economic perils of the lower middle class and poor becomes both remarkable and profoundly sad.

The passion of Robert Reich for a just and equitable society, for a land where opportunity blossoms, where being born poor is not a life sentence, is as moving as it is compelling.

Jerome Page is a Benicia resident.