Can Government Be Human?

M -ANY people in their relations with their government view it with disdain and distrust. Why is this so? We are a democracy and, as such, attempt to emphasize the importance the individual in bold contrast to a dictatorship, which subordinates the individual and places all emphasis on the whole or the state. Our most cherished doctrines bespeak our interest in the individual. The Declaration Independence speaks unalienable rights people as individuals. The first words the preamble to the Constitution the United States are, We, the People. Lincoln in his Gettysburg address calls ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people. There was a time in our history when a controlling body opinion held that the federal government should not operate directly upon the citizenry, except in certain restricted circumstances such as war. In the early years even the federal revenue was derived largely from imports. Now, every citizen is affected by federal taxes, social security, and many other federal programs. It is the purpose this paper to examine two factors, found from experience to be involved in the question citizen reaction to government, which have had too little attention. First, we operate upon the theory that ours is a government laws and not men. Second, we have made too little effort to humanize the application our laws and make them understood.