Scott St. Clair’s final column to the Reporter, before he moves on to a new chapter.

For a year and a half, I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to offer The Piper’s Perspective to the Reporter’s readers. Because I’m by nature a stirrer-of-pots, much of what I wrote was deliberately provocative. Conflict and controversy aren’t always bad – from them, assumptions are challenged, mirrors held up for reflection, new ideas developed, and, importantly, timeless ideas defended.

If we’re not willing to subject our opinions and beliefs to rigorous scrutiny in the marketplace of ideas, then why have them? Faith – being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see – is good; blind faith with deaf ears and a closed mind is intellectually deadly and, in a civic context, an invitation to totalitarianism.

Thomas Jefferson said, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.” The recent growth of government is disturbing, and it’s well on the way to taking everything we have. Whether an outrageous “Stimulus Package” in Washington, D.C.; a 34 percent increase in state spending over the past four years; or higher taxes and fees in Kirkland, people now work more, pay more, have less, and, quite literally, lose freedom.

It never ceases to amaze me how blithely we surrender our freedoms or how benign we regard the presence of government in our lives. When I was an undergraduate, a political science professor smugly remarked that, unlike Europeans, the post office was our only constant government presence. Now, we’re neck-and-neck with them in a race to allow government to control, manage, or regulate every facet of our lives.

I hate that. I fight that.

I am a free man capable of making my own way. As such, undue governmental interference, including so-called “government benefits,” is anathema. Government corrupts because it is corrupt by nature, which is why the Founding Fathers put so many restrictions, now ignored, on its growth and operation. They knew firsthand what it was like to live under an intrusive and oppressive government that taxed them unmercifully, without regard to the natural rights of the people.

That brings me to moving. I’m lucky – at my age not many get a golden second chance, but I did. Out of the blue, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based, non-partisan, non-profit, free-market, public-policy think tank, asked whether I would consider joining them as a journalist. They wanted someone to investigate and write about Washington State Ferries, which is life-long job security. (Read my work at www.Ferry-Tales.org.)

Instead of being a part-time warrior in the fight for freedom, I could do battle all day, every day. How could life get any better?

I was on it like a hammer on a nail. It was time: My children are grown, my business ceased being fun (or profitable), it was time to sell the house, and other factors added up to making a change. With the help of my remodel-contractor son, the house was spruced up and sold – fortunate yet again.

And on the day of this writing, I bought a little blue house in Lacey. Soon, my household goods and I will uproot, move south, and bid Kirkland, my home of 28-years, adieu.

I am grateful to the Reporter for affording me a platform to express a perspective not often seen in a community newspaper. And I’m deeply grateful to you, the readers, who were outraged, infuriated, maddened to the point of writing letters to the editor, or, occasionally, appreciative for something I said. I’ll miss that.