Letter: Census promotes our alienation

Thursday, March 16, 2000 | 9:34 a.m.

Americans need to be on guard. The census is for the sole purpose of determining population size for congressional apportionment. The Constitution is clear in this regard. Our representative form of government provides that we, the people, effect change by participation in government.

Feeding private and personal information to the census taker with the expectation that such information will circumvent representative government is tantamount to feeding and encouraging totalitarianism. It should be our representatives in government who ask us questions, not door-knocking novices hired by a federal agency! Don't help drive the wedge between the people and the tax-collecting government.

The Census Bureau promotes further alienation from rather than participation in government. Help preserve representative government by not answering unconstitutional questions. By refusing to answer unconstitutional questions on the census, you uphold the need for representatives to talk directly to the people, thus promoting participatory government.

JACQUELINE NELSON

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