Visiem ir vajadzīga misija. Gan uzņēmumiem, gan cilvēkiem, gan valdībai. Ilgtermiņa misijas neesamība ir viens no šīs krīzes cēloņiem. Ar misijas palīdzību būs iespējams iedvesmot cilvēkus un koncentrēties uz valstī esošajiem resursiem.
Ņemot vērā to, ka valstī norisinās diskusijas par valdības mērķiem un misiju, esmu sagatavojis vēstuli premjerministram V. Dombrovskim, kas ir manis veidotā R. Reigana 1981.gada 20.janvāra vēstījuma adaptācija. ASV tajā laikā bija dziļā krīzē, bet Reigana kungs tomēr kļuva par vienu no veiksmīgākajiem prezidentiem valsts vēsturē. Domāju, ka R. Reigana vēstījums ir aktuāls gan Latvijas, gan arī citu valstu valdībām.
Atvainojos par valodu. Izvēlējos angļu versiju, lai neriskētu ar to, ka tiek izmainīts rakstītā saturs.
Mr. Premier and Latvian citizens!
Mr. Premier, I want your fellow citizens to know how much you did accepting this post in this transition process, you have shown a watching world that you are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other. The business of your nation goes forward. Latvia is confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. You suffer from one of the worst financial crisis of your history. It distorts economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of thousands of your people.
Idle companies have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps you from maintaining full productivity.
But great as your tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For years you have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging your future and your children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should you think that collectively, as a nation, you're not bound by that same limitation? You must act today in order to preserve tomorrow.
The economic ills you suffer have come upon you over several years. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because you as Latvians have the capacity now, as you've had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to your problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions you seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
We hear much of special interest groups. Well, your concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise your food, patrol your streets, man your factories, teach your children, keep your homes, and heal you when you're sick--professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers.
Well, this administration's objective should be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Latvians, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting Latvia back to work means putting all Latvians back to work. All must share in the productive work of this "new beginning," and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. With idealism and fair play as core of your system and your strength, you can have a strong and prosperous Latvia, at peace with itself and the world.
So, as you begin, let us take inventory. You are a nation that has a government--not the other way around. Your government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.
Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it shouldn't be your intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work--work with the people, not over the people; to stand by people's side, not ride on its back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. It is time for you to realize that you're too great a nation to limit yourselves to small dreams. You're not, as some would have you believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on you no matter what you do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on you if you do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at your command, let's begin an era of national renewal. Let's renew your determination, your courage, and your strength. And let's renew your faith and your hope.
You have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed everyone and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter, and they're on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They're individuals and families whose taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and education. Their patriotism is quiet, but deep. Their values sustain your national life.
We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can you love your country and not love your countrymen; and loving them, reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they're sick, and provide opportunity to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory?
In the days ahead you have to propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed your economy and reduced productivity. Progress may be slow, measured in inches and feet, not miles, but there should be progress. It is time to reawaken the industry, to get government back within its means, and to lighten your punitive tax burden. And these should be your first priorities, and on these principles there should be no compromise.
Once I heard a story about a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barbershop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.
We're told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."
The crisis you are facing today does not require of you the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, your best effort and your willingness to believe in yourselves and to believe in your capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God's help you can and will resolve the problems which now confront you.
And after all, why shouldn't you believe that? You are Latvians.
God bless you, and thank you.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
