I was delighted to read the quote from your February 19 speech at Scituate High School, as reported by the Scituate Mariner on February 26: “If you do not want a decision to be made politically, do not ask 535 politicians to make it.” My delight may seem unusual given that I am a conservative and have therefore strongly disagreed with virtually the entirety of the statements you have made, positions you have taken, and philosophies you have held throughout your political career.   On this occasion, however, we are in agreement, and I welcome the opportunity that our accord enables.

In taking advantage of that opportunity, allow me to submit a list of decisions that I am asking you and other politicians not to make.

• Please do not decide how the economy should be stimulated through government taxation, borrowing, and spending on behalf of the taxpayers. Instead, protect the freedom of consumers and producers to decide the manner, time, and amount in which they spend their own money, invest their own profits, and incur their own debt, thereby allowing inevitable economic cycles to restore a sustainable prosperity.

• Please do not decide who should receive a mortgage through manipulation and control of the finance market. Instead, protect the freedom of depositors, lenders and borrowers to decide their own level of risk, thereby allowing the free market to reward prudence and thrift, and punish imprudence and greed.

• Please do not decide what should be said on the public airwaves through re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine. Instead, protect the freedom of broadcasters and listeners to decide what they will say and to what they listen, thereby allowing the natural balance between these decisions to determine content.

• Please do not decide when labor should organize through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Instead, protect the freedom or workers to decide their association and negotiate its conditions without coercion from unions, employers, and government, thereby allowing unions to serve their members, rather than compelling members to serve a union.

• Please do not decide where healthcare must be obtained through the imposition of a national system. Instead, protect the freedom of patients and providers to decide on their own care, caregivers, and spending priorities, thereby allowing the innovation and diversity that competition provides.

I think it unlikely that you made your statement with the above requests in mind. But as I have taken the opportunity of your statement to propose them, I hope you will take the opportunity of my propositions to reconsider your positions: every decision that politicians make for the people is one that the people are no longer free to make for themselves.   Please decide to protect our freedom.