For Anne Arundel County Councilman Pete Smith to suggest that a third term would provide greater institutional knowledge provide greater benefits to constituents ignores the purpose of a "citizen legislature" ("Smith proposes third term for council members," July 10). From the beginning of our Republic, it was the wisdom of the Founders to make certain that power would not reside in the hands of a few. They feared that any concentration of power would be contradictory to the nature of a democratic republic.
The citizenry wants their representatives to serve and then return to their community lives. The formal extension of any political office for a dozen years is contrary to the spirit and the purpose of representative government. We are living through a period where our legislators in all levels, federal, state and local, have embedded roots in government. They form cozy relations with lobbyists and special interests. Many legislators have spent most of their adult life in government.
There is a solution to this issue that would be effective in combating the "career" legislator. No legislator on any level of government should be granted a retirement pension and legislators should only have access to health insurance while they are in elected office. I think you will see that this prohibition would create effective term limits and act as a governor on careerism that permeates American government.
Carl LaVerghetta, Arnold