I had a cousin named Hal, so I liked him right from the start. He was of my parent’s generation and farmed near where my grandparents had their land in western Iowa. Hal was one of the good guys, and while I was named “Harold,” and called Hal, mostly in honor of my paternal grandfather, I suspect my parents saw my name at least in part also honoring Cousin Hal.

Hal and my Dad were both in World War II. While I know my father’s service record – culminating in his work on the Manhattan Project to build the first A-bomb – I don’t really know much about how Cousin Hal served. But I do know one thing about his time in the Army, and that’s how he stepped up as part of the greatest generation.

It seems Hal had a sweetheart back in Iowa before the war, my future cousin Helen. Hal was already off in military training and so the two got married when Hal was home on a 10-day furlough. I hope they had a nice ceremony, because the moment his furlough ended, Hal shipped out to Europe, for a while.

That “while” ended up being over four years. You see, the generation that fought WWII didn’t do a year’s tour then head home. Most were in for the duration, and Hal fought across the European theater, fighting for his, his family’s, and my, future freedom. Hal went to war for four years after marrying Helen, and we are now being asked to stay home for a couple of weeks, perhaps a bit longer. I bet we can do it. So as you struggle to stay on your couch watching TV, remember Hal. I’m betting he’d have changed places with you. Please stay home and help protect the remaining members of the greatest generation.

Which, of course, brings me to the census.

While the virus has certainly made conducting the census more challenging, happily in an era of widely available internet connections, most of us will be able to complete the document from home. But why should you fill out the census? Don’t you have the freedom to do what you want? Didn’t the Founding Fathers want us to be free of such governmental intrusion?

As it turns out, not so much.

You see, the Founders thought a once-every-decade count of everyone in the country was such an important idea, they stuck it right there in the heart of the Constitution. Take a peek at Article I, Section 2 (very close to the front) where the Founders explicitly direct that the federal government will complete an “actual enumeration” of those in the U.S. every 10 years. So, if you are a believer in “Founders’ intent” and call yourself an “originalist,” you should have no objection to filling out your census documents.

Why is the census a big deal? Well, there are obvious results, such as the reapportioning of congressional seats, to balance out the representation in the House more fairly. It also has a major impact on what federal dollars will be available to Colorado and the other states, as well as your local community.

That is why, FYI, we don’t want to just count citizens. The Founders wanted everyone here counted, to help promote a fair distribution of resources. An undercount of the population, say, in Denver, could result in Colorado seeing a major reduction in federal funds, making things like education, law enforcement, and food distributions more difficult.

And if the results of the 2020 census come out like experts think they should, Colorado is likely to pick up a seat in the House of Representatives, which increases Colorado’s influence in D.C. It will also impact Pell Grants for students, Medicare payments to our older folks (as I just turned 62 and am now in various definitions of “old” though I choose to just say “older”), and Head Start programs. It is very much in your personal self-interest to complete the census and it’s also the law. And, as I said, it will help Colorado.

Did you know the Census Bureau works all the time, not just every 10 years? That organization conducts a wide variety of polling and measurements all the time, which help a variety of governmental programs to be better administered. A friend of my wife, for example, was a census taker in prisons, where she would go to interview the inmates. Remember, the Founders’ wanted everyone counted.

And so, to tie these seemingly disparate thoughts together, now that you are home, grab that census envelope you got in the mail, hop on your computer or smart phone, and follow the directions. The whole thing took me 10 minutes tops, and I could almost feel the approval of the Founders, oozing across America (Ed: how poetic, sheesh!).

So, stay home, wash your hands, and fill out the census. It’s what Jefferson and Hamilton would have wanted.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.