One of my little pleasures in my spare time is reading my hometown newspaper. It is one of those twice-weekly papers, and the "news" is actually several days old when it appears in the paper. But that is not the point of these "hometown" papers, anyway. Unlike the "big" newspapers that must compete for your business by publishing the most shocking news possible, the hometown papers publish items like "Quilting Circle to Meet at Mrs. Smith's House Tuesday," or "News from Mound" (for those who don't know, Mound is small community outside of Gatesville, Texas, and is located just above "the Flat" and not too far away from "the Grove."). "News" like this would never see the light of day in the New York Times, or even the Waco Tribune-Herald.
Another quaint touch one finds in the old hometown paper are little tidbits of wisdom that somehow work their way each issue. The Gatesville Messenger, for instance, each week features a question from a reader. The question is answered by the appropriate local official, such as the chief of police or the city manager. Just the other day one such question was directed at the county judge. The reader asked who was responsible for cleaning up trash along county roads, and why was there such a "plague" of litter along the roadways? The county judge provided the appropriate answer, but perhaps did not realize how very profound his answer was, given the current situation in which we, as a nation, find ourselves. The judge said simply, "The "plague" is caused by people illegally discarding trash (emphasis mine). Government can never be big enough to solve all the problems (emphasis mine again), and individuals need to take responsibility for doing what's right."
As I read that judge's answer I was again struck by the simple profoundness of his statement, and the way we as a nation, and in particular, our national politicians, have strayed away from these ideals. You see, at the local level our politicians know that local government cannot be "big enough" to solve all the problems in a community, a city, a county, or even a state. At the local level, our politicians know that they are responsible to the people for their actions. City and county officials know that they have to live within their respective budgets. They know that they must represent the people or they will soon be out of office.
At the national level, it seems to be a different story. Many times we, the People, expect "the Government" to be so strong, so powerful, that it can solve every problem known to mankind. We forget sometimes that no government - local or federal - can ever provide complete and total security, total health care, total happiness, or total fulfillment of our dreams. No government can protect or please every one of us at all times. Governments, whether democratic or totalitarian, cannot "solve" every problem that we have, every crisis facing humanity. But governments, when allowed to by the people, can become so large and cumbersome that they take billions of dollars to operate, and intrude in so many aspects of our lives. Government agencies, many created with the best of intentions, seem to feed on themselves, costing ever more to run, demanding ever more power, and going so far beyond their original scope of purpose. These agencies, over the years, become the controllers of the people, instead of the other way around.
I think back to the words of the judge of that rural county, and the wisdom, the profoundness, of his straightforward answer. He said no government can be big enough to solve our problems. What better proof of his statement than our own federal government. The government envisaged by its founders was to be a limited government under the strict control of the people, and brought into existence ONLY TO BENEFIT THE PEOPLE, not to dominate every aspect of our lives, while literally draining our lives from us. You see, money is simply a way of saving the results of our work. We work a full day, we make a full wage. And it is only proper to use part of that wage to support our government at all levels. But that very government has grown to monstrous proportions, with power beyond our control, demanding our lives in the form of taxes on our wages. Now we work an average of three months to pay taxes, and only get to keep the remaining nine months' wages for our own. And our federal government constantly demands more, constantly grows, and seems to be out of control.
Remember the words of that county judge? No government can be big enough to solve our problems. In fact, just the opposite is true. The federal government has grown so large and out of control that it IS our problem. It seems that all our efforts to rein in the federal government have failed. New agencies are constantly created. Existing agencies demand AND RECEIVE more power. The president himself circumvents constitutional checks and balances by means of the infamous "executive order." Our government, with each administration, presents the "largest federal budget in history." At the same time, every administration creates larger and larger debt. Giant government, oppressive budgets, and yet we still have so many problems that never get "solved," and in fact seem to get worse each passing day.
Now the time again draws near for another national election. I am not here to tell you how to vote, other than the urge you to study those candidates that you favor and find out how they really stack up on all the issues that concern you. I urge you to continue to demand accountability and fiscal responsibility from your local politicians. More importantly, I urge you to demand the same kind of accountability from your national representatives and your president. I urge you to actually READ the United States Constitution someday, and to understand not only your "rights," but also to understand how our government is supposed to work. Above all I urge you to understand that the government is supposed to be, was intended to be, our servant, NOT OUR MASTER. Finally I urge us all to understand and grasp that, just as we are responsible for not littering or illegally dumping trash, we are also responsible for demanding accountability from our government, including our federal government. We will soon be electing a president and our national representatives. There is no better time than now to begin the process of turning out those politicians, including even the president, who are not truly representing us, and who are sending this nation down the long road of decline and mediocrity that we seem to be traveling at the moment. Let the upcoming election mark the day that we, the People, once again became the master of our government, and not its slaves.
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