Override anger and government spending
Back when I was a kid in the Navy I was stationed on a ship in the Middle East (USS LaSalle). Several of us young guys were taken in by a Navy family who was stationed on the base. They were a surrogate family for us. Ernie, the head of the family was a lifer who had his wife and 3 kids living with him off base. He and his wife were pretty close to being my parent’s age and I had a great deal of respect for them, as I did for my parents. As the years went by the family moved to Massachusetts and both of our families grew close. My parents spent a lot of time with them, holidays, birthdays, vacations…My father was a WW2 vet and Ernie was Vietnam Era vet so they had a lot in common. One of the main things they spent their time doing was complaining about everything government, particularly taxes. I never spent any real time listening to these two old guys. I had day to day issues to think about and I had no use for political talk.
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When Ernie was discharged after his 20 years he used the GI Bill. The government paid for him to go to college full time and he became professor on Middle East studies. Growing up in the generation he did he smoked, as did his wife, as did my father. Years go on; both he and my father get sick with lung disease. Ernie had many complications, several of which required operations which cost over $70,000. The government paid for this care. Soon after this he was so sick he wound up in the nursing home. Again, the government paid the bill. And still he smoked. Until the day he died he still smoked, and was in total denial that it was smoking that did him in. And his wife still smoked after…
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What I’m trying to get to is that what we had were 2 old guys in denial about where the money was coming from to take care of them while they abused themselves. They were SO ANGRY with the government that they couldn’t be thankful for the good things the government did for them, for the schooling for them and their kids, the HUGE health care bills that they wracked up due to their poor life styles. As time went on they were more and more angry… My father’s pet peeve was the SPACE PROGRAM. Never mind the myriad of inventions spawned by it. Their taxes dollars were being wasted.
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I see this in the angry letters to the editor about the town override for the schools. Yes, there’s abuse of our tax dollars, but be thankful for all that we get from our government. You may be angry, but don’t take your anger out on the kids. The greatest expansion that this country ever had was post WW2 when the government paid for the GI’s to go back to school. These were the golden days of our country, no other nation could compete. Some of the greatest technical minds of the world immigrated to this country, many from our enemy, Germany. No other nation could compete with our technologies. Slowly but surely other countries followed our governments lead and made primary and secondary schooling priorities; they could see that the only way they could compete with the US was to invest in their kids. As time went on we rested on our laurels while much of the rest of the world caught up technologically and in some areas surpassed us.
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If our country is to stay in the position it’s in it’s going to be our kids keeping it there. To hold back on funding their education is being short sighted. The future is our kids. They have to be able to compete with their peers from other countries. I fear for them, they’re up against some very tough competition. Don’t let your anger for the government get in the way of doing right by our kids.
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Paul Singley
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89 Saddleworth Way
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Middleboro, Ma.
Themocracy
To which I would add: don’t let your short-sighted anger get in the way of doing right by yourself, either.
I don’t want to live in a world where there is no money for schools, public safety, roads, health care, mental illness, welfare and everything else. I don’t want to live in a world where a Tea Party crowd callously shows contempt for human suffering ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-protesters-bera_n_504183.html ).
This “populist revolt” against government and taxes is going to do a lot of long lasting damage to us if it succeeds.
Why does a populist revolt exist? Maybe…just maybe….a good portion of the population is just tired of the way things are run. To dismiss, demonize and write of as cranks the Tea Party movement and not take them seriously is a fatal flaw that will have some politicians looking for another feedbag. This is already happening. For myself all I have ever wished is that when a bill is proposed there is a clear explanation of where the funding is coming from. Rarely have I ever seen that. This is institutional malaise at its absolute worse. Shame on the executive and legislative branch. As far as taxes the government takes in enough but seems to have a problem with allocation. By the way no one is ever stopping anyone from paying more taxes. In Massachusetts you have that option.
But back to the main issue of the letter and the override. This does not stand a chance. Bad timing. I will vote for it. I admire prop 2 and 1/2 since it puts the decision making process directly in the hands of the electorate as is the case now. The most significant concern is exactly what is going to happen to override money in year two? Or three? This is a permanent increase that will not be allocated year after year to the schools.
Thank you Paul for a well written editorial.. So well said and great to read!!!
Donna
Look, I can appreciate some of what the Tea Party wants. I also know that not every Tea Party member is a homophobic moron with a big flag on their truck and Jesus in their heart.
But you have to admit that in this case, politics makes for some pretty dumb bed-fellows. Even if I agreed with everything in the TP philosophy, I would never be associated just because the company I’d have to keep.
Yes, that’s elitist and smacks of intelligentsia prejudice. Still.. that group can get pretty disgusting.