Buffalo, NY
Well, that didn’t work. I stopped blogging the past 10 months to complete my doctorate. Fat chance! It seemed like a good idea at the time. So I’m exercising the writing habit again, hoping that some of it will rub off on my dissertation.
The rants of those who angrily slam government and rail against taxation have grown more pernicious in recent months. We the people deserve good government, but it's impossible to achieve when the evil menace of “big government” is constantly foisted upon us by the Tea Party and other forums for angry nativism, nationalism, and nihilism. We are certainly free to question government, of course, and to be skeptical about how our tax dollars are being spent. Yet the unrelenting assault for 30 years now on the very institutions and individuals we expect to serve us well has become a clear and present danger.
After all, who else but government can and should arm and protect our brave sons and daughters fighting for freedom? Who else will ensure that the airline flights we endure these days depart and land safely? Who else will pave our highways and save our wetlands? Who else will manage our public universities and community colleges? Who else will patrol our streets and extinguish our fires?
Ironically, the shrillest anti-tax voices are often the same people who nonetheless demand everything from a government they perpetually bash and, in the process, make less capable of actually delivering it. These are the same folks unable or unwilling to cite specific, meaningful examples of how to reduce the national deficit or cut big-ticket defense platforms designed to fight yesterday's Cold War. Hey, maybe that's what Tea Partyers mean when they state a longing for the way things used to be in this country. I don't think so.
Among the many painful lessons of the current financial debacle in Greece is what happens when citizens want it all but are unwilling to pay for it. The system collapses.
Well, that didn’t work. I stopped blogging the past 10 months to complete my doctorate. Fat chance! It seemed like a good idea at the time. So I’m exercising the writing habit again, hoping that some of it will rub off on my dissertation.
The rants of those who angrily slam government and rail against taxation have grown more pernicious in recent months. We the people deserve good government, but it's impossible to achieve when the evil menace of “big government” is constantly foisted upon us by the Tea Party and other forums for angry nativism, nationalism, and nihilism. We are certainly free to question government, of course, and to be skeptical about how our tax dollars are being spent. Yet the unrelenting assault for 30 years now on the very institutions and individuals we expect to serve us well has become a clear and present danger.
After all, who else but government can and should arm and protect our brave sons and daughters fighting for freedom? Who else will ensure that the airline flights we endure these days depart and land safely? Who else will pave our highways and save our wetlands? Who else will manage our public universities and community colleges? Who else will patrol our streets and extinguish our fires?
Ironically, the shrillest anti-tax voices are often the same people who nonetheless demand everything from a government they perpetually bash and, in the process, make less capable of actually delivering it. These are the same folks unable or unwilling to cite specific, meaningful examples of how to reduce the national deficit or cut big-ticket defense platforms designed to fight yesterday's Cold War. Hey, maybe that's what Tea Partyers mean when they state a longing for the way things used to be in this country. I don't think so.
Among the many painful lessons of the current financial debacle in Greece is what happens when citizens want it all but are unwilling to pay for it. The system collapses.