An Ode To The Role Of Big Government

In the wake of hurricane Sandy, a vision of the federal government as our savior has emerged. This romanticized vision of the benefits of an ever expanding government taking control to affect everything, from our waistlines, to breast feeding, to mandatory vaccinations, to how we live and die needs to be considered. What price are we paying to allow the government to extend far beyond its role of protecting us from enemies by descending into a nanny state?

For some, the sight of people standing in lines for hours for gasoline or those huddled in their homes with limited or no supplies of food and water provide an answer to this question. For them, dependence on the government has led to potentially tragic vulnerability. We as a people have voluntarily ceded our individual authority and responsibility to a system that is designed to treat us as a collective group of children who are incapable of making decisions for the good of ourselves and of our families.

For others, fear is the predominant driving force that encourages them to remain passive in the name of safety while freedom to speak, think and strive to achieve one’s God given talent is systematically stripped away.

Does the good of the many really outweigh the needs of the few when we are moving ever more rapidly towards creating a society that is increasingly more petty, selfish and small minded in the name of ‘fairness’ and ‘spreading the wealth around’?

Perhaps if the government would actually take measures that would protect us from harm it would be worth the compromise. How about some real beneficial measures:

• Instead of the endless campaign against obesity with the useless moratorium on big gulps and large servings of popcorn at the movies, how about removing the subsidies which encourage the addition of high fructose corn syrup, which plays an essential role in the rise of obesity by placing it in hundreds of products that Americans consume daily.

• Instead of watching the cancer rates rise while spending increasing amounts of money on treatment leading to exploding healthcare costs, how about placing a moratorium on genetically modified foods and aspartame which studies show are potentially toxic.

• Instead of expanding no child left behind policies that have locked public school children in a bloated, wasteful, ineffective system that prides itself on fostering mediocrity, especially among the poor and minority children as evidenced by the recent decision of a Florida state board of education to set academic goals on the basis of race, perhaps it is time to give the power back to parents, teachers and the children who are left unable to compete successfully in society.

The chest thumping about the wonders of FEMA and the efficiency of the federal government leave lingering doubts when we think back to the people affected by hurricane Katrina who are still living in formaldehyde laced trailers or about the fiasco surrounding the oil spill in the Gulf.

The country is most definitely at a critical crossroads. Instead of drawing on emotions that encourage the divide and conquer strategy leading people to vote against a candidate because of hatred for their race, sex, or economic status, how about taking a step back, and voting for the interests of you, your family, and for the good of our nation.