Column for June 21, 2012

Interestingly, every five years or so, the calendar repeats itself day for day.  June 21, 2012 falls on a Thursday just as it did in 2007.  Every so often, I like to look back over some old columns I wrote and see what the topic of the week was.  The more things change, the more they stay the same sometimes.

Five years ago, Selma was dealing with an upheaval and restructuring in its fire department.  There were some ungrateful, selfish, and childish individuals that did not want to relinquish their good old boy system, being opposed by some people who wanted to reform the old system for the benefit of and accountability to the town.  I would say that five years later, Chief Phillip McDaniel seems to have done a stellar job with what he has to work with in Selma.  There seems to have been an improvement in response and in our ISO rating.  I have heard no major rumblings about the department other than seeking to raise the fire tax in the unincorporated areas served by the department.

The crux of that column was about maintaining rational thought rather than being blindly ruled by emotions.  Ironically enough, I dealt with that concept a bit just within the last few weeks.

Five years ago, gun control legislation, backed by the occasionally spineless National Rifle Association, was being rammed through Congress under the guise of providing better background checks for gun purchasers.  Holy flaming dog poo!  I just dealt with that same sort of topic two weeks ago.  Gun control is a constant battle.  Freedom lovers have to be vigilant in order to keep resisting this incessant nuisance.  We have to say, “No, No, No, No” every single time it comes up.  If we say, “Yes” just once, we have lost that freedom, most likely forever.

Five years ago, school funding was a battle of irrational fear versus level headed common sense.  Wouldn’t you know it?  I dealt with that some just last week.  The subject of taxing internet gaming establishments for the purposes of school funding came up, “for the children” and the emotional hype that comes with educational claims of need.  Freedom hating liberals are going to try to fund school systems in which we attempt to prepare students to enter the world with ethics and fairness with unfair taxation upon what some consider to be a vice.  The problem is that once the government claims to despise an activity such as gambling and attempts to eradicate it but instead taxes it as a vice, it becomes dependent upon its very existence for a revenue stream.  It is the same paradox that exists with taxing tobacco to fund public health care systems.  Legislators want to curb a behavior by taxing it.  That taxation works somewhat to discourage the behavior, which drops tax revenue, so they raise the tax rate to raise revenue.  It is a vicious circle.

Five years ago, the Congress of the United States was attempting to mandate insurance companies include prescription drug benefits for RU-486, often called the abortion pill.  Just recently, we have seen the Obama Administration unilaterally require insurance companies to provide birth control pills at no cost to subscribers, even if it violates the conscience or religious values of plan administrators, employers, and benefit providers.  Again, the constant “NO” vigilance is required in order to preserve our freedom from government incursion and usurpation.

Five years ago, the county was being asked to fund a private therapeutic horse riding center.  This is a classic case of “just because it is a good idea does not mean it is something we should be doing with public funding”.  Just within the past few months, the Selma Town Council had to take some tough decisions on whether or not to continue using public funds for charities.  I realize that these charitable line items in the budget have traditionally not been huge, and there is actually some benefit to the people being served by the agencies.  However, the Council had to consider whether or not it was appropriate to spend taxpayer funds on nice endeavors.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.