Every once in a while, my thoughts in life seem to fall in direct order with something I will see or hear. I have had a few conversations recently with people and even written about my living in Johnston County and my involvement in public activities over the years. I believe in getting involved, whether at the governmental level, in Christian service, in a group like Cub Scouts, or even banging away on this keyboard for years. I endeavor to leave my impact on my town, my county, my state, and my nation in one way or another. It may be through my offspring or via my direct influence.
Sometimes I wonder if anything I write or say has an impact. Recently I had a conversation with a young man with whom I was engaged in a disagreement. Weeks later he came to me and told me that something I said during that less than calm dispute stuck with him. A seed was planted, took root, and bore fruit. This young man’s life was seemingly changed for the better.
Recently I had a conversation with someone who has stepped their foot into the local public spotlight. I was told that this person’s family reads my column regularly, for which I am grateful to hear. I have long said that I want to impact people’s thought patterns for the better, which in my opinion, would be the adherence to the principles I have been hammering away on and espousing here for the past five years.
Do I do it for the pay? (Snicker, snicker!) Good grief, no. My pay has remained the same for the past five years, which is the satisfaction of knowing that my ramblings are printed here each and every week and that people, whether they love or hate me, are reading. I do get a free copy of this paper every week, though, so I guess you could say that I do it for the satisfaction, the love of writing, and a $20 subscription. And for those, I am both very grateful and content. I am happy just being a small town newspaper columnist.
Many times I have listened to big name talk radio show hosts and known that I am better than what I was hearing come through the speakers of my stereo or streaming on my computer. Though I wonder why those opportunities come to some and not others, I am learning more and more to be content. I am striving to live out Paul’s admonition in 1 Timothy 6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Just this Sunday, I listened to a sermon that dealt with our attitudes towards government officials. I admit that I often fall short on that topic, primarily because there is so much of which to be critical and I happen to be a rather outspoken individual, having no shortage of opinions. Those opinions have grown and matured over time to a place where I feel comfortable with what I believe. Ergo I am confident to and endeavor to be a beacon with a truthful, steady message. Anyway, the passage mentioned was out of the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 29. “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (CEV).
Sometimes I feel like I am in exile, maybe even Babylon. I never wanted to move to Johnston County. I was quite satisfied living in Raleigh with the exception of the ever increasing rent on a townhouse I was renting. It took God Himself telling me that he wanted me in Johnston County to get me to move here. I have often wondered why. I have now been a Johnstonian for about fourteen years and a “Selmite” for nine. Wherever I find myself planted, I endeavor to seek the welfare of the city where I was sent. I try to do so with this column, with my community involvement at various levels, it is why I ran for elected office, and why I will continue to plug away at what I know to do.
The Jeremiah 29:7 principle sums up my reason for being in this town. I need to pray more for our community. I am sure that we all do.
Showing posts with label cub scouts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cub scouts. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Column for June 16, 2011
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of taking a camping and whitewater rafting trip with a pack of Cub Scouts in the North Carolina mountains. Since we were in Swain and Jackson counties, we visited the area’s famous “Road to Nowhere” (or “Tunnel to Nowhere”, depending upon whom you ask). It is a classic example of government stupidity. I did some research on the tunnel and road project and unfortunately found that this is not an isolated case. If you are on the internet, use a search engine to look for “road to nowhere” and “tunnel to nowhere”. You will be amazed at what you find.
In this case, the US Government took a great deal of land from residents with the promise of building a new road. The Tennessee Valley Authority was going to take the land (including a regularly used road) to build a man made lake. The new road was supposed to link residents to the town of Fontana and some family burial grounds stranded by the TVA project. This began in the 1930’s and stretched through the 1940’s. After building only six miles of road, including a tunnel through 1200 feet of rock, the road project was abandoned by 1969. That left the other promised 26 miles of road undone. Forty years later, instead of finishing the promised road, the federal government just gave Swain County $52 million to settle the issue.
There are several things I take away from this debacle. First, that the government is, in general, inefficient at keeping its promises and really has little regard for the personal inconvenience it inflicts upon its citizenry. I’ll have more on that later. Second, if you have a dispute with the government, it can take a half century to resolve the problem, and in a manner generally unacceptable to those most severely affected. Third, the government is actually capable of abandoning projects and spending.
Depending upon your source, it is said that the Bryson City “road to nowhere” (which literally just stops at a horse trail on the side of a mountain. I walked through the tunnel and on the road to its terminal point) was discontinued because of funding. If the government can stop paying for a project that it can not afford, why can we not do the same with entitlement programs? Why can we not stop wasteful spending? When we hired too many staff members in government, schools, and/or obsolete, duplicate programs, why can we not stop spending on them, just like the road to nowhere?
To put an exclamation point on my perspective, just this afternoon I was sitting in stopped traffic on the Durham Freeway because all traffic was blocked in all directions around Durham and the RDU Airport because President Obama was giving essentially a campaign speech. When it was time for him to leave town, law enforcement closed down traffic, essentially shutting down the area for the movement of one person and his “yes men”.
The ironic thing is that the business he visited in Durham is Cree, Inc. Cree is a company that manufactures energy efficient lighting and employs about 5,000 people. He was supposed to talk about American job growth. This business has half of it employees in China and yet benefited from a $39 million advanced energy manufacturing tax credit through the last stimulus spending package. They have also received nearly two million dollars of direct taxpayer funding for research and development. OK, if tax breaks yield business development, why don’t we just lower taxes across the board? It worked for George Bush, Ronald Reagan, and John Kennedy.
I wonder just how much this major traffic inconvenience cost the US taxpayer. I am sure it was in the millions of dollars considering the employees who could not show up to work and were not paid because of the security, the cost of flying Air Force One and ground transportation into Durham, the cost of security at all levels of government, and the loss of advertising revenue on broadcast outlets that covered the speech.
If we can drop a promised construction project that would have given great benefit to a lot of people in a poor section of the country who lost their ancestral homeland to eminent domain, why can we not stop spending millions of dollars for a sitting politician to give campaign speeches at taxpayer expense? This is especially ironic and painful when I consider the fact that President Obama gave a speech on job creation and business recovery when he, probably more than anyone else, is directly responsible for the lack thereof.
We have proven that we can stop spending. Why, oh why can we not stop spending in areas that just plain make sense?
In this case, the US Government took a great deal of land from residents with the promise of building a new road. The Tennessee Valley Authority was going to take the land (including a regularly used road) to build a man made lake. The new road was supposed to link residents to the town of Fontana and some family burial grounds stranded by the TVA project. This began in the 1930’s and stretched through the 1940’s. After building only six miles of road, including a tunnel through 1200 feet of rock, the road project was abandoned by 1969. That left the other promised 26 miles of road undone. Forty years later, instead of finishing the promised road, the federal government just gave Swain County $52 million to settle the issue.
There are several things I take away from this debacle. First, that the government is, in general, inefficient at keeping its promises and really has little regard for the personal inconvenience it inflicts upon its citizenry. I’ll have more on that later. Second, if you have a dispute with the government, it can take a half century to resolve the problem, and in a manner generally unacceptable to those most severely affected. Third, the government is actually capable of abandoning projects and spending.
Depending upon your source, it is said that the Bryson City “road to nowhere” (which literally just stops at a horse trail on the side of a mountain. I walked through the tunnel and on the road to its terminal point) was discontinued because of funding. If the government can stop paying for a project that it can not afford, why can we not do the same with entitlement programs? Why can we not stop wasteful spending? When we hired too many staff members in government, schools, and/or obsolete, duplicate programs, why can we not stop spending on them, just like the road to nowhere?
To put an exclamation point on my perspective, just this afternoon I was sitting in stopped traffic on the Durham Freeway because all traffic was blocked in all directions around Durham and the RDU Airport because President Obama was giving essentially a campaign speech. When it was time for him to leave town, law enforcement closed down traffic, essentially shutting down the area for the movement of one person and his “yes men”.
The ironic thing is that the business he visited in Durham is Cree, Inc. Cree is a company that manufactures energy efficient lighting and employs about 5,000 people. He was supposed to talk about American job growth. This business has half of it employees in China and yet benefited from a $39 million advanced energy manufacturing tax credit through the last stimulus spending package. They have also received nearly two million dollars of direct taxpayer funding for research and development. OK, if tax breaks yield business development, why don’t we just lower taxes across the board? It worked for George Bush, Ronald Reagan, and John Kennedy.
I wonder just how much this major traffic inconvenience cost the US taxpayer. I am sure it was in the millions of dollars considering the employees who could not show up to work and were not paid because of the security, the cost of flying Air Force One and ground transportation into Durham, the cost of security at all levels of government, and the loss of advertising revenue on broadcast outlets that covered the speech.
If we can drop a promised construction project that would have given great benefit to a lot of people in a poor section of the country who lost their ancestral homeland to eminent domain, why can we not stop spending millions of dollars for a sitting politician to give campaign speeches at taxpayer expense? This is especially ironic and painful when I consider the fact that President Obama gave a speech on job creation and business recovery when he, probably more than anyone else, is directly responsible for the lack thereof.
We have proven that we can stop spending. Why, oh why can we not stop spending in areas that just plain make sense?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
