Editorial for Newspaper

I wrote this for our newspaper. They publish about half of what I write...

It was a plumber who submitted the idea to cap BP's blowout. And an engineering firm determined a way to sever the mangled pipes and valves a mile deep under the sea. All across America there are people who fix things. Your refrigerator doesn't work? There's a guy you can call. There's a raccoon inn your attic? There are people who can fix even oddball things. We are a nation that fixes.

The government couldn't fix any part of the oil spill. First we watched a sad news conference given by a deer-in-the-headlights Admiral. With no training in petroleum engineering he could only give vague assurances. There were fire booms not purchased even though Congress had authorized money. Skimmers were waiting while regulators wouldn't approve. Our President got angry at BP but did little except try to shut down the entire deepwater drilling industry.

The same inability to fix seems to plague state governments. California may be the next Greece if they can't bear to fix their fiscal incontinence. Oklahoma's Tax Equalization Board couldn't predict the shortfall of revenue by a whopping 20% even though they could observe the recession that swept the rest of the country a year earlier. Educrats can only postulate a fix of our schools by demanding we spend more, like Texas and Kansas. Wouldn't "fix" be defined as spending less yet getting a better product?

Some plumber needs to figure out a way to fix government. It is coming. Our nation's founders fixed the problem of government that saw itself as a divine right entity with a mission to order every aspect of lives. But the founders saw a nation of men who believed in God who wanted them free. Government would be limited, not a master, but a servant. Have you ever looked at the list of signatures of those who signed the Declaration of Independence? I can't identify most of them. That is how it is meant to be. America was not meant to be a nation of professional politicians, but of folks who fixed freedom and then went back to their homes to live as ordinary, free preople. The struggle continues. We are those founders. Our job is to get involved politically and fix our government. We seek no name. We will work the job and go home free.