THE FLEET WE CALL OUR GOVERNMENT

The fleet we call our government – an image to consider

When we talk about government, look how many levels we have. Township, town, city, county, state, and federal.

I’m not a navy guy, but here is your image. The US Navy has all kinds of ships. Over the years, we’ve learned about the nimble PT boats of John F. Kennedy and in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. There are troop ships, destroyers, cruisers, submarines, etc etc etc, with the grand daddy of them all being those huge aircraft carriers that are truly cities on a keel.

We’ve also learned that those aircraft carriers aren’t quite as nimble as those PT boats. It takes a good long time to alter course with an aircraft carrier – heck, a PT boat can virtually run circles around one of those aircraft carriers – or so it would seem.

So what does that have to do with our government? Those various levels of government I mentioned have the same agility in comparison. You want a road plowed in a township? Go to a meeting, you’ll get your yes or no pretty much right now. At the county or city level, that question might get through but would need some study first, the state level would take it under advisement and the feds? You’ll have to fill things out in triplicate, winnow them through 800 different agencies, and then maybe you’ll get on an agenda. In a year. Or so.

So, is it safe to say that the Federal level is an aircraft carrier — terribly potent, but by nature so very slow to maneuver?

Unfortunately, yes, it is. Though we look to the Federal government for its big guns, we can’t be too terribly surprised when it takes a seemingly inordinate amount of time to function. That’s what we’re seeing with the way things are going on that level when it comes to the pandemic.

So, no matter who is in charge of that aircraft carrier – a commander, an admiral, a team of workers, don’t be so gawdawful surprised that things are moving slowly at that level. Its inherent — but once they get it working, watch out.

In the meantime, our other levels are at it, doing their necessary work as well. Let them do their work, too.

No. 10 (Napowrimo) an UN-Love Poem

A Thinly Veiled Opinion

Of Opinions

 

This one insists

Things are too far that way

 

This one contends

Things are too far that way

 

So they fight

And bicker

And snarl

And crab –

Absent of any sense of respect.

 

They revel in the weeds

Of their own deceit and self-importance

 

Such folks

Fool themselves into eating

 

Thistles and nightshade

Convinced that their dinner

Is a healthy cornucopia of correctness

All the while ignoring the fruits of cooperation.

 

Perhaps we’ll be lucky

And they’ll choke on their own wishes.