The Missing Link

Every year around election time, banners go about a plethora of local issues. Fire, police and school levies abound; the local government just needs a little bit more so they can provide better services. The problem is that we all need just a little bit more.

As I was driving the other day, I realized that what is missing is not a little bit more funding for our local services, but a little bit more community - within the community.

When your house is burning down, it's good to get everyone to safety; but then maybe we should think about saving our house. When your neighbors house is burning down, it might be a good idea to help them rather than just stand back and watch. Our society is gradually becoming trained to stand back and let the "professionals" do their job. Granted, some fires get huge and require special equipment, some criminals can't be reasoned with and some kids just don't want to be in school, but let's take some responsibility for ourselves.

Who's job is it to teach our children how to read, write, add and subtract. It is nice having a system that teaches the basics, but we cannot stand by and expect that system to do everything the way we want it. We cannot expect any system to be funded perfectly and not ever miss a step.

Do we expect our government to feed every hungry person in the country, when we have access to them every day? How much more efficient would it be to simply give a meal to someone, rather than pay someone to setup a program that organizes people to collect food and hire others to distribute it? There is always waste in the buearacratic system.

It may be necessary one do gather with your fellow brothers and sisters on this earth to stand together and say STOP!, when an armed robber steals from a bank. Can we really expect the police to simply be everywhere all the time ready to stop all lawbreakers? Perhaps we should stand together and defend our own communities. Do we really expect the police to handle things while we stand idely by?

Of course some of these examples may be extreme, but the concept is important. Giving more of our resources to the government will never solve the problem, it will only continue to fuel our reliance on government, ultimately forcing us to forget how to care for ourselves and how a community should act in mutual support of each other.

Conservative principles that put people first, lift up the poor and needy, and create success in our own spheres of influence start inside ourselves. We need to stop expecting everything from others and start expecting a little bit from ourselves.

We see the hearts and minds of liberals in the right place in most places, but the left in this country must be insane if they think the problems they champion can ever be solved by more waste and less efficiency.

My unanswered questions are brought up again: When has more government and a socialist mindset ever increased the standard of living for everyone? When has government ever solved the problems they set out to solve?