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In some ways it doesn’t seem
that long since I had that old gray two-door sedan. I bought it
new and had driven it long enough to pay it off and I was
determined to drive it until the back wheels fell off and I would
just leave it beside the road for the salvage truck to pick it up
and cart it off to the car crusher. I replaced the tires and the
shocks, the fuel pump and the water pump, The carburetor and even
the radiator. The last year I drove it I was taking it to the shop
almost once a month and begging the owner of the garage to keep it
going for just one more month.
I learned to have a love/hate relation with that car that few
people can imagine. It got so I dreaded the thought of even going
out to start the thing. In fact towards the end in order to start
that car I would have to get in the car, turn on the ignition,
jump out and raise the hood, then cross the starter terminals with
a screw driver, then jump back in the car and give it some gas to
keep the car just above idle. If I let the car go back to idle it
would quit and I would have to repeat the above process to get it
going again.
It finally got to the point that the garage owner would just come
out and start shaking his head and telling me it was time to end
the misery I was causing myself and the car. He finally said that
he appreciated the money he was making off me, but it was time to
trade it in. I took his advice and took it down to the dealership
to swap it out for a new one. That turned out to be quite an
ordeal. The man who takes it out for a drive had to be shown how
to start it. He wound up telling the salesman they would give me a
certain amount for the car and they would just have it towed to
the back lot. I took their deal because it was easier to let them
drag the carcass off than it would be for me to have to watch as
it slipped off into the car crusher for eternity. After I did that
and you just don’t know the feelings that came over me when I got
in the new car and just turned the ignition and the motor came to
life all by itself and would idle without having to rev the engine
.
I missed that old car for awhile, but after only a few days the
trauma that had been part of my life for what seemed so long was
gone. I was living a new life with a new car and a new outlook on
the future.
I said all that to say that we have a government in Washington and
in most states that have been doing the same thing with government
for the last thirty years that I had been doing with that car.
They have not been up to trying to do anything new with
government, one that would bring it into line with the twenty
first century, or a government that would work for all of us. They
have been trying to repair and patch the same old government to
keep it going for two or four more years. Every election they come
to us and tell us they have new ideas and new ways that will
streamline and have the government working like a fine Swiss
watch, but to a man/woman, it has turned out to be "if we can just
keep it going for another term we will be fine".
To say that our government is broken is an understatement. To say
that we need a new government is not only absolute, but the only
solution. There needs to be an effort to get rid of every member
of the Washington and State elected officials with new ones. Yes,
we will miss the old one for a while, but once you start seeing
that for once the people of the United States finally said enough
is enough and we are in the ultimate voice of government. We the
people have the final say on how it is run. No party or group is
above the people. We not only deserve a new government, but it is
the only way we can take the existing trauma out of our lives. It
is the only way it can be fixed.
The problems we face today are not a surprise to anyone. We have
seen them coming for years. We have been told by the experts that
the problems we are having would happen all the way back to the
70’s. We are experiencing the problems of today because we were
assured by every Tom, Dick, and Harry running for office that they
were going to give us something new, but delivered that same old
repair story.
We are now experiencing that love/hate relation with government
that I had with that old gray sedan. We know we need to terminate
our relations we are having with the people of government. The
question is are we going to step up and finally do it, or will we
just try to keep it going for another political term. |
