About Government Budgets…Seriously

Posted by admin on July 6, 2009 under 2K9 Tea Party Revolution, Conservatism Resurgency | Be the First to Comment

I attended one of the local Fourth of July Tea Party here in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area and I am so disappointed with one thing:  I did not get a picture of the City of Fort Lauderdale Police including the Equine Division  that were on patrol at Broward Boulevard and 3rd Avenue during the protest.

It was so nice having these dedicated officers around and I can’t describe the feeling I got seeing the mounted officers riding their horses up and down the boulevard in a single pass.  I don’t think it was for show, as 3 went one direction and only 1 came back the other way. And it is certain that they were not endorsing the message we were out to communicate. They, as civil servants of course, are not permitted to engage in political “speech,” one way or the other.

We have a teeming horse community here in Broward County, Florida, and I am blessed to live amidst, but not amongst it, if you get what I mean. I don’t own and could ever afford to own a horse or the property necessary to accommodate the equine lifestyle, but as I go to the grocery store, it is not unusual to see riders on their mounts trotting down the trails and bike paths.

Even so, in downtown Fort Lauderdale, it still amazes me when I see these animals being so adeptly utilized by mounted law enforcement professionals.  These horses, as cars and trucks with horns blaring passed by, barely blinked an eye. Trotting down the boulevard with a roaring sanitation truck coming up behind them (think of the ones who wake you up with roaring deisel engines and screeching brakes on garbage pickup day), these officers - human and equine alike – had the confidence in each other to calmly work their way up the boulevard. These officers – human and equine alike - are heroes. You can’t help but respect their presence.

The protestors at the Tea Party gave these that serve their due, that is for sure.  The crowd roared in appreciation as they trotted by. Can you imagine that happening during a left-wing protest? I can’t really remember any right-wing protests in the last decades – maybe a few anti-abortion protestors laying down, nonviolently resisting. The vast majorityof images I have of protests back through the last decades of outright animosity and violence by left-wingers toward those who serve and protect.

Ok, so here is the point…BUDGETS.

It used to be that our local tax dollars were spent on public safety, public utilities, local county roads – those things that government is constitutionally required to fund. I remember that when I was growing up, the local civic clubs such as the Kiwanis, Lions, Elks, and others made it their special project to erect “welcome” signs, plant and upkeep landscape in the medians of the local roadways. It seems that politicians decided that they could do a better job than these volunteer orginizations – if only they had the taxpayers behind them. 

Fast-forward to 2009.

I can’t even fathom the number of $2,000 Royal Palm trees and other specimens the nearby cities of Sunrise and Weston have planted with taxpayer dollars – not to mention how many lawsuits have been settled due to the palm fronds either fallen or falling into the streets, damaging passing vehicles. Common sense, folks, common sense! And now in this economic fiasco we are in, we hear the steady drumbeat of “we’ll have to cut services, we’ll have to cut services…” Yeah, including law enforcement and emergency services. Have you ever heard them say “we’ll have to cut our landscaping services”?

I look back at those civic-minded years, and I wonder just what is left for civic organizations to do that government has not already taken over. In the recent decades, it seems civic organizations have moved into providing educational scholarships and supporting medical research. Good work, indeed, but even that will soon be taken away if the national leadership has its way. 

Hmmmm…Maybe things will come full circle. As the duties of civic organizations are taken over by government, and government is increasingly unable to fund those functions for which they are constitutionally responsible, the civic organizations will kick in to fund…you know:  local county roads,  public utilities, public safety -including equine officers, whose very presence is awe inspiring and fearsome in all the right ways.

Oh. Wait. That’ll never happen. We as citizens and taxpayers will not have any discretionary funds left to donate to civic causes.

If only governemnt would stay in their own lane.