According to recent media reports, wildfires have consumed 3.6 million acres of Texas since December of 2010. To put that in perspective, it is essentially an area the size of Connecticut. Over 700 homes have been destroyed and at least four people have been killed. Six of the ten largest wildfires in Texas history have occurred this year. Isn't that an interesting thought?
Here is another interesting thought. Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry has cut funding for volunteer firefighters, who respond to ninety percent of all wildfires in Texas, by seventy five percent. While the fires raged, Perry left his underfunded firefighters to fly to a Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library where he proceeded, in his best tea party fashion, to bash "big government" while simultaneously praising "the brave men and women who put themselves in harm's way to protect Texans' lives and property" whose funding he slashed.
Wow, Gov. Perry, it must really be difficult to talk out of both sides of your mouth like that.
Conservatives act as if the government is some alien, foreign entity when the Constitution (Are you listening tea partiers?) simply says, "We the people". The government is us. Among its other accomplishments, the federal government has, during our history, freed the slaves, defeated Hitler, built the interstate highway system, won the Cold War, integrated the South, put men on the moon, and killed Osama bin Laden. Perhaps the next time an al Qadea operative needs taken down, the tea party and Gov. Perry can call one of their millionaire CEO buddies out of the executive suite to complete the mission. Maybe Mr. Perry can ask the same CEO to hop on a fire engine and respond the next time his state catches fire.
Along those same lines, during the aforementioned debate, Mr. Perry praised, and rightfully so, the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden while, in the next breath, stating that government does not create jobs. For whom, pray tell, does Perry think the SEALs work? BP?
(Special thanks to Paul Begala for contributing part of the material for this column.)
Peace and love, my brothers and sisters.
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