Dear Editor:
I just read John Bredin’s screed to Steve Nicola. Wow, talk about a mouthful. Mr. Bredin devoted a good portion of his letter to the virtues of nannies and nanny states, a good time considering Mother’s Day has just passed. He also seems unduly preoccupied with “right wing rage”. He brought Rush Limbaugh and Ronald Regan, “the great cowboy enemy of the nanny state” into a discussion of free ferry rides. Talk about a non-sequitur. I guess he had a senior moment and forgot to include John Wayne. Obviously Mr. Bredin sees a vast right wing conspiracy and racism everywhere. Perhaps we should change the name of devil’s food cake to “pastry of color” to avoid offending anyone. It seems we live in an era when if you disagree with someone you’re homophobic if that person is gay or lesbian, racist if that person is African American, or a member of the Tea Party if you take issue with Keith Olbermann.
We saw the “nanny state” in all its glory when, years ago, the New Jersey legislature banned eggs sunny side up in restaurants. Against all odds sanity prevailed and this notable piece of legislation was mercifully repealed by the propeller heads in Trenton. Imagine, politicians telling you what you can do- what next, ban salt in restaurants, remove toys from kids’ McDonalds happy meals, ban sodas with sugar in schools, proposing legislation in Massachusetts banning infant circumcisions, or a proposal in New York making organ donations mandatory (what, control your own body you say?). At what point does government get out of our collective faces and let us decide for ourselves. Truly, the scariest 8 words in the English language are “I’m from the government. I’m here to help”. Let’s see, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are bleeding money, Social Security is now spending more than it takes in, Medicare and Medicaid have trillions in unfunded mandates, and the Postal Service lost billions last year. How do UPS, FedEx, and DHL manage to make money? Oh, I forgot, Obamacare is going to insure 30 million more people and we’re all going to save money in the bargain. I’m sure that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy will be happy to hear about this.
Sooner or later the realization has to sink in that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The country is in hock up to its eyeballs. Adding new subsidies and entitlements are anathema to the country’s fiscal health. California is going over the financial edge. New York may not be far behind. Yet people are complaining about government cuts. Look at Greece today to see the result of “a society with the courage to be caring”. As Winston Churchill once said “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries”.
Instead of wasting valuable time on something as inconsequential as free ferry rides why not confine discourse to more substantive issues such as pre-natal care for schnauzers. Hopefully this weighty topic won’t be considered to be “sneering Rush Limbaugh-esqe sarcasm”. Power to the schnauzers!
Jim Murphy