A month or so back, I posted four stories of community resilience – health workers in the Congo; Vietnamese immigrants and a school superintendent after Katrina; and a head teacher after 9/11.
But something was missing – a small government conservative to show the poor, the foreign, and the public sector drone how it’s really done.
So meet Rick Moran, columnist at blog collective, Pajamas Media (which claims 2.8m ‘unique users’ a month). Here’s Moran on why the US state shouldn’t extend health care to more children:
The left doesn’t want to discuss what we lose when government steps in where the citizen is capable of taking care of themselves. They refuse to acknowledge that every step toward establishing a government giving the people what they want rather than what is needed or desirable is a step back from human liberty and into the trough of virtual slavery.
But little, if any attention is paid to the idea that every time the government shoulders its way forward to assume part of the responsibility for our own well being, our choices about the direction our lives can take are limited in the process.
So how does Moran live the ‘unlimited’ live? Rather nicely it seems. In a riverside house in Wisconsin (“a dream come true for me”). Lovely. Until it starts raining.
As the river downstream from our creek rose, the water began to back up… Slowly, ominously, the brown torrent began to slide over the brand new retaining wall put in by the Army Corps of Engineers just last fall and inch its way up our newly sculpted back yard. The Corps had landscaped the yard so that there was a much more pronounced hill in front of the house which was supposed to protect us from all but the worst case flooding scenarios.
“Brand new retaining wall… newly sculpted back yard.” Isn’t it typical? Not only does the government thrust you into the ‘trough of virtual slavery’ by protecting your property, it doesn’t even do a good enough job! But Moran won’t be vanquished, will he? He’ll rise to the challenge… by watching the television.
Glued to The Weather Channel, watching helplessly as the storms raced toward us, we knew that it was only a matter of time before we had to leave. Sure enough, at 5:45, a knock at the door. It was the police telling us it was time to go. We had until 2:00 AM to pack up whatever we could and leave.
I suppose it was at that moment that I realized we hadn’t done anything to prepare. We were caught flat footed with everything we owned vulnerable to what the police patiently explained would be 4 feet of water coursing through our living room in a matter of hours. We had no idea where we were going to stay. No thought as to what we should save and what we should leave behind. In short, we were forced into a panic mode.
So what does he do now? Well first, of course, he goes through his vinyl (“I spent 45 minutes going through my album collection wondering why I never transferred most of them to CD’s.”). Then he calls the McHenry County Emergency Management Agency to ask where they’re going to put him up for the night:
I got a call about 3 hours later from the Red Cross telling me that there were no shelters available yet in Algonquin because they hadn’t gotten enough calls to justify opening one.
The horror! All his neighbours have made plans to stay with friends – so there’s no need to cater for feckless refugees. What’s worse, the Red Cross thinks he should… (this is outrageous) check into a hotel!!!!!! “Needless to say,” Rick notes indignantly “we didn’t need the hassle.”
I know you’re all hella upset by now. But fortunately, this story has a happy ending. It stopped raining and the waters receded (God’s intervention). And Rick’s learned his lesson as well:
We were ignorant, complacent, and much too trusting of the authorities. I have brought some of these shortcomings to the attention of the Village in hopes that the next time an emergency occurs, they can improve their performance.
So that’s how it’s done. Resilience – Rick Moran style. Lesson over. Class dismissed.
