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| Letter against reducing local government |
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Gov. Mitch Daniels will not politicize an issue that would hurt him politically. Now there’s a shocker. I speak, of course, of the Kernan-Shepard report and MySmartGov.org that wish to eradicate township government and consolidate county supervision.
They laud the idea of reducing local government by 37 percent. While many of us have no confidence in state and national politicians, they propose to detain the representation of rural community members. I have a friend in Wisconsin, a township trustee, serving on area planning. They have agreed upon a plan to protect rural places from business development.
They want to maintain an agrarian way of life that values natural and cultural history. In short, they want to safeguard Creation’s gifts.
Daniels supports consolidation, ostensibly because the Chamber of Commerce and Assoc. of Realtors do.
Thus, state government would have unrestricted ability to seize land for development. Seize, the operative word of big government.
In his novel, Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry wrote, “You would need a very big map to make Port William visible upon it.
“In the eyes of the powers that be we Port Williamites have our being within a black period about the size of the one that ends this sentence.
It would be a considerable overstatement to say that the leaders of our state and nation…do not consult the citizens of Port William.”
No, they court and represent big business while independent landholders, who don’t want to get big, get pushed out.
Brian Lowry
Scottsburg, Ind. |
| 10/29/2008 |
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