KS Common Sense
By Kevin Stoda, a thinking and progressive Kansan
Most of us Kansans are as skeptical of government as our SHOW-ME-STATE neighbors in Missouri.
Please, below (See Rep. Long’s response to) a recent email and
http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/dear-congressman-long-many-know-that-we-americans-need-intrusions-and-regulations-just-look-at-the-financial-industry-that-bankrupted-so-many-americans-for-example/
petition concerning the role of government in protecting and defending our people and our planet. The response from the representative in Missouri is a laughable response to a real concern–in this case, the defunding of the EPA and the great lack of oversight and regulatory authority in America when it comes to safety, service and development!
Representative Long seems to be living in the pre-progressive era (pre-1900). Most Japanese know that the lack of real oversight and regulation in Japan brought us 3 reactors exploding–even though the Japanese government regulators said that no explosions could happen–even after a Tsunami and Earthquake they claimed. In short, a country endangers its citizens when it doesn’t take regulation authority and responsibilty seriously on behalf of its citizenry.
Likewise some 200 million Americans in bad financial shape in 2011 know that lack of oversight and regulation led to this worldwide financial crisis–which still finds its heart in the USA. In other words, quit with the anti-regulatory platitudes of the 19th Century, Mr. Long.
Stop defunding the EPA and give it some teeth.
Likewise, I turn to the many U.S. congressmen and Senators from Kansas and ask that we get back to the Teddy Roosevelt era of governance. That was a period in USA history when government wasn’t afraid to tell political corporate donors to stop making the people pay for lack of oversight and the worst follies of free market zealotry and nonsense, like “General Motors is America.”
The body is already rotting in the coffin, Senator Jerry Moran, and friends. Wake up!
Americans want government regulators with teeth—not the pussy-cat bow-to-the-almighty dollar form of governance that Republicans have shown thus far in 2011.
http://moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/
Jerry, Kansans like me can see through the penny cutting you represent in the budget as you kiss the gods of war and militarism.
That is the common sense I have to offer–KS
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT: The crisis in Japan clearly demonstrates the importance of government safety regulations. As we learn the full causes and outcomes of the Japanese disaster, the U.S. should revisit and improve safety rules for both existing and proposed reactors. Romm and Caperton explain that, “because taxpayers have so much to lose in a nuclear disaster, the government has a responsibility to take every precaution to minimize that risk.” David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists explains in the New York Times that there is a “need to revisit emergency plans to ensure that people get the help they need even when disasters overlap.” Yet Media Matters reported that “in the wake of the crisis at Japanese nuclear reactors, the conservative media have pushed for the removal of ‘obstacles’ to nuclear power and a faster nuclear permit process for nuclear plants.” The proposed budget cuts from Republicans in the House of Representatives further threaten to undermine the safety of the American people. Romm and Caperton warn that “Congress must not cut funding for NOAA’s tsunami warning service. House Republicans have proposed cutting funding to NOAA — the agency directly responsible for tsunami monitoring and warning — restricting the government’s ability to respond. America has a number of reactors that could be affected by a tsunami.” Furthermore, despite the massive 9.0 earthquake, much of the damage in Japan was not caused by the earthquake, but by the tsunami. Thousands of lives were saved due to the strict government enforced building codes that were absent in a country like Haiti or China, which experienced a significantly higher death toll. http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2011/03/pr20110315/
Here is more real commence via KS–Me
I was all alone on that Atlantic Ocean beach that day. It was almost dark, and all the sun bathers had gone home to take another kind of bath, with creams, and lotions and so on. I was walking along the edge of the water, playing a little game of dodge-em with the waves. And I looked back, and I noticed the long trail of footprints I’d left behind me. I said, “Hey, I’m making a mark.” Well, I had a distant jetty in my eyesight; that was going to be my goal. So, I walked that far, turned around and came back. I looked for that bold trail of footprints in the sand. Of course, there was no trail. They were gone. I thought about that Hollywood theatre where celebrities put their footprints in cement instead of sand. Maybe that’s what I should try if I want my mark to last.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Prints in Sand and Cement.”
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And I’m going to begin reading at verse 19. Paul says, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.” The Apostle Paul had a lot of other things he could glory in, don’t you think? What a track record spiritually! But you know what he said was his glory and joy. He said to these spiritual children of his, “You are my marks in cement.”
You see, the Apostle Paul knew where to make footprints that last. So many of our efforts are poured into, well, things that are like prints in the sand. A man or woman rises to a top position in their company, and everyone’s looking to them, and they’ve got power, and they’ve got influence, and they’ve got importance. And then they retire or they’re replaced. You know what – it’s amazing how quickly that hole closes up. It takes about one day to change the name on the door. And the waves come in and wipe out all the years of footprints.
Or an athlete breaks a record, only to leave someone else’s wave to come in and wipe it out. Awards, titles, victories, great speeches, recognition, things we work so hard, sacrifice so much for. Maybe even we sacrifice so many people for. But those things come and they go. The marks that last are not the achievements you score, but the people you touch.
Your children – they’re wet cement. Don’t be so busy making your mark at work or at church that you don’t have your prime energy for them. The people you teach, the people you manage, they are wet cement. You’re marking them your friends. Especially those who need your Jesus and have no idea that what happened on that cross was for them. Ultimately, the marks that last are not the ones that give you a name, but the ones that are made in Jesus’ name.
Could it be that you didn’t mean to, but you’ve been caught up in the footprints that you’ve been making in the sand? It’s been so important to make that mark at work, at church, with a group of people you want to impress.
Well, are the people close to you losing out to the things that you’re involved in? Put your prints in cement, where they’ll last, not in sand where they can’t last.
Join the ConversationSee, the waves can never erase what you write in human cement.
http://www.hutchcraft.com/blogs/ron-hutchcrafts-blogs/disaster-in-japan-a-wake-up-call-for-the-people-of-god?utm_source=Ron+Hutchcraft+Ministries%2C+Inc.&utm_campaign=0381df26f3-AWWY+6308&utm_medium=email