I can't resist...sometimes it is just too easy....The Enquirer's blog reports that city council member Laketa Cole believes that "pools and recreation centers" are "necessary basic services" of government. Ms. Cole was talking to the Enquirer about the current budget crisis. Here is an excerpt from the blog posting by Enquirer reporter Jane Prendergast:
"She [Ms. Cole] considers pools and recreation centers necessary basic services. She learned to swim at Washington Park pool. She credits her time there and at recreation centers for putting her on the path toward getting her bachelor's degree and now a master's while some of her friends from childhood were having babies as young as 13. Council will have to decide what it considers necessary basic services for the city to provide."
Read the entire blog post here.
Government is out of control when leaders in government make statements like that one. If we get to a point where politicians feel they have to say that swimming pools are a "necessary basic service" to get elected, our democracy is terribly at risk. Swimming pools are not and never will be a "necessary basic service" of government.
Alexander Tyler, an 18th century Scottish history professor, wrote,
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result being that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
We need to restore sanity to city government--and soon.
