Progress?

I received a flier from Congressman Bart Stupak.
It is the usual "I'm wonderful" sort of sheet
we're used to seeing once a year or at least at
election time. There are a few points I want to
comment about because they're so problematic.

"Since February the stimulus bill has created or
retained 1,950 jobs and committed $461 million for
Northern Michigan, according to the recovery.gov
web site."

Here's the problem: The web page has been debunked
by many because a lot of money went to congressional
districts that don't even exist and when pressed,
some of those making claims of "created or saved
jobs" had pulled numbers out of thin air. The
listings that follow are, in my opinion, bogus.

Not covered by the Stupak flier is the automated
weather station that, I believe, was funded by
stimulus money. The photo below shows the only thing
I've found so far attributed to stimulus money in
Iron County. It is located at the northwest corner
of the intersections between US2 and FFH16. Funny,
this has not been reported in the local newspapers
or WIKB, and it qualifies as "feel good news" that
Marian Volek of the Iron County Reporter prefers to
publish.



While on the topic, it seems that our local newsprint
media is, as Karl Marx called religion, "the opiate of
the people" way back in 1843.

It is just plain wrong for a newspaper to sew contentment
in a population that is living in a region where
government corruption is rampant because that only fuels
more corruption and misery. Of course Ms. Volek is only
repeating the "bucket filling" of joy and kindness that's
being presently taught to Stambaugh elementary students
who are in process of being taught to live happily in the
midst of the deceit and corruption that runs rampant in
this region.

Please note this well!

The only road to progress is through discontent.


The individual who is unhappy with working for
others, or on welfare in one of the many available
forms, opens his or her own business. Perhaps it
takes several attempts. I expect that eventually
Rex Angeli, for example, will once again start a
new business.

No, Ms. Volek, more of the same is unacceptable here
in Iron County. We need people, especially those
growing up here to be tomorrow's potential leadership,
to be discontent with how things are. Supporting a
program of "life is great in Iron County" is a
disservice to the community. Christianity teaches us
to love one another, and church or religious training
is where that sort of thing belongs. In the secular
realm, where a newspaper and schools belong, teaching
students to cast a critical eye on life in general
is the only legitimate lesson they should be learning.

Although "trust but verify" is generally attributed
to Ron Reagan, it was actually borrowed from a much
older Russian paradigm, "doveryay, no proveryay." I
think this is the idea that should be taught in Iron
County schools if we want a better life for the children.

Bill Vajk