Tea Party, etc.

The Tea Party movements across the USA are growing
in numbers and in self-declared membership. National
polls are downplayed by the US administration and the
congressionally elected. This is a movement that has
come about too late to prevent the mess we find
ourselves in. The American electorate has been poorly
educated over the past several decades about the role
that citizens necessarily play in our government, and
has fallen victim to our historical national smugness.

I attended last month's Americans for Constitutional
Enforcement (ACE) meeting at Iron Mountain. The speaker
came from the Upper Peninsula Liberty Alliance and he
did a nice job of delivering an inspiring address.

The problem is, of course, that all such meetings to
date seem to me to be "more of the same." All that such
groups seem to stand for is getting the electorate
inspired to get out to vote. In that, the people
sponsoring the meeting and delivering the address with
lofty goals (get elected precinct captain for your
party by applying before May 11) were mostly wasting
their breaths, preaching to the choir. I needn't have
taken the trip to the meeting to get that message when
we have the internet and newspapers at our disposal.

Voting and participating in non-responsive political
parties is important, and the people at the meeting
already do as much of that as is possible given our
99.999% inactive political parties here in Iron County.
The problem is that's where these groups stop when
so much more is sorely needed.

Voting is clearly not enough. If it were, we would
not have as destitute and corrupt a series of
governments here in Iron County. The larger part
of the elected officials here in Iron County are
doing Boss Hawg proud. What we really need badly is
to hold our elected officials feet to the fire, to
force them to listen to our demands, and to force
the growth and improvements in the economic health
of our communities by demanding specific behaviors
from the elected officials. Either that, or fire the
bums.

Here's a current example of the sort of thing that's
happening right now. Ever since a new airport, by
and for the Iron County Board of Commissioners, was
shouted down approximately a decade ago, the county
board and their employees have been quietly going
about researching the possibilities for a new airport,
despite the electorate's clear statement that we don't
need or want one.

I think anything that helps grow the local economy is a
good thing. But the county board has, so far, failed to
show any way in which a new airport would help the
economy, and has also failed to demonstrate how such
an airport would be self sustaining. I brought a trolley
project proposal to the City of Iron River a few years
ago, and it was in the end shot down by the city
administration who through slight of hand deemed it
not self-sustaining despite the fact that the overall
plan was.

The same probably cannot be said of a new airport, but I
await the Economic Development Corporation's (EDC)
demonstration, on paper, that a new airport is anything
but a playground for the few wealthy who desire to involve
themselves with Iron County, bringing their $5 and one
pair of underwear, and not changing either while they
are here.

When the EDC can show how a new airport will support itself
once the initial grants are expended, I'll come back aboard
and support such a project. In the meantime, if we have
folks with planes too large to land at the two, count
them -- we already have two airports in Iron County, then
tell those folks to come here in a smaller airplane.

There's nothing in any mandate by the voters that says we
owe anyone an airport built to their liking. If the county
board shows someone has a financial interest in building
and supporting an airport with commercial viability, then
this is a project worth the time it takes to look at the
proposals. In the meantime this remains another EDC dream
with no foundation and no substance to support it.

ACE and Tea Party activity has positive values in our
society, and I support them, but they're nowhere nearly
enough. We, the citizens, need to wrest control of our
government back by positive action, by speaking out, by
demanding responsiveness from elected officials, every
day, not just on election day. There's a lot of damage that
elected officials can do between elections if the citizens
don't ride herd on them. How much time and money has Iron
County wasted on an airport project in the past decade? Do
we want this type of corruption and waste to continue? Are
you, a citizen, willing to help bring such stuff to a halt?

Consider what sort of projects bringing real benefit to
the citizens of Iron County could have been undertaken
instead!

Bill Vajk