A favorite sport of too many people is to bash government as inefficient.
Let us consider the many ways that we should be thankful to government.
Let's start with the rather prosaic in Minnesota. We have had a lot of snow in Minnesota this month. Schools have been closed and events cancelled. But the plow operators were out clearing streets and alleys at all hours. Major streets were opened almost immediately, other streets within a few hours, and alleys within a few hours more. The plow operators are union city workers that are doing their best to battle nature without damaging parked cars. Are they greedy union workers or are they people requesting just compensation for the difficult work they do?
A favorite target of many anti-government people is the U.S. Postal Service. Sometime after nine I got busy on the walkway around our house. I wanted to make sure our carrier didn't have much difficulty. I saw her park almost in front of our house rather than down the street, just about on her usual schedule. Before I could even get to the front walk, Sara came trudging up the steps in nine-inch drifts. She said that if she hadn't seen me, she would have waited until tomorrow to deliver our mail, none of it urgent. Maybe regulations don't cover her discretion, but she was making a very good effort at delivering important mail in a timely fashion for all on her route.
Then there is the big government operation in Boston. It is just amazing how the federal, state, and local criminal investigation bureaucracies worked through thousands of pieces of information to determine who the prime suspects were, locate them, and fatally wound one of them. As I write this, the other is apparently cornered in a boat in somebody's yard. All of this in less than a week.
