Tex Norman

Does Government Have A Role?



Posted: Tuesday, August 02, 2011

by Tex Norman

Some believe Government has no legitimate role in our daily lives.

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Grover Norquist

Well something I heard on the news today triggered my thinking about this debate on government’s role.   I am sure what happened here happens in cities all over the United States, so there is nothing unique about what happened.  The story was about a woman in one of those motorized wheel chairs.  She had this log pole attached to her chair with a flag, so it would be harder not to see.  The woman lived alone and to get from her apartment to a near-by grocery store she had to go in this chair, and the trip to the store required her to put-put along in the street.  It was a busy street.  Even steering as close to the curb as possible did little to reduce the danger of these trips for bread and eggs.  A car hit her and she died at the scene.

It’s sad this disabled woman being killed just trying to get to a store and back home again.  What solutions address that woman’s problems?

  1. We could put in a sidewalk.  But isn’t putting in a sidewalk a little like shutting the barn door after the cows have already gotten out?  Putting a sidewalk in the area where a car killed the poor woman seems somewhat pointless.  How many disabled people have to take a motorized chair to get to a store in that particular area?  The one person who had the need for a sidewalk is dead, and it could be a long time before another motorized chair person will need safe passage in that exact same area.
  2. We could create a handicap shuttle that would go to homes and pick up disabled people and get them to stores or doctor visits, and safely home again.  But that not only could be expensive, it could easily get out of hand and run up huge costs. 
What follows is not what I think, but what I think government haters think:

We start off asking ourselves, “How can we prevent what happened to that woman from happening to someone else?”   Government haters might think, 'On the other hand, why do we assume government has a responsibility to prevent that woman’s accident from happening again.  How does that woman’s problem, become a government problem?  That woman’s death is her own fault.  That woman should have called a privately owned handicap taxi service.    If she had a taxi she would not have been tootling down a busy street and she would not have got herself killed.  If she was too poor to pay for a taxi, well, then she should have had a better paying job, she should have saved more of her money, or made better investments.  Her lack of planning is her problem not ours.  If that woman was too poor to solve her problems safely, then she should have had a family member, or a friend, or a charity organization, or her religious organization shop for her, or take her shopping.  If she has no family willing to help her, if she has no friends, or attends no church, well, she should have been nicer back before she became disabled.  Her being unlikable does not make her need for a sidewalk the problem of the taxpayers of Oklahoma City.'

This is some of what I personally think:

I am a progressive.  I am a liberal.  I believe government does have a role in our daily lives.  I believe government exists so that we can live in close proximity with one another.  Civilization is the product of government, and taxation (on a sliding scale) is the price we pay to be a thriving civilization.   If we can put in a sidewalk and save the lives of disabled people and children walking to school, then I think we should do that.  I’m just not mean enough to say a rich person’s money is more important than a disabled person’s life.

Just because I believe government has an important role to play in human life, doesn't mean I love the government as it is.  I want effective government.  Just plain ole government is not enough.  Government waste is not what I want, effective, meaningful, efficient government is what I want.  Government has a role to play in our lives.

In the Bible, when God asked Cain where his brother Able was, Cain, who had murdered his brother, askd, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The Bible does not record an answer to Cain’s question, but I believe God’s response is Yes.  You are your brother’s keeper.”  I believe we have a responsibility to help one another, to address the needs, to redress wrongs, to solve our problems.
Tex Norman is a social worker, currently working at the Oklahoma DHS Abuse and Neglect hotline. He interviews people reporting abuse and/or neglect of children and vulnerable adults and writes a narrative. The narratives (and demographics) are used to initiate investigations of the allegations. He says it is like writing 8 to 10 stories a day. In August 2012, he will have been married to Kathie for 40 years. He has a son Ryan who earned a PhD from Princeton and he is now a scientist doing research in molecular biology. Tex spends his free time working as an artist and writer. He has one art site, and a blog that might be of interest: http://tex-norman.artistwebsites.com/ and http://collagepoetrybytex.blogspot.com/
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by e
 287 days 20 hours ago.
132 fans.
Conservatives are idealistic children with too much money on their hands. A wake up call is coming soon. Those of us who have learned to live simply will have an easier time. I can sleep anywhere.
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