I want to discuss a recent negative experience of mine.
While I usually do not hesitate to name names, in this case I believe speaking in generalizations would better suit my purpose.
I have donated both time and money to an organization that wants to educate young people about the dangers of drug use.
We send speakers to schools, scout meetings, and other community events to get out the word. We also set up tables where we distribute anti-drug pamphlets.
Some of the pamphlets speak against drug use in general. Other pamphlets dedicate themselves to discussing specific drugs and their harmful side effects, i.e. heroin, ecstasy, marijuana, methamphetamine, etc.
Tuesday, Aug. 1, was the “National Night Out.”
This event was designed to introduce residents to programs that their local police precincts promote.
This not only includes Drug Prevention programs but anti-crime programs and neighborhood watch programs.
This year, instead of the police precincts administering the program, they had private sponsors coordinating the events.
So the events were not held in front of the police precincts themselves; as they were in the past.
There are a couple of dozen villages in Nassau County.
I chose one where the festivities would take place in a local park. My plan was to set up a folding table, drape the banner of our organization over the front, and display our various pamphlets.
I would field questions from anyone passing by regarding the program and let them know we had speakers available for private events.
I called the mayor’s office of that village to let them know I was coming. I did not expect this to be controversial.
Who is against promoting abstention from drugs aside from the drug dealers?
A polite lady answered the phone. I told her my intentions. She said hold on.
After a lengthy delay, she returned. “To set up your table, it would have to be approved by the board.”
The board was not meeting for a couple of weeks.
“You would also have to clear it with the building department.”
Incredulously I asked, “I have to get a permit from the building department to place a folding table in the park?” She said “yes.”
I responded, “Is this a joke? I cannot believe what you are telling me. What if I just set up the table anyway?”
She responded, “I wouldn’t do that.”
The tone was letting me know that if I did, I would most likely receive a fine. We all know where that leads.
I would have to go to court, take a day off from work, plead my case, and the judge would probably dismiss it. I decided it was not worth it.
What is my point? This is what happens when you let bureaucrats run the show.
Everything is a big deal and nothing gets accomplished. No one wants to take responsibility.
They just want to avoid any waves that might threaten their sinecures. This bureaucratic mentality has tentacles and has spread to other aspects of our culture and our economy.
We supposedly live in a division of labor society.
By specializing in certain tasks, our skills, our experience, and our knowledge are expanded. Improvements are created and upgraded.
Our productivity increases and that increased productivity is what allows our standard of living to rise.
Ideally, decision making should be allowed as far out on the branches of the decision tree as possible. This is why central planning does not work. It can never work.
The central planners do not have the depth and specialized knowledge to understand the tasks, as do the rest of the people in the work force closer to the end product or service.
Do you hear it? Listen. Single Payer! Single Payer!
That’s the progressive drumbeat of imbeciles like Obama and Sanders. Single Payer! Single Payer! It continues, on and on, again and again.
Like compulsive masturbation. Single Payer! Single Payer!
Did anyone notice that when Obamacare was passed, they were hiring something like 20,000 bureaucrats to come to Washington to administer the program?
I wondered why they weren’t hiring 20,000 doctors and nurses.
Having a bunch of computer nerds running healthcare for 320 million Americans from Washington.
What could possibly go wrong? I guess we found out.
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free.
Recently, Charlie Gard, a deathly ill child in England was offered a fighting chance at life by an American geneticist.
Would the treatment have worked? Probably not; but what decent parent wouldn’t jump at the chance to try.
Thousands of good-hearted people donated over $1 million for the treatment.
But heartless, British, medical bureaucrats refused the parent’s request to allow Charlie to be transferred to the U.S.
The case was appealed but that delayed treatment for months. By then, it was too late.
The parents had lost the freedom to choose their own child’s fate.
Charlie was the property of the state. All choices remained in the hands of faceless, unfeeling bureaucrats.
That’s what is coming our way. Can you hear it? It gets a little louder every day.
Oh! Before I go. Can anyone point out the proper form so that I can request a permit to open a folding table?
Dr. Wayne Roth
Roslyn Heights
