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Every time Congress or the Legislature convenes, my husband drones on and on about how lawmakers dawdle and how things would be different if he was "in charge."
"You have a simple solution to just about every problem, don't you?" I remarked, after one of his oratories.
"Ah wudn't say ever'thang's simple, but it does seem to me that some of the ideys politicians come up with jist dirty's up th' water more. Lots o' tahms if they'd jist leave thangs alone they'd git straightened out on thur own or if they'd jist undo whut they done last tahm they met, we'd be better off. One thang's fer shore. They gonna spend our money either way."
"That's a strange way to view their work. The nation and the state has a lot of challenges these days, they can't just do nothing."
"Shore they can. Sometahms doin' nothin' beats what they do. After all, thur susceptible to makin' mistakes jist lahk th' rest of us—if you can jist git one of 'em to own up to it.
"Don't git me wrong. Some laws is good and necessary, an' Ah realize diff'ernt tahms may call fer diff'ernt measures. But we got lotsa laws on th' books already that ain't enforced. Fer example, we got state lawmakers tryin' to figger out how to pay fer public education. Me an' you both knows we wouldn'ta been overcrowded in th' first place if th' federal gub'ment was doin' thur job. Nope, Ah ain't so shore we need a bunch more laws nobody heeds no way.
"Course, thur's tahms we need some heavy liftin' by th' good legislators to keep in place whut folks worked hard to git in the past, lahk ag valuations an' fuel exemptions. With the urban folks mostly runnin' th' show, it's all th' more important 'at rural Texuns keep remindin' 'em why we got some o' these laws an' why we should keep 'em.
"Water an' property rahts protections are some other thangs worth buttin' heads over, 'specially as the population grows. Gub'ment will be offerin' more an' more excuses to move water to population centers an' take private land fer public use. It's troublin'. Ah been follerin' a case up in Norwood, Ohio whur th' City Council is sidin' in with a big developer to take an entahr neighborhood o' 99 homes away from folks by eminent domain. He wants to build a big shoppin' center an' some condos. A coupla the homeowners is puttin' up a court faht. It jist ain't raht to abuse condemnation authority like 'at. City officials claim it'll create jobs an', thurfore, its fer the public good. Turrible abuse o' power."
"That's bad all right. I don't think that's what the framers of the Constitution had in mind," I commented.
"Now we got this fancy Trans Texas Corridor to worry 'bout. Seems lahk landowners jist git one fahr put out when up jumps anuther un. Proponents o' these thangs do it in th' name o' progress, but it shore do set th' folks back whose land and livelihoods are lost."
"Gosh, can't you think of anything positive or good to say about our state or federal government?" I asked.
"Let me thank on it a spell," Mel replied. "It ain't easy to stump me, but Ah may have to git back to you on that un."
