Warm Spring, Melting Snow...and Flooding.

I havent got the chance to write to my local paper about the massive amount of flooding that occurs every year as the snow melts, yet I do intend to.

Anyone living in Allegan or Ottawa (the only two counties I've been in for the last...few months...) has seen standing water around this time of year. It happened last year...and the year before that...and before that...so much so that it seems that the lake levels keep dropping because all the water has gone on an adventure! ...Right into our backyards...

Preventing widespread flooding is generally the responsibility of the Drain Commissioner...ours in Allegan county is Becky Rininger and I voted for her. I was young and naive at that time (because five months ago is that long)...I didnt remember that it floods every year and never seems to stop.

This level of flooding is plainly unreasonable. I've never met Mrs. Rininger and I probably agree with her on many things, all I can see is that the ground isnt exacly comissioned to drain properly. The ebb and flow of standing water we drive past/through every day represents something much bigger...

The people charge their government with a basic protection of their lives and property. This fact is illustrated by the water problem: we the people have given the authority to non-restrictively protect us from flooding (from molding leftovers and that fun, pull-you-and-yo'-house-away flooding). When this isnt accomplished, we have to step up, talk about it, and force some action.

Personal involvement is a cornerstone of our republic and it is true at every level: federal, state, and local. If we neglect this, the future becomes rotten with powerful bureaucrats and fringe wackos that empower these bureaucrats. These phenomena begin 99% of the time at the local level...

We dont really realize it because the media reports it the opposite way, but corruption and liberal/bureaucratic hedonism begin in all of our towns and move up through the system through the political mobility of said corruptocrats. As an example: it would have been much more possible to dismantle The Obama's political career before he had the full workings of the Dem's political machine behind him, would it not?

Now I'm not calling Rininger a liberal or anything, but the situation involving her and her office only illustrates that much bigger problem of us dropping our end of the Constitution's deal. Paralleling the need get together and push some results from the Drain Commissioners of Allegan and Ottawa counties, we absolutely have to live out our values with a focus on where we have the most political impression and personal effect on the politics and people around us: at the local level.

Involvement is necessary, the consequence of failing to do so results in more 41st streets ending up under water and ruined...or someone could possibly die the next time a 52nd street collapses. 

(Did I get the latter correct? Was it 52nd in Manlius township that was washed out from under those three people in the Jeep last summer?)