Snowblindness

I like snow. It makes my yard so beautiful, white and smooth. It covers the leaves and sticks that I never raked. The broken grill that I meant to throw away becomes a cottony sculpture. The stack of flower pots and recyclables that should have been put up or hauled away months ago disappears for the moment. The beautiful snow covers up a lot of things.

There was a time, a couple of long months ago, that we were dreaming of a White Christmas in Dixie. And we got one. Then we got a snowy week to begin the new year. Then we got a surprise ice snow storm to begin February. Then we got a couple or three inches last night.

I'm ready to wake up from that dreaming.

I still like snowfall. But I live in Alabama where it is supposed to be the occasional unexpected holiday, sometimes skipping a couple of years. Something we like to dream about.

And now it seems the national unconsciousness is dreaming of budget cuts.

Cut the Budget!!! Yeah!!!

Better start listing the school closings.

Slogans and mantras do not solve large economic problems. They simply provide a nice, simple covering for complex and sometimes dirty things that lie underneath their shiny surfaces.
Today there is talk of dramatic cuts in government programs. The cuts would do away with the Public Broadcasting System as we know it. NPR, WBHM, and probably Alabama Public TV would not survive in their present form. Public television in Alabama has provided educational programming for generations of Alabamians, supplementing a sometimes wanting education system, actually a pioneer in the nation for such endeavors. And public radio is a last bastion of old school news objectivity. Who's gonna complain about that? Probably a lot of people, but there will be one less place for their voices to be heard.

Legal help for the poor. Gone. Who's gonna complain about that? Certainly not the poor. We know they have no voice.

Environmental Protection Agency. Gone. Who's gonna complain about that? No one except the tree huggers and a couple of owls. And that couple may not be around long to complain the way things are headed.

Policemen. Prisons. Teachers. Courts. Judges. Aid to children. Who's gonna complain?

Just frills. We don't need to be throwing money away on such services.

So yeah!! Cut the Budget!!! Cut the Budget!! Cut the Budget! Cut the Budget. Cut the Budget?

When the snow melts, the ugly things re-appear, uglier than ever.



.