We have previously commented on the tragedy of the California fires. Prayers and calls for God’s many graces and mercies on the families and homeowners continue. Tragedies and natural disasters have been part of the human experience since the beginning of time. We can’t stop these events. We can mitigate and prepare to minimize the risks that those inevitable events may have on us and our families. We can build our homes on good ground, away from flood plains or deserts that might burn. But there are never guarantees. On so many levels we are now seeing how liberal progressive policies and the way liberal progressives govern have the opposite effects of what the stated purpose of government was intended to be—to protect and secure life, liberty, and property.
For over 60 years, politicians in Washington DC, Sacramento, and many other State Capitals and even in Idaho cities and municipalities have lost perspective. They don’t understand that they have an actual fiduciary duty to protect the interests of citizens. Founding Documents at all levels of government define “the social contract”. We citizens give up a small portion of our individual sovereignty and give them to government, who guarantees not to turn those delineated responsibilities and duties back against the citizens that gave them their authority originally. Looking at the Federal Bill of Rights, specifically the 9th and 10th Amendments to our Constitution, that informs us of the proper relationship between the Federal Government, the States, and WE The People; allows us to have a perspective in perpetuity of how those rights and responsibilities are to be deployed by governments.
In California, the elected officials and the middle managers in large government bureaucracies have done everything but keep their eye on the ball. Believing (or not) in unproven theories about the causes of climate change and thinking like any good humanist could only think, they over the years have lost focus. We don’t have the ability to “control our environment”. Not looking at the billion years record of proven climate change before and after the industrial revolution, they squandered money and our most important asset human capital, with the results we see today in California and the FEMA responses in North Carolina and for years after multiple “environmental catastrophes”.
I am informed regarding my positions about the environment by Biblical sources and the words of Rudyard Kipling that both inform us that we are to have “dominion over palm and pine”. Dominion is not control, but rather the act of stewardship. It defines a relationship between man and his Creator. It does not imply that man is in control, but rather that man must work with nature. Cooperation and respect and an understanding of Who is in control needs to be the pillar upon which all environmental policy is built. Proceeding from that premise leads to mitigation and preparation. Believing that we are in control leads to crazy thinking and crazy policies—and being unprepared.
Let’s take a look:
- Protecting access to water has been a part of Western life even before the Western States came into existence. The saying “follow the water then follow the politics” used to hold true. I remember Dan Quayle standing at the Boise River Diversion Dam as a backdrop saying in 1988—”-if you want to protect your water, vote for us”. In California—and let’s not forget our own Mike Simpson who wanted to tear down four lower-level Snake River Dams to protect steelhead and Salmon, protecting the fish became more important than access to water—human life. Access to water for farmers, ranchers and for power generation became a secondary priority.
- Who decided to let the two reservoirs above Pacific Palisades run dry and be empty? Liberal progressive democrats.
- Who decided to let the aqueduct system in the Central California Project fall into disrepair? Liberal progressive democrats.
- Who forced insurance carriers to increase their reserve requirements to the point that they could no longer sell homeowners insurance in California because of the high premiums homeowners would have to pay? Who drove the reinsurance contractors out of California. Same answer to both questions. Liberal progressive California democrats.
- Who was responsible of the allocation of scarce taxpayer funded resources to DEQI programs in the Fire Departments in Southern California Counties? Who made administrators in those counties with less than ten years’ experience millionaires because of inflated salaries and benefits, diverting those same resources away from police and fire departments? Same answer—same answer.
- Who was responsible for the pumping stations below the reservoirs not being maintained or having scheduled preventive maintenance programs in place thus ensuring water would get to the fire hydrants in the neighborhoods? Yep. Same answer.
Saint Robert of Orville warned us: “The will to win is not as important as the will to prepare to win”. For over 60 years our politicians in Washington, Boise, and in cities and municipalities across our State have forgotten that lesson. If you don’t believe it look at our Covid response at all levels of government. In Idaho, advance warning and the need to be prepared was given to multiple administrations dating back to 2002. When caught with their “pants down” they scrambled and blamed the most qualified physician in the State for being an obstructionist—The State Board of Medicine even took actions against him—most of them repealed today, but with the end result that he had to sell his business at a loss. There has never been a public reckoning, out brief or mortality morbidity review of our State’s Covid response—unlike many other States like Florida or Texas. There has never been a public apology to Dr, Ryan Cole by our Governor or legislature.
The people of Idaho deserve better. The solons in Boise and Idaho municipalities are just as bad at keeping their eyes on the ball as the politicians are in California. Heck what happened to $220 million dollars in the LUMA fiasco. Coverup—coverup—coverup. Why hasn’t there been an independent outside signed partners audit of the Idaho DHW?
If there was true accountability in our State, these questions would be addressed and answered before any legislator or government employee received a pay raise..
“The will to win is not as important as the will to prepare to win”
Is Idaho prepared?
