Stormy Politics
A reader sent these “random thoughts on a rainy day.” I thought they’re worth sharing:
Watching the homes on Hatteras Island collapse into an angry Atlantic is sad. But the scene is also a microcosm of today’s paradoxical conflict between the responsibilities of individual citizens and their government.
These are private homes whose owners and their families enjoyed them for years, perhaps generations. The sunrises and sunsets were magical and the happy times will resonate forever in the memories of those extended families and their friends.
However, it seems lost on many that these homes were built on an unstable sandspit literally hundreds of miles into a dangerous and unpredictable ocean. They were doomed to fall eventually. More will follow. When they do, it falls to the rest of us – the taxpayers who fund Dare County and the National Park Service – to pay to remove moldy timber, rusty nails and busted up toilets that are floating around in the tides.
There’s no way to know precisely, but presumably half of these homeowners identify as conservatives, Republicans or perhaps even MAGAts. They are populists who demand low taxes and for the government’s involvement in their lives and businesses to be limited.
Until their house falls into the ocean.
And then it’s time for the cleanup to be paid for by the government – and by the rest of us who pay our taxes on time but never enjoyed the smell of the salty breeze or the sound of the waves from the decks of houses that no longer exist.
Instead of responsibly demolishing a doomed home, property owners waited until the waves did the job. Then, the government many of them purport to despise — and whose laws they are more inclined than ever to resist – is called upon to pay for the cleanup.
If a house is destroyed by a lightning strike, the owner or insurance pays to remove what’s left, not the local or federal government. Why is Hatteras different?
What’s happening on the sands of the OBX is a frustrating reminder of the myopic hypocrisy that drives our divisive world today.
WRAL photo
Stormy Politics
A reader sent these “random thoughts on a rainy day.” I thought they’re worth sharing:
Watching the homes on Hatteras Island collapse into an angry Atlantic is sad. But the scene is also a microcosm of today’s paradoxical conflict between the responsibilities of individual citizens and their government.
These are private homes whose owners and their families enjoyed them for years, perhaps generations. The sunrises and sunsets were magical and the happy times will resonate forever in the memories of those extended families and their friends.
However, it seems lost on many that these homes were built on an unstable sandspit literally hundreds of miles into a dangerous and unpredictable ocean. They were doomed to fall eventually. More will follow. When they do, it falls to the rest of us – the taxpayers who fund Dare County and the National Park Service – to pay to remove moldy timber, rusty nails and busted up toilets that are floating around in the tides.
There’s no way to know precisely, but presumably half of these homeowners identify as conservatives, Republicans or perhaps even MAGAts. They are populists who demand low taxes and for the government’s involvement in their lives and businesses to be limited.
Until their house falls into the ocean.
And then it’s time for the cleanup to be paid for by the government – and by the rest of us who pay our taxes on time but never enjoyed the smell of the salty breeze or the sound of the waves from the decks of houses that no longer exist.
Instead of responsibly demolishing a doomed home, property owners waited until the waves did the job. Then, the government many of them purport to despise — and whose laws they are more inclined than ever to resist – is called upon to pay for the cleanup.
If a house is destroyed by a lightning strike, the owner or insurance pays to remove what’s left, not the local or federal government. Why is Hatteras different?
What’s happening on the sands of the OBX is a frustrating reminder of the myopic hypocrisy that drives our divisive world today.
WRAL photo