A Boston Tea Party ...(Venture Into The Storm)

Although I am not a hurricane expert, I did stay in a Holiday Inn express last night so I hope this makes sense. The eye of a hurricane is calm and sunny. If you were able to place yourself in the eye of a hurricane you would be unaware of the violent weather taking place in the wall of the hurricane. From the eye you cannot tell how destructive the winds are, how high the storm surge is, or large a hurricane is in size. The eye is calm yet is the place where a hurricane gathers energy to support massive size.

Last week I watched Joe Scarborough interview Mississippi Senator Trent Lott. Lott was dumbfounded that the federal government could respond so slowly to the victims of hurricane Katrina. He could not believe that organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army could be so much better at providing support to the victims yet FEMA had yet to reach certain areas of Mississippi. He could not understand that a bureaucracy he is a part of and a bureaucracy he helped establish could be outdone by private and charitable organizations.

As I listened I figured Senator Lott is sitting in the eye of the hurricane known as Washington, D.C. The sun is always shining in Washington just like in the eye of the hurricane. There is no wind, no rain, no tornado in Washington. In Washington our leaders write laws, create bureaucracy, and spend money and it all works like it is supposed to. Leaders in Washington cannot see the government waste, the levels of red tape, nor the built in inefficiencies they create.

When looking out from Washington our elected officials see calm seas. Outside of Washington is where reality is. Reality is government doesn’t work like it is supposed too. Reality is people get burned by government when they expect government to be the hero. Reality is government creates as many storms as it does prevent them. Trent Lott cannot see it but those of us outside the eye of the hurricane can. It is in the wall of the hurricane where life really is. Trent Lott and his fellow eye of the hurricane dwellers need to venture into the storm on occasion and see how the rest of us live.