PUBLIC SERVANTS....REEEEEALLY?

As I reflect on my years it strikes me that until I was 16 years old I could remember only one president, being too young to have known Hoover it was Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Harry S. Truman was sworn in as president after the death of FDR in April, 1945.  Harry won his own race in 1948 and served until 1953.

The reason I bring this up is to point out how differently we treated ex-presidents then.  Herbert Hoover left office in 1932 and carried his own bags to the train, went home and went to work.  Harry left office and he and Bess returned to there home in Springfield, MO to the home they had lived in sense marriage.  The only home they had.  Then they packed the Chevy and toured the country.  No Secret Service, no special aides.  Just he and Bess having a good relaxing time.  Harry refused all offers of a seat on the Board of Directors with the retort, "You don't want me.  You want the Oval Office and it is not for sale."  Or similar words.  It was only a few years later that Congress voted  him a small pension.

But now the game has changed, and changed dramatically.  The tax payer and voter, you and I,  pensions
everyone who is sent to Washington often enough.  And we fix it so the retiring Exec. is well fixed and never has to lower himself to actually WORK.  Those who stay in the halls of congress year after year, whether they do anything or not, work their way up the ladder to better offices, important committee assignments and if they arrive at the pinnacle, a limo and driver.  The icing on the cake, of course, is the lucrative pension. 

You say: I am envious and jealous. Not true.  But I will admit to anger.  Here is why.  When those great men put this system of government together they wanted it to be, "By the people and for the people."  Servants of the people, those elected to office, were expected to serve then go home to their regular duties.  The pay was such that it  paid expenses and little more.  It was never intended to be a full time job compensated by whatever they ,the servants, decided they were worth.

After all these years of observing our decision making process and the results thereof, I have become, perhaps, the complete cynic.  I do not like to be there.  It is not my comfort spot knowing that I do not trust those who are  looking out for me!   I hope for change, not for me and my wife but for our Great Grands now growing up.  Time is short and change will not be easy.  START NOW!