I worry about the direction our country is going and the lack of leadership to correct the problems that we now have. For instance, there are numerous cities like Detroit and Chicago that are either in bankruptcy or darn near it. One state is so broke it cannot pay lottery winners.
As of Oct. 11, the national debt was $18,156,186,141,240 and climbing every second. We aren’t paying a dime toward anything but the interest. And the huge shame is our debt is far worse than that because of huge unfunded mandates, which go up into the trillions. I won’t bother to mention our personal debt, which is just as bad. I can’t wait to see what the impact will be when municipalities have to start reporting all of their liabilities on their budgets, which is a new federal mandate.
The Windham town councilors should have voted on the Strategic Plan last Tuesday which appears to have some decent plans for the future of Windham though it is unfortunate that it is with more of our money. In other words, they plan to increase the next few municipal budgets although some of the present town councilors will no longer be around to count how much they took from us. Before they plan so much for the future, I still haven’t heard how the town paid for a huge spending deficit in the Social Services budget in 2009 that was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I read the charter and the town councilors were supposed to be the ones to correct that problem and I never heard a word in a public meeting. And now they are planning for future spending?
Windham has a problem with roads around the Forest Lake area so I am looking forward to see if any improvements will be made to those roads or will the town of Cumberland drop its public safety coverage for the area and leave the residents at their own peril. I know for a fact that Windham has lots of other roads with problems and I see nothing done to permanently solve these problems from happening again.
I really appreciate when bad roads are repaired but I have seen tons of money poured into roads that could have waited for years. If you want to practice for the Indianapolis 500, please join the speeders already racing on the River Road in Windham.
Well, all of that is just spittle when compared to the lack of intelligence and leadership in our nation’s capital. If you are bored and would like something stupid to do, why not volunteer to fill in as the Speaker of the House? Seems like no Republican wants that position so let’s open it for every citizen. Just think, you wouldn’t have to join the fiasco of running for president or being pressured because you wouldn’t have a private Internet server taking care of your emails and other things.
So I guess at this point I should ask if anyone knows what our foreign policy is really about. That is if we really have one that doesn’t change from crisis to crisis and seemingly always ends up with America running away with its tail between the legs of those who we were unfortunate enough to elect. Russian jets go airborne in Syria and we run away. China builds islands in the South China Sea and we do nothing. I have a sense that our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are all for nothing. It is sad.
Here’s a word of caution. If you happen to receive a check from the town of Windham, please ask if it is from a current account or one that has been cancelled. That simple question might just save you some money as well as embarrassment.
Lane Hiltunen of Windham asks when you notice elected and appointed officials spewing out pipe dreams, do us all a favor and take away their pipes.
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