I wrote yesterday about vaccines, and among other mental peregrinations, commented that the government was sometimes less than trustworthy. I stand behind that comment, defend it if necessary, but want to add that government also does quite a lot right year after year with mostly nobody noticing or commenting. Some examples come to mind:
It is popular to hate on the Transportation Safety people at airports for their intrusiveness and sometimes rudeness. On the other hand, since they started doing what they do, we’ve had no planes hijacked or bombed. Wasn’t that the point of TSA? For all their inconvenience, they’ve succeeded.
As a young adult if you wanted fresh corn that was actually sweet you had to eat it the same day it was picked. And most ears had a worm at the top that you cut off. Both are no longer true. We buy supermarket “corn on the cob” all summer that is still sweet and will even stay sweet for a couple of days in our refrigerator. And it is rare these days to buy corn with a worm. Credit scientists at USDA for both of these real improvements.
President Trump proved the feds could choke off most illegal immigration, and did so within the parameters of existing law and agency structure. Blame Biden for this no longer being the case, not the folks guarding the border.
Thousands of commercial flights get where they’re going every day of the year and don’t collide in the air. Credit the FAA for this, it doesn’t happen by chance.
The cleanest electricity generated in the U.S. comes from hydroelectric projects largely built and run by the Feds. Why we don’t build more of this clean, renewable power source is a mystery I cannot fathom.
Another thing our government does well is the National Park System, currently somewhat overloved but wonderful nonetheless. The world’s original national park, Yellowstone, is up the road about 100 miles away and it is the same spectacular place it was when I visited it with my parents in the 1950s. Ditto with the rest of the system. NPS does a good job.
It is okay to nitpick the Feds for the silly and sometimes evil things they do. They also do a lot right, and we need to recognize that too, not take it for granted.
