The Spinach Trap

As I read the headline, I thought it had to be a prank. As Children Suffer, Parents Agonize Over Spinach read like something that would get a copy editor fired. I had heard about the nationwide spinach recall but assumed it was just one of those things where you'd throw up for a day and then feel better in the morning. The idea that children would suffer through such agony and die because their parents fed them that supervegetable, spinach, was beyond my immediate comprehension. Now, I realize that this is yet another deadly example of what happens when government is run by those who wish to destroy it.

When I first read the headline, I thought about poor Popeye and how Bluto was going to kick his ass all around town. Once again, I had failed to realize just how broken our system of government is. FEMA failed to do its job despite explicit law stating that it was to take charge in an event like Hurricane Katrina. We depend on government to keep us safe in modern society and the Bush Administration is doing its best to break that sacred trust forever.

We expect police to keep enough order in the streets to prevent the sort of disorder depicted in "A Clockwork Orange." We expect our government to have disaster plans in place in case a hurricane struck a vulnerable area. We expect our government to inspect our food and drugs to make sure that they are safe. We expect the entire process of growing through packaging our food to be inspected to prevent contamination. We expect our mines to be as safe as they can be for workers who already toil under some of the worst conditions in the nation. The government is supposed to enforce compliance through a system of inspection and penalties.

This administration has failed to carry out any of its most solemn duties. People are dying from eating what's supposed to be one of the healthiest vegetables. Miners in West Virginia have been dying. New Orleans is still in ruins more than a year after the hurricane. Our government has placed the proverbial foxes in charge of the henhouse. When inspectors are allowed to do their jobs, the fines they levy are reduced to affordable levels. Often, the companies do not pay them at all. People die when government fails to do its job and the Republicans are out to make government fail.

What about that reference to "A Clockwork Orange" that you probably thought was silly hyperbole. The Iraqis are going through a whole lot of the "ole ultraviolence." We took away the tyrannic glue that held a concoction of warring factions together. The result was predictable and predicted by many outside the administration. That could very well be where we are headed unless we change the party in charge as soon as Constitutionally possible.