AMERICA USED TO BE IN COLOR

"The Missouri Senate has given first-round approval to a wide-ranging bill affecting county and local governments.

The measure includes numerous provisions on issues that have arisen only in some parts of Missouri. One section, proposed by a senator from Columbia, would allow surrounding Boone County to establish a curfew for people younger than 17. Another section would let counties build jails outside the county seat.

The bill also gives some communities permission to levy or increase taxes on hotel and motel guests.

Senators endorsed the bill Wednesday after considering roughly two dozen amendments. Final approval in the Senate would move the measure to the House."

KOAM TV

This is almost a man bites dog story. In an age when government, in particular Washington, seems intent on moving power away from the people it warms my heart to see Missouri doing just the opposite. The closer government is to the people the more likely it is that it will govern well. It's actually surprising that the issues mentioned above couldn't be addressed at the local level without having to change a state law. None of these issues should have ever risen beyond a city or county level. (I would guess that these laws are vestiges of the War Between the States when the Federal Government invaded my state and needed to control local resistance. Boone County was right in the middle of this.)

This allows for competition between cities and counties. Let the people decide what amount of government they want in their lives. If local laws become too onerous people will leave for other less restrictive places. But, if the amount of government is "just right" people will flock to a city or county for the perceived benefits.

This is the way our country was designed to function. That's why the states are sovereign political entities. Competition between states and even between the counties within them create growth and innovation. The homogenized, one size fits all behemoth that Washington has been working to create since the wrong side lost in 1865 has had just the opposite effect.

When I was a kid Route 66 was the road we took when we went somewhere. It was the closest thing to a sideshow at the carnival you could find on four wheels. Every town and county was different. Quirky is the only way to describe it. Weird billboards, bizarre buildings, dancing chickens and people that were real characters were the mainstay. Every time we went somewhere I knew adventure lurked around each twist in the road. The entire highway, which was really nothing more than a ribbon of two lane county highways stitched together to form a path across the country, was a testimony to free market entrepreneurism. That's because the businesses along the way didn't have the whole panoply of alphabet soup agencies from a foreign government approving their every decision. To the extent there was any control at all it came from the town or county these businesses resided in; and it was in the best interest of these local governments to see that these businesses flourished.

Traveling by car lets you get a feel for the places you move through in a way that nothing else can. When I was a kid we traveled through a country of individuals working to achieve a dream. Now, when I travel, I drive down an interstate, efficient to be sure, but bland and gray. Each exit has the full complement of McDonalds and Cracker Barrels, one no different than the next. I'm not traveling through Missouri, Phelps County or Rolla anymore; just America, a one size fits all, everything boiled down to the lowest possible denominator kind of place. All is done in the name of corporate efficiency; every hamburger shaped the exact same way for shipping convenience and prepared in a factory environment by slack jawed automatons so that the taste and texture never varies. And not a dancing chicken to be found.

We've lost our soul here in the USA; and our will to live. As we changed from a Republic to an oligarchy the color drained from our faces as we took on the sorry countenance of sheep being led to the slaughter. We have been convinced that hope lies in a good job at a gray corporation and that the reward is a bigger TV and new car. We no longer believe that hope lies in God and our reward here on earth is freedom. No, we've happily traded our real reward for security; we've trade the carnival ride exuberance of risk for the placid congeniality of safety.

But this is a lie. When we rely on others for our safety we can never be safe. Life is not a safe undertaking and no one can make it so. Americans used to embrace the danger; and the adventure. And I used to see that passion along Route 66, when I was a kid and TV's were black and white but America still had color.