Only Solutions...
Anyone remember the movie "TRON"? That was the title (Only Solutions) of one songs from the soundtrack sung by Journey. And it was a pretty good ditty.The movie was groundbreaking in more ways than one as well.
Sorry to say that in the Summit city, such is NOT the case (with solutions that is).
We seem to have more problems than we could ever hope to shake a stick at.
And like the saying goes: "If it's not one damn thing...it's another".
So in that vein, it's time to toss a gauntlet or two down, eh?
Seems the City and County just cannot get this bridge repair thing down. No one wants to take responsibility for maintenance (the former sole responsibility of the county up until 2005). The City wants the County to come up with a plan, while the County points fingers at the City saying they don't really want to get involved. meanwhile, the Township of Wayne is crying the blues over their recent shortfall now.
The County wants to levy a wheel tax to cover the cost of bridge upkeep. The City still wants a plan, and the Township is wondering why poor relief costs so much (gee, I dunno...ask all the lazy-ass morons living in MY part of the city, won'cha?) when they can't crunch the numbers and figure this out for themselves.
A nice clusterf$ck, NO ONE could find, to say the least.
County Commissioner Roy Buskirk had THE best line ever:
"This is why nothing ever gets done".
Welcome to Allen County, Roy...where reasons are AWOL and excuses RULE the day.
And of course we still have the fuel "crisis" at our pumps, making every frigging thing in creation costing more as a result (read my archives regarding the Domino Effect), so the LAST thing taxpaying consumers need is ANOTHER tax (to piss them off royally).
Regarding this archaic and multi-tiered local governmental structure, all I can say is WTF are you people thinking? With a city the size of fort Wayne, why on God's green Earth didn't you guys just ABSORB the township of Wayne INTO your already incorporated city, huh? That would have at least streamlined all this red tape somewhat. And you should have done this when the population got close to 200K.
But NOOOoooooo. You guys have this "forest for the trees" nearsightedness working overtime, right?
And with the number of good-for-nothing, generationally non-working people with all their collective hands wanting "something for nothing", I can only see TWO choices staring all of you in the puss:
1) Give in to these lowlifes and raise every tax imaginable, thereby chasing MORE of the real core taxpayers the hell OUT of Fort Wayne, and watch yourselves become the NEXT Detroit.
2) Close the doors on all the feet of these lazy people and FORCE them to get with the program, becoming useful citizens (who DO pay taxes).
Simple, huh?
That ALONE would save MILLIONS...AND shore up this ever-eroding tax base you so consistently depend upon.
That...is called a SOLUTION.
Now it strikes me as odd that ANY city would condone neighborhoods where 80-90 PERCENT of it's populace DOES NOT WORK (even during the Great Depression people SOUGHT OUT the most menial occupations to survive). Hell, it's way beyond condoning it...this city actually ENCOURAGES it.
And don't give me that hackneyed line about poverty or racial disenfranchisement. That is a load of crap, and anyone with a few synapses still firing can see that.
Where are people being "disenfranchised" when they don't work, but yet somehow manage to have a BRAND NEW SUV or top-of-the-line automobile with that killer sound system and 30 inch rims ? Didn't know WIC covered the cost of new vehicles (and accessories)...did you? And I don;t recall being able to walk into a car dealership and using FOOD STAMPS to purchase a vehicle.. This isn't your grandma's S&H Green stamp redemption center, kiddies.
But that's what I see...every day, and not just in my neighborhood. It's pretty much scattered about.
Funny...our family always got OUR cars the old-fashioned way...we WORKED OUR ASSES OFF FOR THEM. My Dad once owned a 1971 Ford Galaxy LTD (sweet ride, BTW), and he used to refer to that moniker, saying the "LTD" stood for a Long Term Debt! I asked my Dad if he'd co-sign for me when I got my first car. he said "Do you have money in the bank"? I said "Yes". He said "Good, take a loan against THAT, then".
And you know what?
That freaking worked. I paid the loan off ahead of time, got the car, didn't have my account seized for NON-PAYMENT, still had a nice balance, and got a phenomenal CREDIT RATING as a result.
And, after thanking Dad for that sage advice, I never looked back since.
Goes to show what you can do when you WORK for something, eh?
And you appreciate all the more in the process.
But that's just ONE example.
The trouble is when you're brought up with the misconception that life OWES you every damn day for everything, and that if you bitch LOUD enough...and LONG enough, someone will come along and give you money to shut you the f$ck up. This is called LIVING ON THE DOLE (read "poor relief").
There are solutions to this, we just have to find people with enough cajones to enact those solutions. And to hell with those that would stand against them. Tell those ambulance chasers to get a REAL job for a change.
We're all about as close to "crunch time" as we can get (especially in this city), so it's time for someone to step up, ante in, and make the tough choices in order to benefit everyone.
I would advise the city to stop with all the PROBLEM creation...and get with the SOLUTION creation instead. They've spent way more time creating problems as it is. They've spent way too much time effort, and money on every task force and committee under our burning sun...with "zip" to show for it. And over these past 11 years, I've gotten to see the result of their problem "creativity" daily...believe me.
Time to challenge you local politicians by suggesting you attempt to change my POV.
Convince me that you have MY best interest (as a normal taxpaying citizen) at ..seriously. I mean it.
Prove to ME that all you "suits" are capable of decisions WORTHY of the offices you were voted into.
Back up some of that "lip-service" you've been so forthcoming with over the years.
Demonstrate to me that you CAN implement REAL WORKABLE SOLUTIONS for the citizenry instead of all these band-aids on a hemorrhaging city in financial distress suffering from multiple compound fractures.
You City, County, and Township politicos, in all your arrogance and smugness have placed a huge, honking chip on my shoulder for the past 10 years...now, C'mon...knock it off.
Go ahead...I dare 'ya.