A View of Our Government

This past week has been a rather busy one for me. As a result, I did not get adequate time to look at news, in any format. The highlight of what I did read was commentary on Jackie Kennedy's interviews. A lot of younger woman (including Mrs. Kennedy's own grandchildren) were shocked to hear her say that she could never imagine disagreeing with her husband. I think this reaction shows just how far the world has come!!

Instead of reading the news, I was reading textbooks and journal articles on Public Administration and disaster management. I wish to make a few comments on those readings in this post. One of the articles looked at philosophical approaches emergency management. Parentalism was one of the types of philosophical approaches discussed in the reading. According to the author parentalism is found the Utilitarian school of thought, but only with slight modifications.

I DO NOT WANT to get philosophical here, instead I want to discuss my thoughts while reading that article. I came to the conclusion, that under no circumstance do I want our government (especially our federal government) considering itself my parent. "Parent" is way too close to "big brother" for me!!

What then should our government be? President Obama and Director Fugate (FEMA's director) have been- perhaps unknowingly- playing right into this parent view of our government. Both constantly refer to the "federal family" which will come to aid of any American during and after a disaster.

I have a better and more realistic view of our government. I view our Federal government as Batman and the state and local governments as Gotham Police. PLEASE HEAR ME OUT!

Our state government, like Gotham Police, is that institution that is always there for you. They may make mistakes, such as refusing to give up control of the STL Police Department, but they always mean well.

Our national government, like Batman, helps us out when we need it. The national government, like Batman, is whoever we need them to be. Most important though, our national government, like Batman, our national government does its job reluctantly but sincerely.

I realize that our government, both state and national, does not always correspond to the image I portrayed. But I think the Batman and Gotham image is a lot more appealing then a Federal Family.