The Alternative

By: 
Fritz Groszkruger

All politics is local

Two weeks ago The Hampton Chronicle had some important issues that need to be addressed.

The Homecoming vandalism is one of those things that has gone on long enough that it has been considered acceptable even though nobody (?) would act this way under ordinary circumstances. There should never have been a time when this vandalism was not met with the full power of the law. Selective enforcement of laws leads to selective observance of laws. They should be repealed or enforced; one or the other.

If public officials want to dream up programs to occupy the kids’ time they should do so on their own time and not waste the taxpayer’s money behaving like parents. The police are there to enforce the law and the school should be there to educate kids in preparation for a productive life. Parents are there to raise their children but the schools are often viewed as babysitters and then blamed for the dirty deeds of the kids. These kids are about to enter the real world and should be ready to find their own activities and entertainment.

My solution to the Homecoming shenanigans is for the school to notify the kids that the laws will be enforced and leave it at that. The police can do their job from that point. If Hampton-Dumont is the only school in the area with respectful kids, it will be something to be proud of.

The stop and go lights are another recurring issue. If the city is trying to set an example of bad spending habits and dependency they would have to work pretty hard to find a better one than the stop signal issue. The stop signs at First Street and Highway 3 are working great. We get through the intersection quicker with less congestion. Lack of the traffic light means I don’t have time to sit and stare at a $175,000 machine; I keep moving, just like good traffic, not like city traffic; another reason why this is a great place to live. The stop signs enable us to relate to our neighbors instead of a device. If someone wants to stop and read the city’s electronic sign they can find a parking place and do some shopping as well.

When the only reason this issue comes up again is because a grant may be available, that should indicate the project will only proceed if somebody else pays. This is hardly something for the community to be proud of.

After the supervisors discussed “adult use” businesses they went on to talk of support for a gas tax increase. Out of all the things state government spends our money on, why should it be difficult to fund one of the only legitimate uses of state power? Here is the answer. Go down I-35 and stop at a rest area. I will take the experts’ word that we have a crumbling infrastructure and it takes money to fix. It isn’t just the signs that require smokers to sit in their cars with the windows rolled up. Who makes the money on constructing these extravagant works of art? Fix the roads, then ask for money. You’ve proven that you don’t know how to manage it up until now.

There was a time when there were no public rest areas. Gas stations made enough money to provide the facilities. The nicer the conditions, the more business the station got. Then I suppose the station owners lobbied the state to build these rest areas. They were convenient. But like Obama’s vacations, they grew to be the stuff of royalty. What is unseen is the alternative opportunity for taxpayers to spend that money in ways that personally benefit them. It is a recipe for waste.

I actually favor a fuel tax to fund roads. The heavier the vehicle, the more use it gets from the roads. A call for raising registration fees is mere socialism, though. Why penalize people who buy new, safer cars? Also, diesel should be taxed at the same rate as gas and ethanol. In Europe diesel cars are the norm because they are more efficient. Here they are taxed more because there are fewer voters who are truck drivers than car drivers. And some blame the oil lobby because it has incentive to promote higher fuel consumption. The argument that electric cars would be freeloaders won’t hold water until there are more of them. At present they only exist because the fascist state forces us to subsidize them. Even with the subsidies, only millionaires can afford them.

I’d like to thank the kind folks who stopped to visit as we rang the bell for the Salvation Army at Fareway. If we missed you, you can still mail a check. Ninety percent of the money collected stays here to help our neighbors in need.

You can communicate with me at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com or visit my website for videos, cartoons and other commentary at www.alternativebyfritz.com

Hampton Chronicle

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Hampton, IA 50441
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