As companies become too large to be manageable, so do countries. As companies become top-heavy and bloated, so do governments. The U.S. Government is obese. Morbidly obese. The Fed has its hand in every nuance of every life. The cost to taxpayers is staggering. The waste is obscene. If the Fed had to abide by the rules of a company or a family, it would have filed for bankruptcy long ago. It’s past time to revisit the genius of the Founding Fathers. It’s time to put the Fed on a crash diet, to dismantle most of it and allow the States to govern their own affairs. Likewise, the States should scale back and allow municipalities greater sovereignty. Consider the simplest model for sound government: the residential neighborhood or apartment complex. In your neigborhood, you may have an Association. If so, you elect officers. The Association has meetings. The Association is charged with collecting “taxes” to manage roads, entrance landscaping, the pool, tennis courts, luminaries, teenager vandalism, etc. But the Association has nothing to do with your family, your medical care, your education, your sex life. The Association governs the big picture, you have dominion over the little picture. The Fed rightly should be the “Great Protector”—a Cop, a Park Ranger, a Diplomat, a Highway Builder and a Supreme Jurist. But the Fed should get out of 90% of the business it’s in. Here’s the simple analogy. Your Neighborhood Association is the Fed. Your Family is the State. Get the picture? Powerful states and municipalities do not equal civil unrest, but true civil rights. This is a serious recommendation. Somebody should pay money for it. Of course, some nitpicker will come along to find fault. Please, TJ,  show up in Congress—for just one day.

Years after visiting Ireland, many memories and impressions remain. Among them, the golf courses, astonishing in their beauty; village taverns, rollicking with laughter and music; lush gardens, flourishing under a climate made in heaven; ancient towns, arrested in time, economically deprived and systemically dingy. But, most of all, there is the memory of Thomas. He was 13, a smidgen over five feet, sandy haired, blue-eyed and materially poor, working as a caddy on a windswept afternoon on the rugged terrain of County Kerry. By American standards, young Thomas was stuck at the edge of poverty. Essentially, his prospects were bleak. Unworldly and unprivileged, he surely would be encouraged to follow in the timeless footsteps of his class in a country still chained to a caste system. By American standards, however, this ragged boy had riches our affluent society does not own and cannot buy. Because, you see, still in the eighth grade, Thomas was a scholar of the English language. In his lilting Irish brogue, his words flowed like sparkling water over stones, pure, correct, grammatical, even literary in their diversity. This little, scruffy child and likely his truck-driver father had a far better grasp and appreciation for language than our college graduates and talking heads on television who ostensibly earn their livings communicating. The “dumbing down” of America became starkly real in Ireland, where those who have no wealth are educated in a language they honor and love. Meanwhile, in America, more people attend college now than ever before and more money per capita is spent on education from kindergarten through high school. Television and computers have promised unprecedented learning and understanding but technology only seems to assure the speedier transmission of illiteracy. While teachers strike for more money, their students can’t write simple sentences, don’t know the difference between “lie” and “lay,” don’t have a clue about “subjects” and “objects” and can only sum up a thought by saying “you know” or “like.” Yes, there are exceptions; but the horror is we’re into the second and third generation of decline. When parents have no reverence for their traditions, when their books are merely decorative accessories like candlesticks and ceramic birds, and when athletes, actors and talk-show hosts are the demigods they most admire, who can expect their children to recapture or respect the virtue and value of the English language? On a windswept bluff in late August, a stocky Irish lad in shabby clothing was eloquent proof that real wealth has nothing to do with nearly everything that now dominates our priorities.

For the most part, the U. S. Constitution has been raped and pillaged since our forefathers masterfully produced it. But thank God for one amendent—the 22nd. It limits an individual to two successive terms as President. Why did the Jeffersons and Madisons insist on this limitation? Simple. In their day, the people were sick to death of kings. So were the leaders. Being in office was truly a “public service.” Washington set the tone by opting out after two terms. Office holders expected to give their time and energies and step aside. Today, it’s a different story altogether. Politics is a career path, an avenue to power, fame and big, big bucks. Once in office, politicians spend the bulk of their time staying in office because the office is lucrative and loaded with powerful perks. If they manage to win successive terms, it takes a major scandal to get rid of them. That is, unless the name is Clinton. Scandal made him a celebrity bad boy and he would still be in office if the law had allowed it. We like bad boy rascals. The Mafia Kingpin is cool. “We the People” gravitate to royalty. We want the government to secure our lives. That’s why we keep electing and re-electing any demagogue scoundrel that comes along promising to take care of us. Here’s a thought… wonder what would happen if we had term limits for every elected office in this beloved land of ours? Wonder how many public minded citizens would run for office if they could hold it for only one four-year term? After that, back home they go to earn an honest living like the rest of us common folk. Odds are running for office wouldn’t be worth it and the only candidates would be people sincerely interested in public service. Kind of like serving on the school board, wouldn’t you say? Like members of a jury, these officials might do what’s right for their country instead of what’s right to get themselves re-elected. Doing the right thing. Now that’s a rather original concept. Time for the axe.