Things that make you go ‘hmm’

Life is filled with things that make you go “hmm,” and life in Marion County is no different.

Take, for example, a recent decision by Hillsboro to impose a residency requirement on its city administrator. The administrator must live in Hillsboro (a natural) or elsewhere in the county (a surrender to how hard it is to get people to move). But if living elsewhere in the county, the administrator can’t live within any other city. Hmm.

Campaign signs are sprouting like weeds after a rainstorm, with signs for 4th District county commissioner candidates every block or two. A good half of the signs appear to be north of Marion’s Main St. But Marion, like Hillsboro, is gerrymandered. Marion’s north half is an island attached to Mike Beneke’s 2nd District, the rest of which is at least six miles away. Hmm.

One set of signs touts a candidate as “strong enough to get the job done.” Commissioners often don’t get anything done, but it rarely is because they aren’t strong. Rather, they seem to strong-arm their way through things by micromanaging workers and beating dead horses like wind farms and data centers. Hmm.

Years ago, Kansas was a national leader in governmental openness. Its laws on open meetings and open records begin by stating they should be interpreted liberally because everything should be open unless very specifically closed. Yet when it comes to selling government land or listing precinct committee candidates, any excuse not to inform the public seems to hold sway — unlike how home rule, also to be interpreted liberally, is interpreted so liberally that even the most flaming socialist would be embarrassed. Hmm.

Every year, someone in some elected role talks about trimming government spending to bare necessities, but every year rather than first identify the necessities, politicians wait until valuation figures come out so they can determine how much money they can spend without significantly increasing tax rates. Hmm.

To be successful, democracy needs checks and balances and the rule of law. But when put into action, especially nationally, government functions more on checks written by campaign donors to tip the balance in favor of what they want. Rather than the rule of law, it becomes the rule of lawyers — with those who can afford them getting whatever they want and those who can’t being held hostage to officials who will intentionally go against the law because they know no one can afford to sue them.

Time was experts who spent their lives studying issues were consulted before wars were started, vaccines were recommended, nutritional requirements were outlined, or things like reflecting pools and ballrooms were renovated. Now, we worry not about facts but opinions. If you believe something strongly enough it must be true. Hmm.

What we need as our country approaches its 250th birthday is a lot less hemming and a lot more hawing — or, perhaps, hewing, with everyone feeling confident enough to cut to the chase rather than mire ourselves in meaningless melodrama.

— Eric Meyer