An interesting situation has come to the forefront of our consciousness via TV tabloid coverage on all 3 local channels, plus an article in the Toledo Bland, er, Blade.
Seems there is a $511,000 grant that has been awarded by the U.S. Dept. of Education to the Swanton School district through the Swanton Area Community Coalition (SACC) that the Board of Education is thinking of declining.
Whoa!
The proposed function of this grant is for reduction of alcohol use in students. Hmmm . . . sounds like a cause most would support. How could you refuse money for this worthy endeavor?
Neil Toeppe, Executive Director of the SACC, issued a press release, and apparently contacted everybody and their uncle with ties to the local media to put the full court press on the school Board in order to not-so-subtly insist that they accept the grant. He apparently also provided the summary page of the grant to the media as well, and a few have it available online. If you want to read a copy, click on this link to Channel 24
Now, I don't claim to be the sharpest tool in the shed, but even a cursory reading of this summary page shows an interesting fact: the lion's share of the money is earmarked for the SACC, and not the school district. Can you say "boondoggle" ??
It appears that barely 10% of the funds awarded in this grant would actually go to the school for student benefit. All of the rest goes towards administrative salaries, equipment, travel, etc. either through or directly for the SACC and its members. Looks like a sweet deal for them - no wonder Toeppe is salivating over half a million greenbacks over a 3 year period!
Frankly, I am wondering how the heck this thing was ever approved by the US Dept of Ed in the first place. Does no one read these grant proposals before rubber stamping them? How could this much money of taxpayer dollars be awarded to a very small non-profit organization for salaries and travel expenses? It boggles the mind.
Grants are not "free money" - they are all taxpayer funded. That's you and me, and our neighbors. I am mighty annoyed that this type of pork is allowed to occur. Is it any wonder our federal government is bankrupt, with the way they throw our money around??
Kudos to the Swanton Board of Education for investigating the finer details of the grant, and being willing to Just Say "No". If more Boards across this nation would have the intestinal fortitude to do the same, just maybe we could turn this country around.
Showing posts with label federal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label federal. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Stop! Just Stop!
I will apologize right now, before I even begin. Maybe some kind of pharmacological assistance would help my anger right now, but I'm not sure they even manufacture what I would need . . .
I just read an article that said the Sierra Club (poster child for Tree-huggers of America) had done a "study" that showed the FEMA trailers provided to New Orleans' displaced peoples (and others) contained extremely high content of formaldehyde. After the results of this "study" were released, suddenly hundreds of people living in these trailers began complaining of many and varied physical ailments. A class action lawsuit against the federal government is being considered, apparently. A hue and cry about the terrible way the feds went about getting these trailers, perhaps without making sure they met EPA regs and other standards of manufactoring, is getting a whole lotta folks all riled up.
Now - I'm not going to sit here on my leather couch in air-conditioned comfort and state categorically that these are all charlatans lookin' to make yet another buck off the government (translation: you and me). These allegations may well turn out to be true. I read "other studies" are being conducted to verify whether the claims of the Sierra Club have merit.
What frosts my cake is the mindset of the average American that the United States Federal Government was created to fix anything and everything the could possibly go wrong within its borders, including what insurance companies refer to as "acts of God" or "acts of nature", et al.
Madness!
How on earth did we get to this point, where a hurricane blows away a city and it is considered the responsibility of the government to rebuild said city?? I bear no ill will toward any of those citizens left homeless after Katrina hit their area, but - come on !! New Orleans was destroyed because it is below sea level. It was only a matter of time before this happened - everyone living there knew it, and made a conscious choice to gamble that it would not happen in their lifetime. They lost that bet.
But why did they collectively hold out their hands and expect the feds to essentially 'un-do' what nature had 'done' ? To rebuild New Orleans is stupid. I don't care how much culture would be lost. Pompeii never got rebuilt either. It makes no sense to rebuild a city below sea level exactly the way it was. If there were folks bound and determined to rebuild a city at that spot, at the very least some consideration should have been given to building an American version of Venice or something. Certainly building exactly the same again is ridiculous - and expecting our TAX dollars to do so is madness!
Again - I feel sorry for those people who lost their homes, pets, and everything else in that tragedy. It was devastating, and will affect them the rest of their lives. But that doesn't excuse them from demanding the government step in to make it all better.
It is no different with the victims' families of 9-11. Why on earth should the federal government have paid any money to those affected by that terrible day in our history? An appropriate speech by the President would be great - but payments?? What kind of lunacy put that expectation into place?
Washington has become our "Daddy Warbucks". Anything and everything we don't like, we expect the feds to pay for. We want them to step in and save us from our own personal irresponsibility, it doesn't matter how many steps we take to get ourselves in a particular mess - it doesn't matter if it is a random act of nature or terrorist looney toons. We want the feds to "fix it", whatever "it" may be. We EXPECT them to "fix it". We DEMAND them to "fix it" !
Now somewhere along the line, people have forgotten that the money to pay for all of this comes from their neighbors and friends and family members. Taxpayers are the ones to foot the bill for all of this. And with our tax rates climbing ever higher, we are just about tapped out. But the outstretched hands never stop.
My fear is that more and more entitlements will be voted in, and more and more government fingers will reach into every facet of life, until America simply implodes. And I'm afraid it will happen in my lifetime. Our only hope is to educate the ignorant - demand accountability for elected officials - and stop! just STOP expecting others to bail us out of hard times! Let's rekindle the old "pull yourself up by the bootstrap" mentality again, and get busy with it. Humanitarian organizations will still be there to assist those truly in need, and all of the government waste and fraud will be eliminated.
Let's get back to teaching our kids personal responsibility - what a concept, eh? Of course, that lesson will have to be taught by our example as well, so let's get crackin' here. Quitcher whinin' and belly-achin' about how hard life is, and instead focus and use that energy to make a difference. If Americans lose that American spirit, America herself is doomed.
I just read an article that said the Sierra Club (poster child for Tree-huggers of America) had done a "study" that showed the FEMA trailers provided to New Orleans' displaced peoples (and others) contained extremely high content of formaldehyde. After the results of this "study" were released, suddenly hundreds of people living in these trailers began complaining of many and varied physical ailments. A class action lawsuit against the federal government is being considered, apparently. A hue and cry about the terrible way the feds went about getting these trailers, perhaps without making sure they met EPA regs and other standards of manufactoring, is getting a whole lotta folks all riled up.
Now - I'm not going to sit here on my leather couch in air-conditioned comfort and state categorically that these are all charlatans lookin' to make yet another buck off the government (translation: you and me). These allegations may well turn out to be true. I read "other studies" are being conducted to verify whether the claims of the Sierra Club have merit.
What frosts my cake is the mindset of the average American that the United States Federal Government was created to fix anything and everything the could possibly go wrong within its borders, including what insurance companies refer to as "acts of God" or "acts of nature", et al.
Madness!
How on earth did we get to this point, where a hurricane blows away a city and it is considered the responsibility of the government to rebuild said city?? I bear no ill will toward any of those citizens left homeless after Katrina hit their area, but - come on !! New Orleans was destroyed because it is below sea level. It was only a matter of time before this happened - everyone living there knew it, and made a conscious choice to gamble that it would not happen in their lifetime. They lost that bet.
But why did they collectively hold out their hands and expect the feds to essentially 'un-do' what nature had 'done' ? To rebuild New Orleans is stupid. I don't care how much culture would be lost. Pompeii never got rebuilt either. It makes no sense to rebuild a city below sea level exactly the way it was. If there were folks bound and determined to rebuild a city at that spot, at the very least some consideration should have been given to building an American version of Venice or something. Certainly building exactly the same again is ridiculous - and expecting our TAX dollars to do so is madness!
Again - I feel sorry for those people who lost their homes, pets, and everything else in that tragedy. It was devastating, and will affect them the rest of their lives. But that doesn't excuse them from demanding the government step in to make it all better.
It is no different with the victims' families of 9-11. Why on earth should the federal government have paid any money to those affected by that terrible day in our history? An appropriate speech by the President would be great - but payments?? What kind of lunacy put that expectation into place?
Washington has become our "Daddy Warbucks". Anything and everything we don't like, we expect the feds to pay for. We want them to step in and save us from our own personal irresponsibility, it doesn't matter how many steps we take to get ourselves in a particular mess - it doesn't matter if it is a random act of nature or terrorist looney toons. We want the feds to "fix it", whatever "it" may be. We EXPECT them to "fix it". We DEMAND them to "fix it" !
Now somewhere along the line, people have forgotten that the money to pay for all of this comes from their neighbors and friends and family members. Taxpayers are the ones to foot the bill for all of this. And with our tax rates climbing ever higher, we are just about tapped out. But the outstretched hands never stop.
My fear is that more and more entitlements will be voted in, and more and more government fingers will reach into every facet of life, until America simply implodes. And I'm afraid it will happen in my lifetime. Our only hope is to educate the ignorant - demand accountability for elected officials - and stop! just STOP expecting others to bail us out of hard times! Let's rekindle the old "pull yourself up by the bootstrap" mentality again, and get busy with it. Humanitarian organizations will still be there to assist those truly in need, and all of the government waste and fraud will be eliminated.
Let's get back to teaching our kids personal responsibility - what a concept, eh? Of course, that lesson will have to be taught by our example as well, so let's get crackin' here. Quitcher whinin' and belly-achin' about how hard life is, and instead focus and use that energy to make a difference. If Americans lose that American spirit, America herself is doomed.
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