Dear Mr. President

Last week, Mr. President, you gave a speech at the University of Michigan. In it, you decried America’s suspicion of the federal government. Here are your words: “What troubles me is when I hear people say all government is inherently bad. When our government spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.”

We beg your pardon, Mr. President, but whatever the federal government is, it’s not “us” citizens of Farmington, Missouri. The Observer does not know a solitary person in Farmington, male or female, Democrat or Republican, who would spend and borrow on such an unrestrained and reckless scale so as to force his or her children and grandchildren to work much of their lives repaying the debt. “Us” folks love our children and wouldn’t do that to them. But the federal government has.

And Mr. President, out here in the real world, “us” folks try to reward, not penalize, hard work. Take the teachers in Farmington’s school district for example. When a child gets enough right answers to earn an A, he gets an A. The teacher doesn’t take credit for right answers away from students who studied hard and give them to students who didn’t. To us, fairness means you get what you work for. But the government defines fairness just the opposite. To the government, taking hard-earned money from one person in the form of taxes and giving it to another in the form of welfare is fair.

“Us” people also know how to start solving the ballooning problem of illegal aliens flooding into our midst: Close the border. The Observer has never met a single person – not one – who thinks the immigration problem can be solved at the same time the government tolerates porous borders. Once the border is secure, most of “us” think only law-abiding citizens should be allowed into our country. But regardless of the American people’s hue and cry, the federal government stands down and watches as hundreds of thousands of illegals pour into across the border every year.

And so, Mr. President, given the vast chasm between what “us” folks believe to be common sense and actions of the federal government, it is no wonder so many good Americans view the federal government “as some menacing, threatening foreign entity.”

Mr. President, we love our country. But the government is not us.