Letter: Defunding police and creating another expensive program is not a solution to inequality
To the editor,
Silly me. I thought COVID-19 would be this country’s undoing. Little did I know it would come from within. I’m sick to death of the protesting, the call for police defunding, and the constant barrage of neighbor against neighbor BS about who cares more about racial equality.
This does not mean I’ve got my head in the sand or turning a blind eye to what’s happening in our country today? Not for a minute. I’m old. Not unconscious.
What it means is: You’ve protested and you’ve got the country’s attention. Now, be the solution, not the threat or the distraction. It also means that I will go to the mat fighting to stop any “defunding” of the services or agencies that protect you and me from harm.
Our current city, state, and federal budgets are in the toilet. Our city does not have the funding to go forward with the much needed 3rd Fire Station. Our Police Department does not have the funds to hire the much-needed officers. You know, those men and women you call when your life is in danger, or the ones who break up the drug deals and catch the murderers, child molesters, and thieves. Yeah, those folks.
I do not, and will not support one single idea of funding yet another Social Services program for any reason. The amount of money that now goes into those ineffectual programs is obscene! Programs that are laden with fraud and corruption. And you want more?
A new program that will require the hiring of hundreds of government employees to administer with the same skill and mentality they employ now. You know, the mentality that says to just look the other way because it’s “not my job!”
You want to divert funds to support programs that will take years and years to figure out, if ever?
If your answer to that is “we have to start somewhere,” you’re right. But never, ever should the starting place be with another government program. That’s just one more opportunity for the government to screw up and ask for more of your tax money. Don’t we all know by now that more government programs are not the answer?
You’re talking about creating and funding programs that absolutely no one will benefit from in the near, or even the not-so-near future.
Don’t you stand back and thank God for the wisdom and clear thinking shown by our police and city leaders, when our streets were being marched on by protestors? Do you understand how fast that could have gone so very wrong, but for the understanding and humanity of Chief Ty Lewis and his well-trained officers? Do you think this is just dumb luck? Or do you understand the concern and dedication these folks truly have for our citizens, our businesses, and this entire town?
Paso Robles has made our safety a priority. That alone is worth every “ask” the city comes to us with. If you don’t think so, look around at the chaos and destruction that happened in other cities. But it didn’t happen here. The answer to the racial divide is not in creating more social programs. The answer is in being a good human with a good heart. You change the hearts of others by your example. The example of how to love their fellow man, regardless of race, color, or creed.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Jan Albin
Paso Robles
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