I believe that government has become as stupid as the people that elect them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Windham, Augusta or the huge cesspool known as Capitol Hill in Washington DC. It’s that or the population in general has become so disgusted with their elected officials at all levels that those elected officials can say anything they want knowing no one is listening. It’s sad to say that numerous stories in just about any newspaper or other news media substantiates what I am saying here.

Perhaps the best example is right here in my hometown of Windham where the majority of town councilors just voted to spend tens of thousands of dollars to educate us because we’re so stupid we don’t know the benefits of paying for a sewer system that we will probably never use. It’s either that or the majority of Windham town councilors are cronies of our town manager whom I believe has always been the true leader of my town and the town councilors are nothing but a rubberstamp approving but never disapproving anything that he does. All one has to do is look at what Windham does not have rather than what it does have.

Just look at the area behind Windham Skate Park and the uncompleted BMX bike park that is nothing more than piles of dirt. Windham will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new dump truck and yet can’t complete the simple project transforming piles of dirt into something where our children and grandchildren can have hours of fun doing what they like to do. Why can’t the Windham Public Works Department do some of that work? It’s either that or ask a private company to do it for nothing and name the park after that company.

Don’t lose much sleep over that because at the federal level our government only gets worse. Mowing at our national parks has ceased because an employee was killed after over going a 140-foot embankment in North Carolina. I never realized that the taxpayers own 397 parks and every lawnmower in every park has been parked. Do accidents happen? Of course they do and because one employee was killed every mower in the national park system is shut down until they can figure out how to prevent accidents like this. Don’t get me wrong, I do feel sorry for that employee and his family. But does the National Park Service believe that every employee is stupid or maybe instead they don’t have a clue as to the degree of training their employees have?

Also at the federal level Secretary of Stupid Hillary Clinton stated she loves France’s new path since a socialist was elected French president and she agrees that France, like the United States, should spend taxpayer dollars to ensure the prosperity of their nation. In other words, let’s borrow more money that we can’t pay for to ensure the financial stability of our country. All I can say is the light is on but nobody’s home in our Department of State because that is Europe’s problem in the first place as most countries there have borrowed more money than they can afford to pay back.

But as I finish this column, since I could be considered a dissident by our government at any level, what country could I go to to finish my political future free of charge? Seriously, several friends talked with me about this last weekend and they wondered what country they could go to and receive the same benefits that political dissidents like the recent one from China is going to get. Before one goes off on me, please remember I am a first-generation American because both of my parents came to America from Finland when they were children because my grandparents wanted a better life for their children. They grew up in the Finnish Ghetto in New York City and worked for everything that they had. That’s also what they taught me.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, believes when it comes to government, dummheit soll betraft worden. Any questions?