When I take a good look at the status of our town, state and country, to say nothing about our entire planet, I have to wonder if mankind has really progressed as much as we think it has.

It’s been more than 236 years since the beginning of the United States and more than 150 years since the Civil War and yet we still hear of government placing more and more taxes and restrictions on freedoms that this very nation was founded on.

A barrel of crude oil is now approaching $110 a barrel while gold and platinum are now worth more than $1,700 an ounce. As most of the readers probably already know, gasoline more than likely will hit $5 a gallon this spring, which will lead to even more higher costs for everything we purchase.

Perhaps Billie Crystal said it best at the Oscars when he stated it was a show where millionaires presented gold statues to their friends.

We always hear how broke government at all levels is and yet when it comes to spending money, our elected and appointed officials seem to invent new methods of squeezing more and more money from us.

When I look at how members of Congress voted themselves automatic pay raises some years ago, I believe they did that so they would not have to discuss their future pay increases which would have been a matter of public record. I was shocked when I learned that the majority of bills voted on by Congress are not roll-call votes which means who voted and what they voted for or against is recorded. We do that in Windham so it should be done the same way in Augusta and Washington.

My blood pressure went up when I read a recent article that on many airline flights the majority of those seated in the first-class section are government workers, something I was banned from doing in the military unless my flight was urgent business and the only seat available was in the first-class section. I never sat anyplace other than coach, usually the rear of the plane next to one of the engines. At least I have a service-related hearing disability that entitles me to real expensive, government hearing aids but don’t fret because most of my hearing problems cannot be cured by hearing aids.

It’s time for us to have a government that leads by example instead of appearing like a bunch of related interlopers helping themselves instead of us. Two perfect examples are the Maine Turnpike Authority and the Maine Housing Authority. We know what went wrong with the MTA and the MHA is still being investigated. What we really should be wanting to know is how these two quasi-governmental agencies were established without strict oversight when it comes to their spending and who in Maine Legislature voted for them. But, if nothing else, it proves my theory that government takes care of government before it takes care of us. Look at the US Department of Energy motto, which is, “The mission of the Energy Department is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.” It’s hard to believe its original purpose was to deal with national problems of dwindling supplies of oil, coal and natural gas in order to decrease the dependence on foreign sources of fuel, especially oil. We know that President Obama fully supports solar and wind power and I have no doubt his administration used political pressure to give a $500 billion loan to Solyndra, which for all intents and purposes was already bankrupt and that wasn’t the only green energy company funded by taxpayer dollars to go belly up. What you might not have heard is that some of Solyndra’s employees are being given bonuses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure a fair price is received when the bankruptcy auctions take place. If you or I did this at a privately owned business would we still work there?

I just watched Neil Cavuto on Fox and I love his description about the cost of gasoline and he did not blame the huge oil companies for all the increases in the cost we pay. He stated it was our elected officials in Washington not allowing for more drilling of oil and their spending habits – of our tax dollars – that have weakened the good, old American Greenback. Don’t get it? The price of oil is based solely on the dollar and the dollar is now weaker, which means we pay more for oil.

Lane Hiltunen lives in Windham.