By Ron Ulmer

I changed my forum topic because we had the worst mass shooting in United States History in Orlando Florida over the weekend.

THE NUMBER ONE REASON GOVERNMENTS ARE CREATED is to protect its citizens.

The government is to protect us from internal and external enemies and criminals followed by epidemics and man-made disasters. Let’s take a look at how well the government is doing.

1. The terrorist had been interviewed several times by the FBI, however FBI never notified local police or placed him on a list that barred him from purchasing guns and ammunition.
2. With respect to 911, a FBI field agent reported repeatedly to his superiors that mid-eastern men were taking flying lessons, but were not interested in taking off or landing. His bosses told him to quit bothering them with this information or he would be disciplined, perhaps fired.
3. The Fireman, Policemen and others working for months at the World Trade center site were not required to wear masks by OSHA to protect them from the toxic dust. As a result many were sickened and died. However the clean-up workers at the Pentagon were required to wear masks and were not sickened.
4. We have sanctuary cities that defiantly violate Federal law to protect unlawful and criminal immigrants place US citizens at risk.
5. Then we have the Chicago Police Department which is the most corrupt major city police department in the nation. Chicago, (read all Illinois citizens) for decades has paid out many more millions per year for abusing detainees, beating confessions out of people who did not commit crimes and so on than any other major city police department, including New York which has more than twice as many police.  To date the payout from one police district under a Commander named John Burge is currently about $105 million.   Approximately 60 people were shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend.  Additionally, no mayor current or past has done anything to reduce abuse of those being held or interrogated by police department, reduce the number of shootings by criminals or shootings by the police or enforcement of among the strictest guns laws in the US.
6. Lead in the water in Flint Michigan. The Federal EPA thought it did not have the authority to inform the people of Flint of the problem when the State EPA took no action. So no government “protection agency” took any action.

We do not need more laws or more government employees.  We need more government employees doing their job to effectively enforce the laws and to be held accountable.  We need more government whistle blowers when they observed failure to protect the citizenry.

Ron Ulmer is an economist, have taught economics/finance at 3 central Illinois universities and employed by Illinois Power as a Senior Rate Analyst, supervisor of economic research, Market Program Manager. Now retired, Current member Normal Kiwanis, past 25 year member Optimist International Service Club, Property owner and manager in Normal for 37 years ongoing.   

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