Government Failure

Dear Editor,

It is rare that we have a concrete example of a failure in leadership, a failure in our government. On those few occasions that our leaders have some success, they make certain that we know about it. There is a parade for the accomplishment, children are brought out in colorful clothing to strew flowers before our great leaders who accomplish this great thing, we make it a holiday, put it on the calendar and have a parade next year also. The bridge that is built has the name of the leader that made it happen. The government building has the name of the congressman or senator that found the money to build it.

But a failure, there are no holidays for those. There are only fancy excuses. Like a second grader who points his finger at the guy next to him and says,"he did it", when the teacher catches him red handed, our leaders have become the very best excuse makers for failure, we even have allowed
them to sell us a new word for a lie, "spin".

However, it is rare that we have a concrete example of a failure in leadership, a solid mass of failure, something that sits there everyday in a solid twisted pile, a thing that can not be explained away to vanish and be forgotten Of course this letter is about our public dock at Cedar Key.

After a year since it was destroyed by a hurricane, it still sits there, a concrete example of our governments failure to do their job. Sure, we have heard all the excuses, the finger pointing, the "spin", about why they have not been able to fix the one thing so many people in our community, and our region love to visit. The pelicans are none too happy about this foot dragging either.

Perhaps we should put the pelicans in charge of this effort. If they could talk, they could go to the county commission, the legislature and the federal government and demand help for this important recreational facility, a facility that serves tens of thousands of Florida residents as well as tens of thousands of visitors to the island every year. A pelican could find the money to get the dock fixed, but then we all know we have some pretty smart pelicans at Cedar Key.

Sincerely,
Mike Segal