2-19-25

Some years back I was in youth ministry full time……I took four of the guys that I

used to spend a lot of time with over to north Georgia….. on one of the nights we

were there I took the guys into the little town of Jasper, Georgia, to get some ice

cream at the local Dairy Queen…..there were five of us, three white guys and two

black guys, and when we walked into the DQ I got a weird vibe from the kid

behind the counter…..he looked all out of sorts….I heard him mumble to his

coworker something like “where do these people come from?”……he was rude at

the register, he was condescending, so much so that I finally looked at him and

asked him if there was a problem…..he stared at me and just said, “what?” to

which I responded, “you seem to have a problem with us being here but the last I

checked your job is to serve ice cream. And ice cream is what we want. Are you

going to be okay with that?”…..he just stared at me and said, “what

flavor?”……let’s be clear, at that moment the kid had literally one job in the whole

wide world…..but somehow the fact that customers had arrived, perhaps some of

which were of the wrong skin color, I don’t know, it seemed that we had become

an irritant to him…..an irritant that required him to do his one job, which in some

way infringed on his ability to. Do. His. One. Job……it was just wrong…..My

guys deserved better than that…..

That Dairy Queen dude was a private sector hourly employee…..but he was still

wrong…..but what about when that same type of behavior is too often the norm

from educated adults who work in our government?.......I am at that stage of life

apparently……late last year I applied for my military retirement…..30 total years

of service but the way it is set up you have to wait for a certain age to be able to

start drawing it…..okay, fine…..so I applied for it, and it was painful, it’s like a

mystery wrapped in a conundrum that requires an appointment in another city after

filling out an online application with supporting documents and proof of

service…..got it…..and now I’m waiting because apparently they can’t tell me how

much my retirement pay will be, nor when it will start, because it takes several

months to process…..really….several months to decide whether I really did serve

those 30 years…..I don’t know, I just thought it would go smoother….and I’ll be

honest, theres a part of me that’s trying to be patient but I honestly feel like I

deserve something a little better than that…..

I was talking to a young Army Officer recently…..he told me that he and his

family had just gone through a move, what the Army calls a PCS or permanent

change of station move……they had Army contract movers who were

horrible…..they literally had to wait over a month and half for their household

goods to get shipped….that was after they had to wait for post housing that had

been promised and then forgotten….and in the process they also incurred some

expenses for the move which the Army regulations are required to

reimburse…..the Army DID reimburse them…. at first….and then the Army

decided that it had reimbursed them too much so without any consideration it just

began deducting hundreds from his paycheck each month…..I’ll be honest, that

young military family deserves better than that…..

I also saw a report this morning that a whistleblower recently came forward from

the Social Security Administration…..this whistleblower is making known that

there was a push by the previous administration to ensure that illegal aliens were

approved for social security long term disability benefits…..that their cases were

expedited for review and approval…..that would mean that people who broke our

laws to come here would then become permanent wards of the state as they receive

payments from our government for the rest of their lives……and their cases were

expedited for review and approval……meanwhile the VA has millions of

backlogged disability claims for actual US veterans who have service related

disabilities that they incurred in actual service to the nation…..AND anyone who

has ever been through the VA process knows that an application by a veteran for

consideration with the VA almost always gets denied on its go around…..it’s like a

game they play with veterans……but apparently not with illegal aliens…..

Much of America feels like the decision makers and bureaucrats in government

view us an irritant…..we are in their way…..we are impeding their work, their

progress, their governance, their one job……Have you noticed that when the

government spends your money in a myriad of wasteful ways it’s “just how it

is”…..but if the government believes for a second that you spent your money in

what it deems (in all of its omniscience) to be a incorrect manner then it will take

any number of punitive measures to get it back….and even make life miserable in

doing so…..is it too much to ask for some reciprocity here….is it too much to ask

for government to spend our money that we entrust it with in a manner that is

befitting a first-world nation?.....I believe the people of this country deserve better

from their own government…..a lot better…..and apparently many of you do as

well…..you may recall that there were some viral moments in the last few years

when music became an outlet for the broader public to express their dissatisfaction

with government…….the first was Jason Aldean singing “Try That In A Small

Town”…..the other was “Rich Men North of Richmond” by an everyday dude

named Oliver Anthony…..Anthony is blue collar guy who until recently was

struggling with alcoholism…..he plays a mean steel guitar, and he sings from the

heart……both songs took the charts by storm…..in mere days they became a

sensation and became the most downloaded songs in America…..both songs

basically point out that in too many cases there is a disconnect between those in

government and the average Joe and Jane in the heartland of the country……that

song is sort of like saying to government, “you have one job!”….. “we deserve

better!”…….But so many politicians and bureaucrats, they know that, they know

that they have one job…..but they want us to leave them alone so that they can do

their one job…..which is backwards, really…..because in fact, we are their one

job…..

But I will be the first to admit that I too often have low expectations of government

so I don’t find myself being “shocked enough” at times…..I hear the stories and

sometimes they don’t register because, you know…..”its good enough for

government work”……but that is a dangerous mindset….we can’t do that….we

can’t look at government as that bumbling little cousin who never seems to get it

right but always has good intentions……no…..we have to start asking for

better…..we have to start expecting better……to be honest, I believe we deserve

better from our government as it provides for the common defense, supports the

general welfare, establishes justice and ensures domestic tranquility…..how about

this: do a good job!

When George W. Bush was Governor of Texas he gave a speech to the Latin

Business Association……the speech was about education, and about not accepting

tepid results, not being dismissive of someone’s capabilities…..in that speech he

coined a phrase…..”the soft bigotry of low expectations”…….The soft bigotry of

low expectations— its a powerful phrase—it describes a patronizing and

dangerous attitude, cloaked as kindness, that assumes certain people are

capable of less because of their race or background…..but what about

when we do that because of their job…..”well, its government, so we

can’t really expect them to get it right. Bless their hearts”……why would

we do that?!.....but yet, we do it over and over and over again…..poor

results, lack of quality service, fiscal mismanagement, misplaced

priorities, failed audits, favoritism for one demographic over another,

inability to respond to disasters……on and on, and we look at them with

the soft bigotry of low expectations because their just government

workers……how about this: do a good job! Because we deserve better

and oh by the way, they can do better…….

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!