Free money

A couple of years ago a newspaper I once worked for ran a story of a small town volunteer fire department’s receipt of a $50,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

I wrote a letter to the editor, wondering who was making decisions in Washington, D.C., to equate a volunteer fire department with homeland security. A week or so later, the newspaper ran a letter from a woman who said her husband was a volunteer firefighter, and just who did I think responded to fires in small towns and in rural areas? She also mentioned the hundreds of firefighters who went to New York City following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

I didn’t respond to her letter, since (a) a response would not have made any difference; and, (b) because she proved my point. Volunteer firefighters have nothing to do with the DHS area of national security. DHS has become another arm of the federal government’s reach into limiting how we go about our daily lives.

The federal government controls citizen activity by buying off segments of society or by issuing decrees that make local governments fall into line.

The buying off part often occurs in small ways. In the early 1990s, then-U.S. Rep. Jim Chapman, Democrat from Texas’ First Congressional District, visited each publicly-supported civic center in his district. Each civic center, he said, would receive a $1 million grant, if each manager came up with a plan for spending the money.

Well, shoot, that’s free money.

Except it wasn’t really $1 million. Counties or cities would have to put in $250,000. That’s not all that difficult, since labor counts as local input in many grants.

Grant-givers know nobody is going to turn down $1 million, or the actual $750,000. Any civic center manager who reported he turned down that much money would be looking for a job.

Same with small town and rural volunteer fire departments. It’s free money.