Those of you who know me know I end up in too many conversations that take up entirely too much of my time and attention. When I’m honest, I realize that’s a bad thing — whether I began the conversation, jumped into someone else’s conversation or was invited into a conversation. 

We also know where most of these little chats that can turn into full-blown diatribes take place. All too many take place on Facebook. More than a few have me involved via email. And if my life history is any indication, a few occur after a beer or two at local watering holes.  

Now you might say all these “arenas” — they remind me of the Roman Colosseum given the fights to the death I’ve experienced — are avoidable. And you’d be right. But that’s fodder for another column on another day. In these trying, government overreaching, insanity laden times, there are just some things I can’t let go once someone makes a statement. And those statements usually come from folks who lust to use government to control others, take away inalienable rights and, yes, the government itself. 

So I dabble. And when I do, my role is generally a simple one. At least to me. Yet for those on the left, it always seems outside their capacity to think about. Honestly, 99 percent of the time my response can be summed up in a few sentences: Remove the government from its role in whatever is occurring. Let the free market come up with solutions to make the situation better. And give choices to those affected by government overreach to decide what’s best for them and their families. I believe for just about every instance in society, it’s that simple. 

But for those who can’t even begin to comprehend government is at best a necessary evil — mistakenly believing it’s always the best source for solutions, especially in using force to make others behave while subjugating individual rights and freedoms — my solution isn’t even seen as an option. Let alone given any thought. 

There’s a reason I’m writing this, and it comes down to a response I get time and again in these conversations. It’s basically the same question: “Then what’s your solution, Craig?” Outside of not actually comprehending what I’ve been saying — probably by dismissing outright my solution to almost every problem in the public arena — it’s to remove government from the crisis. Especially since government loves to create, increase in severity and then offer solutions to those crises.

Perhaps an anecdote would help.  Another participant in a chat recently asked me what my solution was to the pathetic performance of our education system. This question came from someone in education who told me in a nutshell a teacher’s most important role was to teach kids to get along with everyone and give them the values needed to make the world a better place. 

No, it isn’t. The job of our schools is to teach kids how to write complete sentences with good grammar, add up numbers to get the right answers, read and comprehend information and develop the cognitive skills needed to address the situations they’ll experience. It’s not to promote agenda-based ideals and values in molding minds.

Our education system gives kids a horrible, agenda-driven, woke-valued, underperforming experience in most school districts. It’s because of one thing: Government involvement in the education system. It’s ironic — well, sad — how the biggest decline began with the feds taking over the system. That gave unions ultimate power, as government unions tend to have, with the Department of Education in the 1970s. “How can this be?” you ask. Simple. Government solutions create more problems — which is their intent, by the way — that prompt more and louder calls from those in control for still more government solutions. And the wheels on the bus go round and round. Do they even teach that ditty anymore? Probably not, since they don’t teach much else. 

The why our decline in education and society is simple. Government, along with those in control of whichever bureaucracy, is always about implementing the latest, greatest, coolest and most expensive programs available from its hand-picked “experts” to solve problems. Yet one question is never asked: Will this solution actually give us results, or are we going to just go along with good intentions and create more problems?

The answer IS obvious, and yet ignored or never attempted to be understood because there’s no power in just saying no to government solutions. To quote Sonny Corleone, “There’s a lot of money in that ****, Pop.” Power, money and control are what government solutions are all about. 

Don’t believe me? How’re those COVID-19 solutions working for ya? 

If we don’t take the first step to solve society’s problems, there will never be a solution.