Initially thinking this question was a joke, I responded accordingly. But the reader was serious, and responded with the fair question: “Aren’t elected officials supposed to be public servants?”

We suppose that all elected officials are public servants. I’m thankful that I’ve indeed met a few men and women who took governmental offices and jobs seriously, whose motivation was to serve the public, and who didn’t appear to have wrongly enriched themselves at taxpayer expense.

Maybe I’m just cynical, and blind to the mass outpourings of selfless service emanating forth from the halls of government. We believe a government being run by crooks and scoundrels is a new trend, but nothing I have read comes close to convincing me this is true.

In my recent studies of the 1930’s Dust Bowl, I read that elected men didn’t make any serious moves to help the afflicted people until a cloud of dust covered the sun in Washington, DC. Good and able men were charged with reporting the facts so something could be done, and these good and able men traveled to the Midwest so they could make firsthand reports. The elected officials promptly ignored these reports, and did nothing.

It wasn’t until the dust storm covered the sky in downtown Washington while soil conservationist Hugh Bennett was giving a report that these Congressmen finally agreed to do something. Endless telegrams, letters, and news reports from the people did nothing to move these men so full of milk from the public teat that their eyes no longer functioned. They had to personally experience the fear of seeing the sun disappear in the daytime before they responded. Then the Congressmen demanded action, which resulted in big headlines for the Congressmen.

By the time help arrived in the stricken Midwest, the horrific experience known as the Dust Bowl was almost over. In the meantime, the dust had blown for the better part of eight years.

Not a month goes by that we don’t hear about some Congressman being caught with bribe money in his freezer or his underwear or some other appropriate hiding place, or of lavish expenses being paid by secret funds, or some other act having much more to do with personal enrichment than public service.

A great many government men are only interested in gouging out the orifice of their section of that public teat so that more riches may flow their way. They dribble a few drops here and there in between greedy gulps, and their constituents gobble up these dribbles like starving stray dogs.

Leadership during difficult times takes courage, selflessness, and vision. These three characteristics are in such short supply in government as to be laughable.

Anyone wanting to survive the coming hard times should make their arrangements without counting on help from the government.

One’s neighbors will become the web of selfless courage one can count on. Get to know them.