Proper responsibilities of government.

A friend noted that my cartoon yesterday wasn't much about Independence Day, long one of my favorite holidays. And I'm willing to concede the point. The fact is, I'm a bit down this year on my pro-'Merica sentiments. Can't imagine why.

The many abhorrent tales of corruption and cronyism, along with a lickspittle press corps that only cares about their "side," is extremely depressing. But my main complaint is that there are legitimate concerns for the government under our Constitutional system, and while the government instead dashes around like a drunk on a bulldozer over every other area of our lives, it doesn't always take care of the areas for which it is actually responsible.

Take roads, one of the things we early on decided we needed government for. Even the most ardent libertarian probably does not think it'd be a great idea for each of us to be responsible to maintain the little patch of asphalt in front of our homes. So we give the local, state, and federal jamokes plenty of money to keep the roads in order, and what do we get?

Nice! Been like this some time.

But don't worry; they're on the job. When that cave-in up top first appeared, the boys put an orange cone in it to warn drivers that there was an axle-buster near the curb. The cone disappeared but the hole abides.

So we see that our "ruling class" and unfireable civil "servants" are incompetent or worse.

On the other hand...

Thanks to Instapundit, I was alerted to the most American story of the day yesterday--- maybe the most American story of the decade: "Army veteran Jason Galvin rescued helpless bald eagle dangling from tree":

Jason Galvin, who did two tours in Afghanistan, was on a bait run on Thursday when he spotted the eagle dangling upside down from a rope it got tangled in… Neighbors called the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Rush City police and fire departments, but were told there was nothing the agencies could do because of how high the eagle was in the tree… Galvin then spent 90 minutes taking nearly 150 shots from a .22 caliber rifle “while mowing down three branches, and finally the rope, holding up the eagle.”

Galvin: "Fourth of July, you know, that's our bird. I can't let it sit there."

Freedom, the name given the bird, was doing okay under professional care in a raptor center, at last report.

An army veteran, eagle, guns, volunteerism, concerned neighbors, a selfless act to help the helpless, bait. American as it gets. You might add a hapless state department of natural resources to the mix.

We salute you, Jason Galvin! Thanks for helping restore my faith in the United States. Top down we may have turned into a corrupt pile of goo, but down at street level, where it most matters, we've still got it.