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Ernie Fletcher, Baxter Avenue, Government Arrogance, Bile Against President Reagan –

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

1.     Governor Ernie Fletcher – We understand that Kentucky’s Gov. Fletcher made a big splash when he went to Washington to attend President Reagan’s funeral.  He arrived with such power and force that he cleared out the Capitol building!  Now, if only he could wield as much power with Democrats here at home, maybe we could finally pass a state budget and tax reductions!

2.     Baxter Avenue – The neighbors near the restaurants and bars are complaining about the inconveniences caused by customers who block their driveways, relieve themselves in their yards, and generally cause a nuisance.  These are all problems of property rights violations.  If the home owners were assigned reserved parking spaces along the street, to which they should be entitled as property owners and property tax payers, the business owners would be inclined to make other arrangements for their customers – either building a parking garage or arranging for customers to be shuttled to and from a parking lot, and the problem would be solved.  And maybe the fines that could be collected from customers who didn’t respect the private parking spaces would encourage better police patrolling of the area to reduce the vandalism.

3.     Government Arrogance - Last week, I told you about a postcard our office sent to an address in Kentucky, which spent six months wandering around before being returned to us by the post office.  More recently, we had another interesting experience with a government agency.  As you may know, I am a patent attorney, so we spend a lot of time dealing with the U.S. Patent Office.  This past week, we faxed a document to the Patent Office.  Since the top edges of some of the pages were not perfectly straight, my secretary turned the pages upside down so their bottom edges would be the leading edges going into the fax machine.  After we sent the document, the Patent Office faxed it back to us, stating that, since some of the pages were upside down, they could not accept the document, and we would have to send it again!  Can you imagine a private business like our law firm saying something like that to a client?! 

4.     Bile Against President Reagan – President Reagan was not even buried before the press began venting its spleen against him.  They say he should not be given credit for anything good that happened during his term or thereafter, and he should be blamed for everything bad that happened both during his term and thereafter.  They call him names, say he was bigoted, that he hated poor people, and on and on.  What they might pause to notice is that President Reagan never took such a nasty, “down in the gutter” approach.  In fact, he always took the high road and treated everyone -- rich, poor, powerful, powerless, young, old, and even the left-wing press with respect.  While he may have attacked their ideas, he never attacked them personally.  That approach worked very well for him, but he never claimed exclusive rights to it.  If the press is tired of being considered socialists who report only what suits their agenda, they might want to try it themselves!

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