No Eggroll, Please

Thank you, Mr. President, for choosing to halt the annual Easter egg roll on the White House lawn, due to the sequester. It is a little enough stroke against the size of the federal budget, but it is a start. And we need to start somewhere, no matter how small. Those parents who have been looking forward to getting their photos taken with Mrs. Obama will just have to come up with some other form of entertainment for their children this year.

Next, please close the national parks. There are plenty of wide open spaces that people can enjoy without paying an entry fee and being warned not to feed the bears. Plus, all of those tacky tourist traps that normally have to share the wealth with the park rangers will really appreciate the increase in business. These sorts of acts, along with cancelling the tours of the White House, will help the American people to understand what non-essential roles the federal government has been playing. We need to start somewhere with getting the bloated budget under control, and these items will serve nicely, since you were so determined to keep Big Bird alive. And the virtual tour may end up being more enjoyable, since no one has to put up with children crying, gum smacking, and the occasional loud texter.

Then you can send all of the TSA people home. Yes, that simple act may lead to the demise of more than one airline, but, you know, someone has to sacrifice for the good of the country. Buses, trains, automobiles, people will get where they need to go. And they will be forced to re-examine whether they do  really need to make that trip they’ve been planning. Sending home TSA agents will make the cell phone companies and Skype very happy, as people adapt to changing circumstances. Business will carry on even if some airlines go under. The world does not come to a halt just because the federal government eliminates some non-essential services.

People can’t afford to wait on their government. If no one else does so, they must either step up to the plate themselves, or do without. It’s easy to take advantage of government services when they are offered, quite difficult to refuse that piece of cake laid out on a plate. But when there is no cake, the bills must still be paid, business must still be done, people must still continue with their daily lives, somehow.

Mr. President, if you truly are attempting to lower the size of government, then bully for you. It does seem that you are more interested in trying to show the American people all of the wonderful things that the government does for them, all of the services that they will be missing, but you have that backwards. People existed before government, and they will persevere; they will find a way.

In the end, it is not the government that runs the country. It is not the government that decides what business will be done. It is not the government that decides how people will spend their time. If, in your cost-cutting measures, you finally realize that, then some good will come of this sequester, no matter how drastically its provisions are put into place. Besides, what is the White House doing involved in an Easter tradition, anyway?