Ogre’s Politics and Views

I’ve often had discussions with people about who gets elected to various government positions. Usually these discussions turn to people asking me when I am going to run for election again. My response usually is that I just plain don’t want to. It’s not the getting elected part that bothers me, it’s the having a job where you tell other people how to live their lives. I want to be left alone and I think everyone else should be left alone. But that’s why people like me aren’t elected.

So who gets elected? The busybodies who honestly want to tell other people how to live their lives. People who want to “help” people — but who won’t use their own money or time to help. People who exist simply to tell other people what to do, while claiming the high moral ground, and claiming they’re crushing people “for the public good.” Most of these people will do quite literally anything “For the Public good.” Take, for example, the Canton City Council.

They want to put you in jail if you don’t mow your lawn when they decide that you should. Oh, and they’ve even gone so far as to define, in law, what consists of grass that is “too high.” I decided to head over to their city ordinances to see what I could find:

539.10 No person shall willfully injure … the grass in such parks.

Seriously. If you step on the grass in a Canton park, you’re a criminal.

They define “field daisies” as a “noxious weed.” Yes, that’s 551.01 (a). Oh, and if you dare to permit a noxious weed to grow on your lot, you’re a criminal. 551.02 (a) defines grass of exactly eight inches tall as illegal. And yes, if you don’t remove your noxious weeds, the city will remove them and bill you (551.03). However, the initial article complains that the city spends over $225,000 a year mowing other lawns!

Hey fools on the Canton City Council, here’s an idea: Why don’t you enforce your own foolish laws? Right now YOU are supposed to be billing those people so the city doesn’t pay $225,000 a year:

(c) All expenses of cutting and removing the noxious weeds and/or weeds and grasses of rank growth and/or collecting and removing litter together with administrative charges, inspection, record research, notification and billing incurred by the City, shall be recorded by the Service Director. The Director shall mail a statement thereof to the owner of such land at the property address or at the tax mailing address maintained by the Stark County Treasurer for real estate tax billing purposes. If after thirty days the amount remains unpaid, Council, by ordinance, shall certify the total amount of the expenses, the name of the owner of the land and a sufficient description of the premises, to the County Auditor to be entered upon the tax duplicate to be a lien upon such land from the date of entry, and to be collected as other taxes and assessments and returned to the General Fund of the City in accordance with the Ohio R.C. 731.54. (Ord. 142-89. Passed 7-3-89.)

551.03

In other words, if the city is spending money cutting lawns, the CITY COUNCIL is the one that’s irresponsible and not doing their jobs!

But I’m sure they are very busy working on laws making it illegal to hang your shirt up to dry in a park (539.12) and making sure (I’m not making this up) that it is clearly illegal to PLAY AND GAMES in the park (539.07) (seriously, it is against the law to play a game in the government park in Canton).

As you can see — people who run for these offices are simply people who have nothing better to do than run around and tell people how to live their lives. And I’m quite sure all the members of the Canton Council will claim that they’re doing it “For the Public Good.”

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Tags: Government, News //