NOinHOU,

Of all the Republican rhetoric that really frustrates me is the one that government can't do anything right. It is a stereotype that is as true as tne one that says that Native Americans are barbarians or theone about, well.

The government, as far as I'm concerned does A LOT OF THINGS VERY WELL. It gave me, a poor Midwesterner, an education, and helped me pay for college. What would the alternative be if there had been no public education option: I guarantee you that I'd be a poor, uneducated Midwesterner, forced to work the fields for some lucky factory farmer's kid who had the privilege of an education. And I'll also guarantee you that this country would resemble third-world countries' economic structures even more than it already does: We'd be reverted back to the 1700s when the wealthy got educated and the poor worked for pennies under the wealthy.

How about roads: I can drive anywhere in this country. I can drive from coast to coast, Canada to Mexico and everywhere in between. I can drive into the mountains at a fairly high pace and without a strong threat of an accident. What would my life be like without this public roadsoption? Frankly, I can't imagine. I suppose I'd have to get permission (most likely, by paying for it) from some wealthy landowner to use his road.

Public lands: My wife and I went camping at Mt. Rainier Park a few weeks ago. We found a campsite near a creek and beneath a stand of old-growth firs and ponderosas. It was a beautiful camp site. Guess how much it cost: $15. That's right: $15. Go to a privately run KOA, and you'll get a dusty campsite in some field for $40. And you know what private enterprise would have done with Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mount Rainier, etc? Take a look at what it wants to do with ANWR and I think you'll have your answer.

Mail: Say what you want about the U.S.P.S., but I'll bet when you send a letter or a check, you trust your contents to the government. Why? Because they'll deliver 3,000 miles in a week for 42 cents.

Military: If you're like a lot of the Republicans I know and love, you, well, you love the military. I guess I don't need to demonstrate the benefits of the military. But I'll say this: without this government-run program, we'd all be speaking German-Korean-Japanese-Russian­-Iraqi-Afghani-Commie. Seriously, how do you guys say the government can't do anything right and be so pro-military? And, at the same time, you despise the mainstream media, America's symbol of free-enterprise. How do you mesh the two? Really, I want to know.

Did you ever stop to think that the reason your hatred and skepticism of government is fed and maintained by the media which you loathe. And your devotion to the free-market is fed and maintained by the lack of media? Seriously: The media exists to report on the government, which, has an obligation to report back to the people who elected it. Private enterprise is under no similar requirement. They can merge, change policies, switch CEOs, and, unless they are publicly traded, you'd never know. Even if they are publicly traded, you still probably don't know. And in this darkness, in this no news is good news, you think the free-market is working miracles. I guarantee you if the same amount of media attention waspaid to one corporation in particular, it would be reviled by half the country too.

Anyway: Back to my list.

Public health care: Actually,when I was a young newspaper reporter, working 10, sometimes 12 hours a day into 2 a.m.my wife and I were struggling financially. So we, the lazy, living-off-the-system types, applied for and received state health care for our 1-year-old daughter. It was and remains the best health care I've ever been acquainted with. All they did was pay the bill. What is life like without government health care? Well, I suppose 47 million people could give you a pretty good answer. But so could I since I've never been able to afford health insurance until thelast four years of my life. It sucks.