Lately I've been thinking about government policy and city planning, most of these things cover examples in Germany but can be applicable to almost everywhere. First point of concern is the ineffective use of cultivatable land. I'm not talking about farms here, but in the city. There are so many gardens, nooks and crannies, where vegetables, fruits, and nut trees can be grown. Instead they are filled with cement or used to grow purely ornamental plants. Those plants do help with the production of oxygen, but do not provide a much needed harvest. Yes we need that harvest, because it would decrease everyone's dependance on imported foods. People could take just a few minutes a day or a few times a week and tend to their plants and reap a beautiful harvest. The state too wastes good land in the park system here by planting trees that produce inedible nuts. The argument that is so commonly used: (that the fruit and nut trees make too much of a mess) does not apply here because there are already trees here that drop a bunch of nuts, but all of not use to anyone. Why not plant oak, hazelnut, or (eatable)chestnuts? These trees would not hurt the normal environment and would not make any more a mess then the current trees too, with the added benefit of giving people a ready and free supply of food. This would help a lot of people in need and those who are not would benefit from fresh whole foods. Fredrick the Great knew this well and planted countless fruit trees in Berlin that can still be harvested to this day, and he even imposed a marriage tax that made the new couple plant 4 fruit tress as a gift to the city. The current administrations need to take a hint from this historical genius.
The second point is the government's use of traffic laws to make quick cash whenever they want it. Example: one goes to a huge flea market and the big parking lot right across the street is closed off. Everyone is parking on the side of the roads three streets up and down and the police are standing there ready to give them a ticket. Well you say they shouldn't have parked there, but where were they to park? 5,6,7 streets away? What if they were old or handicapped? Or the example of the police in Kansas who waited outside the bar for the patrons to leave a 2 in the morning. If they drove, busted, walked, busted, they only way out of it was to call a taxi. Sounds stupid when you live 3 blocks away like I did. But we can't do anything, that's the "law" can't drive drunk and can't walk home drunk either. They have put those people in sticky situation which could be avoided if they were only allowed to walk home. (which they are in germany :-)) Or in the case in Hawaii let the buses run a little later to help relive the drunk driving numbers. Or the last example when the police stand on either side of the road and just give ticket after ticket for seat belts. Just another way for the state to say, "we have no money so we are going to take some form you." Laws should be there to help the people not to punish then and use them as quick form of state income. What if everyone just decided not to pay traffic tickets, everyone in the U.S., sounds hard right? It is hard to coordinate but an action like that would send a message that we the people don't agree with these laws and that we won't stand for them. One person doesn't make the difference we all do.
Posts
