Government Employees

As a current government employee, that gets frustrated by a small percentage that give us the bad stereotypical "government employee" title I think this article is great

http://www.fedsmith.com/2013/05/01/the-effects-of-rotting-apples/?enews-2013-may

A TEAR IN MY EYE

I have not been posting much and am not on a political rant this time. I’ve been busy with work and getting more involved with local veteran’s activities. I’ve just been elected Director of our local American Legion Riders chapter and have been trying to attend as many Patriot Guard Riders (PGR) missions as I can. This brings me to what I am writing about. Honoring our Veterans in any way you can. Saying you support our troops is politically correct these days, but actually doing something, even something small to show that support, is a heartwarming thing to do.

Yesterday I was privileged to take part in a PGR mission at our local airport. Unfortunately, so many of our missions are for funerals. This one was different. This was a welcome home. A local Army Reserve MP Company arrived home from their tour in Afghanistan. The arriving soldiers were spread out on about eight different flights over a twelve hour period. The PGR volunteers made sure there was a group standing a flag line and applauding for each and every one of these soldier. The looks of pure joy (and sometimes a little embarrassment) on these young soldiers faces as they rounded the corner to a gauntlet of applauding flag holding bikers was fantastic. Even better that that was the looks on the faces of the children and spouses of these returning hero’s. I’m not ashamed to tell you that more than once, I had a tear in my eye. A tear in my eye and a warmth in my heart.

Memorial Day is this weekend. Please remember it is not national barbeque day. Remember what this day is for. I encourage each and every one of you to take some time to honor a veteran. Whether you applaud the veterans in a local parade, visit a veteran’s cemetery or grave site, or find a single veteran, shake their hand and thank them for their service, do something. After you’ve done that let me know how it feels. Tell me if I’m wrong. Remember, honoring our veteran’s, both past and present, goes a long way to ensuring we have future veterans. Lest We Forget.

GUANTANAMO BAY MILITARY PRISON

I just read that the military prison in Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) Cuba is spending an average of $900,000.00 per inmate annually. By anyone’s standards this is an exorbitant amount of money. A major portion of the cost is the fact that everything needed there must be shipped in from the states. Everything from maintenance supplies to food to judges and lawyers. The President would like to close the prison. From purely a financial aspect I agree with him. Yes, I am shocked as well. I normally do not agree with Obama on anything. If he told me the sky was blue I would go outside to check. But, looking at things from a cost cutting angle, closing the Gitmo prison makes sense. The part the baffles me is that none of our leaders can figure out what to do with the 166 current inmates at Gitmo. This is the simple part. Place these inmates in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

The BOP is a professional government agency. Keeping inmates and running prisons is what they do and they do it well. Average per inmate cost that the BOP spends is $30,000.00. This is a savings of $870,000.00 per inmate, per year, or a total annual savings of $144,420,000.00. This is quite a chunk of money and a considerable savings to the American tax payer. There are other advantages to this. The government then has the ability, if need be, to split some or all of these inmates up. These 166 inmates could be separated and placed at numerous prisons throughout the United States. Should the government wish to keep most of these inmates in one location that is also easy. We have several smaller Federal Detention Centers that sit on the same grounds as larger Federal Prisons. These detention centers usually hold pre-trial, pre-sentencing, and hold over (in-transient) inmates. These detention centers are not normally at full capacity. Move the current inmates from one of these and place the Gitmo inmates there. Problem solved, the inmates are in a safe, secure, well run institution and the American people save money. A win win situation in my book.