SARGE: Government Housing

In 1969 I enlisted in the United States Navy. Almost immediately after graduating from high school I traveled to Orlando, Florida for Boot Camp. I was sequestered and quartered with at least 65 other young men looking to represent Truth, Justice and the American Way while clad in bell bottoms and a Dixie cup hat we were told could be used as a flotation device should our ship be lost at sea. That was sobering.

I spent the obligatory timeframe in barracks with the rest of the guys in a collegial and instructive period of time standing guard over lines of laundry hung to dry in the humidity lest our skivvies be stolen by the godless hordes of Vietcong we were sure we’d all get the chance to fight in the near future. Upon Boot Camp graduation I learned a government employee could be directed to live, survive, work and endure without great luxury. Conditions were survivable and designed to allow me the chance to eat, to work, to rest and to sleep daily before being allowed to do the same thing all over again the next day. (Just like real life!)

That’s not a complaint. It’s an observation. It’s no more and no less than we’ve asked our patriotic young people to do since before Valley Forge. It develops character and exhibits the character, integrity and esprit necessary to bond people for the betterment of their country. Barracks and bivouacs bring people of the same calling together. It places them in close proximity to each other. I don’t know how many dreams and ambitions and thoughts have been explored over whispered conversations and back door life counseling sessions that started young people thinking about the future and what they’d do when they cashiered out. Some didn’t make it and reside in places like Arlington, and other national cemeteries across the nation. Others have gone on to inhabit the chairs of CEOs, Corporate leadership and are drivers and propellants of social change.

These veterans are the life blood of this nation and they deserve respect and understanding. But, I’m not about to discuss any slights and insults suffered by these men and women at the hands of bureaucrats too stupid to appreciate they’re in the jobs they hold because somebody stood, drew a line and allowed no enemy to cross it at the expense of their health, their minds and their lives.

No. I want to talk about this controversy concerning all of these highfalutin butt wipes elected to political positions thinking because they’ve got a few bucks and a lot of chutzpah they can claim no more than a post office box as an address while really living in Washington D.C. to avoid contact with us; the unwashed masses elected them.

In a copyrighted story in the Washington Post (8-28-2014), Philip Rucker wrote: “In Washington, Sen. Mary Landrieu lives in a stately, $2.5 million brick manse she and her husband built on Capitol Hill.

Here in Louisiana, however, the Democrat does not have a home of her own. She is registered to vote at a large bungalow in New Orleans that her parents have lived in for many decades, according to a Washington Post review of Landrieu’s federal financial disclosures and local property and voting records.”

Rucker continued “…For Landrieu, there are hazardous parallels to other recent cases in which residency questions have dogged incumbents. Former Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) lost reelection in 2012 after reports that he stayed in hotels when he returned to Indiana, while Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) is drawingflack this year for not having a home of his own in Kansas and listing a donor’s house as his voting address.”

In light of this controversy I suggest we build a compound capable of holding ALL 100 Senators and All of the 435 members of the House of Representatives. A separate compound could be developed for the Supreme Court Justices. The President is already assigned the White House as domicile but I propose the helicopter pad be removed and the accesses and egresses from the grounds be limited to one each and the fence around the White House be sealed five days per week so the President actually stays at work rather than junketing and vacationing at the expense of millions of taxpayer dollars. That’s what Camp David is for.

This housing should be of sufficient comfort as is necessary to assure the politicians don’t suffer the indignity of living in a slave’s quarters, but the expanse of one would be no greater than the expanse of its equals. I’d suggest the description of a moderately comfortable condominium would describe it best.

If the incumbent were to find they didn’t want to live in “Government Housing”; they could buy lodgings more in alignment with their perception of their social standing. But immediately upon closing the purchase they no longer “live” in the state they claim representation to. They immediately are limited to the duration of the present incumbency and MAY NOT run for re-election in their home district.

How’s that sound folks? Is it meant the representatives deciding Americans’ futures should place themselves above those people; or should they be held in the same esteem as our soldiers and sailors; those ready to risk life and limb for us in times of national distress? After all, isn’t it the politicians come before us and claims he wants to serve us and guide us and do what’s necessary to benefit us with their representation?

Yeah Right!

Thanks for listening.

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