Letters - Jan. 6, 2011

Pure gift

Aside from the obvious sanity considerations that come from being the mayor of the second smallest town in the State for the last 5 years, having that honor, and honor it was, has given me a rare insight into the system that we all say we support but often kick to the curb when we don’t like this or that. Rarely are the greater principles that this Republic is founded upon in more peril than in a very small town setting – where history and ‘Old Boy Networks’ and all the bad clichés one would expect in a second-rate B movie bear real pressure on the functioning government that so many Americans have fought and died for.

Being small in population is often the excuse to throw the ‘rule of law’ baby out with the municipal bath water, but in Lamont we have successfully managed to avoid that, although with some difficulty as of late.

What was so shocking to me was how alive and robust our governmental system is – and when the winds of passion blow and the waves of mob outrage come crashing in, the safe harbor is always the system itself, with its checks and balances, the backbone of the rule of law, elections every 4 years – as well as the protection and safeguards elected officials receive from the passions that, sadly, appear to be so easily whipped into a frenzy by the selfish, destructive few.

If our humble little system, with all its warts and seeming incongruities can work in Lamont, Washington, a town without a store or a public toilet after 100 years, one should just marvel at the sheer beauty of the thing.

That says a lot about our Founding Fathers and the individuals who have maintained such a spectacular form of government, often with their own blood, for well over 200 years.

This little town is that much more valuable because it is a symbol of the greater whole – the greater good that is America – and that is the envy of the world.

So the next time you are driving on Highway 23, stop by and marvel at what a blessing our Lord has bestowed upon us – and no better place is this proven than a little struggling wheat town in a far corner of the quite excellent Whitman County.

Some truths really are self-evident, as Lamont is the proof to our form of government, and I am proud to have been the mayor of it.

I will never think about America the same way again.

This country is far greater than I ever dreamed it was.

Many of the greatest blessings in life are often overlooked, but this American system, not perfect as nothing is perfect, is a true and pure gift from our Lord and is thus certainly worthy of our protection, energies and humble appreciation.

No one knows this now more than I do.

Steve Lacy, Lamont