Devoted readers of The Outrage–all sensible people–may think that DC is a reference to some third world country.

Widespread government corruption, gang shootings, bureaucratic gridlock: DC has all the hallmarks of a Developing Country.

But no. In fact, DC stands for District of Columbia, home to the United States federal government. The federal government, through the US Congress, is the ultimate governing authority for the District of Columbia.

The president lives here–all 435 congressmen and congresswomen, as well as 100 US senators, spend most of their time here. All of the Supreme Court justices live in or around DC. In fact, the city is filled with lawyers, legislators and bureaucrats of every
kind.

Here at The Outrage we happen to be located within a ten-minute drive of the White House, Capitol and various other edifices of governmental power. So we are privileged to overhear the conversations taking place in this epicenter of power. Politicians, bureaucrats, and do-gooders here are filled with every imaginable scheme to save the world from every imaginable vice and problem.

Here in the US capitol plans are hatched to save Bosnia, end a thousand years of Mideast strife, and make the world generally safe for democracy. But as the world-savers move from caucus to congress, even they may notice that the local streets are filled with potholes that never get filled. The city is one of the most crime-ridden in the nation. If you file an assault report the police may show up–eventually. Teenage pregnancy and drug dealing are epidemic.

Today most American children will be returning to school to begin a new academic year. But not in the District of Columbia. School openings will be delayed at least three weeks in order to fix basic problems in school buildings like leaking roofs.

This will mark the third time in the last four years that district schools have not opened on time. The parents of the 40,000 children affected must now figure out a way to have their children supervised in September.

There is a wonderful scene in the Charles Dickens novel Bleak House in which an English mother spends all her time working on a grandiose scheme to “save” African children. Meanwhile her own children run around the house unclothed and unfed, because she is too busy with her African scheme to pay any attention to them. Maybe the world-savers in Washington ought to go back to school and do a little reading.

(Source: Reuters.)