I write Crime and Punishment to share my thoughts and research on how our government can be improved to help more of its citizens. The main idea is that many of our current laws and policies are written and enforced to favor the wealthy and white, over the poor, middle class and minorities. It’s clear to me that many of our laws, and how we implement and enforce them, should be re-written, and written anew to better balance the economic, racial and environmental inequities that have plagued us for the last two hundred years or so.

But we have made much progress, and I want to acknowledge just a few of the many positive and life-changing programs our federal government has created to make our country and our individual lives immeasurably safer, richer and more fulfilling. Most importantly though, these ideas, translated into government programs, have allowed more of us to thrive rather than to simply exist, a concept I think is vital to our country’s survival, and which I’ve discussed frequently in this newsletter.

Yes, government programs cost money, mostly your money, but look what we’ve collectively done for the common good.

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— This Slate.com article is a general compilation of a few game-changing government programs that work to uplift individuals and our country through collective funding and action. I agree that most of the programs listed, like the Morrill Act of 1862 that “granted land for agricultural and technical colleges” (go Ohio State!), the GI Bill, that sent my father and millions of other veterans to college and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, among many others, helped our country move forward together, and were specifically designed to leave few behind.

It’s important to understand, however, that many of these programs that helped millions were based on false premises; for example, our government gave away land under the Homestead Act and Morrill Act that was not theirs to give — it was stolen from the indigenous peoples of North America. And how we deal with that, and must deal with that, is admittedly given short shrift here.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/04/the-top-dozen-federal-government-programs-in-history.html

— Many believe, including me, that the creation of the National Parks system is one of our government’s best ideas.

National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. Author Wallace Stegner, 1983

The documentarian, Ken Burns, created a fantastic series on our national parks, which shows us that the decision to preserve our country’s most beautiful, pristine lands, starting with Yellowstone National Park in 1872, has enriched our country beyond measure. The National Parks Service currently presides over 85 million acres of land in all 50 states, D.C and U.S. territories, providing habitat for an array of mammals, birds, insects, flora and fauna, and access to the beauty of the outdoors for millions of Americans. Most importantly, it preserves our natural history for future generations.

— And speaking of our natural history, I don’t want to leave out the U.S. Forest Service, established beginning with the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, and later re-imagined as its own federal agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Forest Reserve Act is a “law that authorizes presidents to protect land as national forests”. A grand idea.

— The Social Security system has provided a safety net for our country’s seniors since President Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Social Security Act became a federal law in 1935, to ensure that our older citizens, who had put in a lifetime of work contributing to our country’s success, were not plunged into poverty. This law also gathered the hit-or-miss state laws that had been enacted under one, federally funded program.

— Medicare and Medicaid were enacted in 1965 by President Johnson:

In 1965, the passage of the Social Security Amendments, popularly known as Medicare and Medicaid, resulted in one basic program of health insurance for persons aged 65 and older, and another program providing health insurance for people with limited income funded by state and federal sources, respectively. It was funded by a tax on the earnings of employees, matched by contributions by employers, and was well received. In the first three years of the program, nearly 20 million beneficiaries enrolled in it. Information from the National Archives

— And here’s a marvelous, New Yorker article delving into the origins of Medicare to keep you in the holiday spirit, I’m sure…

Although Social Security is not robust enough, and Medicare and Medicaid are made more complicated with the intrusion of private insurance and management companies, the combination of these programs has at least helped keep most of the elderly and poor from financial ruin.

— Finally, I would be remiss without a salute to government funding of the arts, through the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency that funds and otherwise supports the creation of and citizen interaction with art in nearly every community in the United States. Bravo to the NEA and the multitude of state and local arts organizations across the country that foster our access to the joy and enrichment of the arts!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these much-touted government programs in the Comment Section below. Have they made a positive impact on you and the people in your life? On our country?

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