Smokey the Bear says, “Only you can prevent wildfire.” Fire is one of the most valuable chemical reactions known to man. It can heat your home, cook your food, and power your automobile. It can also be one of the most destructive forces known to man.

If it is not tightly controlled, the same fire that provides warmth, can burn your home down with you and your loved ones inside. Fire has an insatiable appetite for oxygen and fuel. It does not care where it gets it.

Fire does not care about you. Fire does not care about your possessions. Fire does not care about your precious keepsakes and photographs. Fire has one thing and one thing only in mind and that is how to get more oxygen and fuel.

Our founding fathers recognized the truth that government is like a fire. It is necessary, but it must be diligently controlled. It could not be left to control itself. They knew that unchecked power, even if with benevolent intent, would eventually turn destructive.

They formed a republic with checks and balances in the Constitution. We the people have direct representation in the US House of Representatives. The states have representation in the US Senate.

A combination of the states and the people elect the President through the Electoral College. Judges to federal courts are appointed by the President for life with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Government and fire have something in common. Government has an insatiable appetite. Instead of oxygen and fuel, government lusts for power and control. The more it gets, the more it demands.

Ultimately government only cares about its own preservation and growth. What starts as a seemingly benevolent program lusts for supremacy over the same group that it was originally formed to serve. Like an addictive opiate, it drives those caught in its snare to sell themselves into the depths of dependency.

Over the past several decades, elected officials, particularly at the federal level, learned that by expanding federal programs, they could form strong constituencies. Those strong constituencies would reward the elected officials with re-election. Those constituencies would also retain the services of lawyers and lobbyists to give even more rewards and perks to those elected officials.

The flames of government expansion devour freedom and individual responsibility in its path. At some point there is a sinking and terrifying realization that the fire has jumped from the fire place to the draperies and is climbing up the wall.

Our national debt has passed 19 trillion dollars and shooting skyward like a Saturn V rocket. Our nation is in peril.

We can take a practical step to get this raging inferno of government growth under control. We the people can rise up and make a real change at the ballot box.

It means taking individual responsibility and casting a vote to limit and reign in the wildfire of expanding and invasive government. Allow me to paraphrase Smokey the Bear. Only you can stop the wildfire of government expansion. Go vote.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts. Please forward these to your friends and share on Facebook. Also, let me hear from you. I always enjoy hearing back from you and I try to respond when you take the time to write me.