Constant Conservative

As a child, I had the opportunity of living in many different places across this country — from Maine to Arizona. While living in Arizona, I was introduced to the idea that grass must be watered for it to remain alive. Up to this point, I didn’t even think about it, since (in my limited understanding of the world) grass simply grew everywhere.

However, in Arizona, we had to pay for irrigation to flood the yard every couple of weeks throughout the summer if we wanted to have anything which even resembled grass. Otherwise the grass died down to the roots and the only thing besides sandy soil were whichever hardy weeds seemed to be related to the sagebrush and cacti.
The point of the water for the grass (not to mention fertilizing, weeding, and all those other things which are necessary to keep grass green and growing) was to beat the entropy. ‘Cause if we didn’t actively work to keep the grass alive, chances were good that it would get starved out/choked out.

We’ve probably all heard the quote from Edmund Burke:

All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

I’m certain that I’m not the only conservative who has had the thought that “Boy, I’d sure like to do something, but I don’t know enough/earn enough/speak well enough/whatever enough to do it right, so I guess I’ll just let someone else who is (somehow) better prepared than I am do what needs to be done.”

One day, not too long ago, I realized that I wasn’t getting any closer to perfection, but that the grass still needed watering. That’s why I’ve pushed aside my apathy to write this, instead of waiting for Bill Buckley to file a story from the other side.