Joplin Tragedy Speaks to the Role of Government in Safety and Education

As Joplin, Missouri is still reeling from one of the worst tornado disasters on record, we see an intersection of two of the primary functions of the role of government, safety and education. The high school, middle school and elementary schools were all damaged in the storm, like much of Joplin. With all the discussion about the size of government and government spending, including proposals to cut funding of emergency weather systems and tying federal disaster relief for the area to spending cuts, it begs the question: what should the role of government be?

Arguably, the primary functions of government should include educating the children and keeping people safe, as well as responding to emergencies. This concept would be challenged, however, with some of the recent actions by some members of congress. Congressman Billy Long from Missouri’s 7th district, Joplin’s congressional district, based his election campaign on the reduction of the role of government, saying that he was “FED-up” with the government.

He even went so far as to belittle the role of the tornado warning system and voted to cut funding for the National Weather Service, which could put the nation’s early warning weather alert system at risk. The irony that these statements and actions have, coming from that area’s Congressional Representative, is only matched by the callousness of House Speaker Eric Cantor’s insistence that federal disaster relief be tied to federal spending cuts.

If we view this tragedy as a teachable moment, perhaps the most valuable lesson that we can gain is that the threat from storms, such as this is real and we must be vigilant with regards to our safety. The best defense against loss of life and injury is the early warning system that meteorologists have developed over years of refining technology through research and the implementation of an infrastructure of sirens and a network including all media platforms. This system didn’t just happen, this was through the concerted national effort led by the federal government. This system is a shining example of what government can do, and what it should do. There is no private enterprise that is going to step up and build a system like this, yet the events in Joplin prove its necessity.

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Because that will be useful.