Everyone has something he does to relieve stress and hit the "reset" button.  I don’t golf, boat or fish — except with the little ones.  So getting on a tractor and mowing a pasture is as close to perfect as I can find for those Bill “reset” moments.

It’s much more comfortable these days than years ago, as I do have a cab and a/c. 

I can see almost every type of creature as they scamper away from the tractor.  Were else beside a zoo can you see everything from bobcats to deer and turkey to beaver?  This is great for me until I come to the fence line where those blasted electric transmission lines cross the property.  About every year the “we-are-god and-know-it” huge utility company sends out a crew on a search and destroy mission. 

Their marching orders are simple — if it’s green and within a football-field distance of the power line, kill it.  I mow under the electric lines, which eliminates all brush and trees, so it does really tick me off when they killed the wild roses I had growing on the fencerow. 

I’m sure that back decades ago the previous landowner signed away his right to controlling the land use for a few silver coins.  Now the power company can do what it wants and I still must maintain the ground.  I can’t build around the line and still get the privilege of paying property taxes on this land, even though they have the use of it.

So why get so worked up on power lines?  Probably a great question except for Bill’s theory of the “It’s really just for your own good.” That theory is being very cautious of anything the government is going to do to you for your own good.  

As with the power lines, I’m sure it was explained to past land owners that it was good for the economy, wouldn’t interfere with farming and they were paid a small amount. Later, the land owner learned the power guys can come at will, leave gates open, spook cattle and kill anything green and still leave the mess. 

The health care proposal coming from Washington sounds to me a lot like the power line easement contracts. 

On health care, we are being told everything that is on the positive side and nothing on the negative.  Already we have found the cost is going to be in the multi trillion dollars area.  Dollars we do not have.  So the people with insurance benefits, those who like to drink a Pepsi or eat a candy bar are going to pay, and a little income tax surcharge along with several other taxes, maybe even a national sales tax, will be imposed. 

Just like those who must maintain and pay tax on property under the power lines they can’t use, all the responsible Americans who do provide for the medical care of their families will get to pay a lot more for insuring those who don’t. 

The government program won’t discriminate by charging more to people who choose unhealthy life styles, those who use illegal drugs or have any other high-risk problems. Everyone will get the same health care plan, and the government will decide what care you really wanted anyway. 

Wow, the post office, Government Motors and now cookie-cutter health care.  Forty years ago marked the beginning of FedEx in response to the government mail system, which was operating slower than the Pony Express.  Even though my bank building has been at the same location for 30 years, the post office can’t find the address (319 Fourth Street, Altamont, KS. - USPS lookup), and I can hit the post office building with a baseball. 

Cars are now being designed and built under a bureaucrat’s control. No one wants these and the president has even suggested importing Chinese vehicles to help Government Motors.  Twenty years ago the Chinese were all on bicycles. 

So next in store for the United States will be long lines just to get a medical appointment. People wanting to remain in control of their own health care decisions will be traveling to India where choice will flourish.  

This would be humorous if it weren’t what is going to happen. Years from now, our kids and future generations will be asking the question, “Just what was this generation thinking when they signed away all rights of medical care choice?"   

I think they will see it as being a much bigger mistake for their generation than simply killing rose bushes under the power line.

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Kansas Liberty columnist Bill Wyckoff is president of Labette Bank, a community bank with locations throughout southeast Kansas, and an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business News. He lives on a farm outside Altamont, Kan. A graduate of Kansas State University with an MBA from Southern Illinois University, he enjoys collecting antique John Deere tractors and driving his hemi orange Dodge Challenger. Email bwyckoff@labettebank.com

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