CentsUs

My neighbor got stuck in the elevator in our building. The doors closed as she went up to her apartment, but not all the way. Then they wouldn’t open. Stuck with six gallons of water she was taking up, she wasn’t in immediate danger, but . . . who wants to spend Sunday afternoon trapped in an elevator? So she called 911, and they transferred her to the local fire department. (Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, our fire station is still operational and their jobs were saved). Within minutes, a huge fire engine pulled up, and they pried her out.

A lot of money has been spent getting citizens to fill out the 2010 census. Bad television commercials, introductory letters telling me the census was coming like a written version of Paul Revere, huge billboards on the side of the freeway, I even got a tweet from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with a twitpic of his completed census form attached, urging me to fill it out and send it in. It’s almost overkill. Almost.

See, unlike Michelle Malkin, I don’t believe the government is an evil beast, slathering its jaws to eat the citizens. I don’t believe that we’re living 1984, and that it’s big brother. Not only do I think it’s cool to find out who lives in the United States, who US is, but the headcount helps us get vital services because it determines where a lot of our tax dollars go. The Census gets the Cents to Us so that our city, county and state services continue to function and serve us.