In St. Charles the emperor is naked

Where are you, “hard-earned tax dollar payer”? You surface often when it comes to opposing the honoring of your contract to match retirement funds for retired civil servants. Where are you, champions of private business models, for running schools and social agencies?

I can’t help asking myself these questions as I drive and walk past empty stores in and around St. Charles. The guardians of “my hard-earned tax dollars” are strangely silent as the St. Charles city fathers rush to give them a $30 million bill for a worthless ego monument called the Red Gate Bridge.

We desperately need that little boy in the fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” He’s the one that called out that the emperor had no clothes on and indeed was naked. You remember, the tailors and their chief tailor had told the emperor that fools could not see the beautiful thread they would use to make the clothes. As no one want to admit being a fool, no one, including the emperor and his court, dared say a word.

This extended to everyone in the community. They were afraid to speak out or they just did not care that an enormous chunk of their “hard-earned tax dollars” was going to appease the emperor’s need for legacy, even if it was to become really a legacy of bad government and prideful waste. Mr. and Mrs. St. Charles “hard-earned tax dollar payers,” $30 million for a bridge you and practically no one else will use — and not a peep.

I do not want to hear your cries about your concerns for your hard-earned dollars. Wake up. Your emperor and court cronies are naked. And you say nothing.

Dale J. Seidel

St. Charles