A need for strong federal government

The current situation in the Gulf of Mexico is a good example of watching what you pray for because it might happen to you.

The Confederate south since the beginning of the Obama administration has prayed for the failure of the president and the federal government at large so that the states' rights, which they so dearly desire and cherish, will take over.

As we see now, though, the vast majority of our southern brothers from Texas to Florida are begging for the federal government to help them get out of the tragic jam in which they find themselves. While people like Republican Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour are holdouts, their constituents and residents in Texas, Louisiana and Florida as well are asking help from the federal government.

Sessions and Barbour among others in the region would rather rely on the word of corporate BP rather than the government to make things right. Such has been the case with big oil as well as corporate coal and finances. It won't work that way. It is up to our government to put sufficient pressure on them through our court system to make sure that full restitution is made at no expense to the American taxpayer as a whole.

With little hope, the Republicans and Tea partyers in the South and throughout the country will learn the valuable lesson that the current situation is providing. There is a need for an active federal government preeminence to take care of national issues.

We cannot rely on corporations to do the work and take care of us. We U.S. citizens are the government. We need to take care of ourselves and do what is necessary as the Constitution was set up to enable us to do.

Jeff Clarkson

Elgin