I’m absolutely sick to death of the way that politicians squander our tax dollars without any regard for common sense. We see it day in and day out, to the point that I think all of us have become numb to it. But this time I couldn’t help but speak out.

Driving down U.S. Highway 97 at the north end of Bend, I noticed some of the finishing touches being put on ODOT’s big new palace. Workers were wrapping up the stone and wrought iron fence out front — no ordinary fence for these kings and queens of the state’s roadways!

While all of us mere mortals are struggling to put food on the table and gas in the tank, our free-spending Salem bureaucrats are throwing it around as usual. But what really got to me was thinking back to last summer, as I sat on my patio in southeast Bend. I watched the smoke from a fast-moving wildfire rising behind my home, while reading the newspaper reports about how budget cuts had grounded or eliminated most of the state’s air tanker fleet.

I’m old enough and naïve enough to believe that one of the only roles government should have is to protect its citizens. Air tankers do that. Fancy, unneeded office buildings don’t. Yet look which one the politicians bought, and the citizens of Oregon get to pay for!

Paul Bianchina

Bend