The problem with gov'mint by populism

     Okay, I see that the county commissioners are considering making English the official language of Carroll County.
     Wonderful. Why is it that the very candidates who run for office on a platform for getting rules and regulations out of our lives are the same ones who come up with this kind of silliness?
     Oh! I know: They have their fingers on the pols of We The People. A poll in the paper says 65 percent of Carroll County residents favor such a law, as if it protects us from alien life forms or something. This, from a populace that can't speak six words without saying, "...like, I think we, like, need to have everybody be, like, alike, y'know?"
     This is what you get when elected leaders -- wrong word: Followers is the right word -- follow populist emotion instead of thinking things through to consider the relevance or consequences of their actions.
     I would be prouder of my fellow citizens -- and my elected leaders -- if 65 percent of however many bother to really respond to polls said they want to spend county government time on a reasonable master plan for controlling sprawl and congestion, public services such as fire and ambulance training and recruitment, continued improvement in educational staff and facilities, and more recreational facilities for our kids.
     That's enough without worrying about whether language is made "official" by decree.