Big government has always made me nervous, and when I was a political writer, I saw firsthand how remote legislators love to pass bills without having a clue as to their impact. I was very drawn to some elements of conservatism until angry racist and sexist Bible-thumping fools kidnapped the movement, l hear every day about state and federal regulations choking business and doctors and farmers, the issue is always drowned out by some political baboon saying some incredibly stupid thing and drawing vast amounts of pointless media coverage. This, I suppose, passes for political dialogue. Another good reason to skip the news, unless you really want to follow Anthony Wiener’s traveling penis.

I think of the old conservatism when I think of the struggle to preserve country (unpaved) roads. The true conservatives would have grasped this issue.

A slew of state and federal legislation are causing until country roads to be paved over, they are disappearing, even up here. The Department Of Homeland Security wants all roads in the country to be paved to help ambulances to reach us when Armageddon comes, and have spent billions of dollars getting local governments to do it. States want country roads paved so they can get federal dollars and turn ambulances and First Responders, around, and because big trucks can get over them, the counties and small towns want to pave country roads because it is cheaper to maintain them, and in America, there is nothing more important than doing everything in the cheapest possible way, whether or wrecks the quality of life or not. I don’t remember voting to put Homeland Security in charge of my road or spending billions of dollars to pour asphalt all over rural America. That money would have brought a lot of jobs to the country, and jobs are much more badly needed than ugly paved roads.

Although local officials claim they are cheaper to maintain than paved roadways, studies in Vermont (the only state that is curving the paving of rural roads) and other states show they are not. They are nearly twice as expensive to build and to maintain.

I spent some time researching county roads a few years ago, I helped stopped a town effort to pave over the road in front of Bedlam Farm. I awoke one morning to a platoon of men and trucks and an official congratulating me. “You are about to get your road paved.” I had different ideas, and tracked down a dozen studies various state and federal transportation departments had done, and we organized everyone on the road to sign petitions and we stopped it. We all went to a town meeting and suggesting this shocking thing: how about a vote? The town was incredulous. But we know one another hear, and a reluctant town board agreed to put it to a vote.   I didn’t move from New Jersey to live in New Jersey and neither did my neighbors. The vote was 3 to 1 against the paving.

Country roads are important. Study after study shows that  when roads are paved, twice as many people use them and drive twice as fast. Paved roads bring noise and pollution, they interfere with animal life and natural water drainage, they are ugly and eradicate much of the sense of peace and beauty that comes from living in the country,  they require salt and chemicals to melt ice and snow. This should be a choice, something my neighbors and I get to vote on, not a mandate from remote bureaucrats. I would love to explore these ideas of smaller and more connected government if there weren’t so many hateful blockheads talking about it, so I will stay out of politics and walk with Maria and the dogs every day on the dwindling number of country roads in my county.

They are beautiful, peace, they are part of the aesthetic beauty of rural life. They are worth preserving.