IS IT MY IMAGINATION?

Or are we seeing more stories like this?

Their livelihood was being threatened, and they were tired of waiting for government help, so business owners and residents on Hawaii's Kauai island pulled together and completed a $4 million repair job to a state park -- for free.

"They [state of Hawaii parks department] said it would probably take two years. And with the way they are cutting funds, we felt like they'd never get the money to fix it."

So ... business owners and residents made the decision not to sit on their hands and wait for state money that many expected would never come. Instead, they pulled together machinery and manpower and hit the ground running March 23.

And after only eight days, all of the repairs were done.

Here’s another.

Do you have gaping potholes on your street and feel the city is not fixing them quickly enough? How about patching them yourself?

That's what a group of residents on Chicago's West Side did Wednesday. Members of the South Austin Coalition bought eight bags of a pavement mix for about $100 and used shovels, rakes and a 250-pound push roller to fill 15 holes on the 4800 block of West Van Buren Street.

"The city's not doing it, so residents need to take the matter into their own hands," said Elce Redmond, an organizer with the coalition.

I’ve posted about this before (here and here, among others), and it seems to me that ever since the Obama administration hit the ground stumbling and bumbling, I’ve seen more and more stories of states, financial institutions, businesses, and citizens ignoring government “help” and taking their affairs into their own hands.

Of course, government isn’t happy ....

For example, Chicago city officials don't think that's a good idea for citizens to fill potholes:

For starters, it's not safe for people to work in the street without taking safety measures like putting up orange cones to warn traffic, said Brian Steele, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation. Secondly, city crews are trained in the art of filling potholes ...

Well, maybe it’s time for us to tell government “We’re quite capable of taking care of our own affairs, thank you very much. Now go away.”