A small group of congressmen has bullied its way into shutting down the American government causing immeasurable, financial pain to millions of Americans, along with endangering many citizens’ lives.
National monuments have been closed, FDA safety inspections have been suspended, cancer treatments for some children and adults have stopped, and thousands of federal workers have been given unpaid furlough to name just a few ways in which a small group of congressmen, exhibiting immature, unstatesmanlike behavior, have negatively impacted America.
Once upon a time in these United States, there were congressmen on both sides of the aisle who practiced the art of negotiations all to better our collective American way of life.
When a small group of congressmen rage against the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare by causing a government shutdown, they demonstrate unethical, intractable stubbornness.
It is conduct most unbecoming and contrary to the legacies of past, effective congressmen who did practice the art of negotiations and got the job done.
Last I looked, both houses of Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it.
Over 50 years ago, civics lessons taught me that the framers had established ethical, respectful methods to amend laws.
Shutting down the government, hurting American citizens, and hurting America’s international status definitely were not steps included in those ethical, respectful methods about which I was taught.
I hope all congressmen realize it’s the federal government’s job to spend money to help Americans recover when massive tornadoes rip the Midwest, when massive wildfires burn the West/ Southwest, when volcanoes explode in the Northwest, and when hurricanes/superstorms sink American cities on our seaboards.
Raising the debt ceiling is involved directly with all these billion-dollar expenditures (the stubborn congressmen should know this). Civics lesson No. 1: Americans help each other in times of need.
Remember when townspeople would gather to help rebuild a neighbor’s barn destroyed by some peril? Well, today, the townspeople usually can’t gather to help raise a neighbor’s barn. Our federal government must help pay for repairs and rebuilding after an American disaster. The federal government must underwrite such unexpected, recovery spending.
If congressmen don’t know that raising the debt ceiling relates directly to the costs of such emergencies, they should. As united Americans, we can’t say, “No, we won’t raise the federal debt ceiling to re-pay our loans, even if those loans were made to help Americans recover from natural disasters and need payment.”
We Americans are a compassionate people. Moreover, as a collective nation, we’re obligated to help our sections in need. However, civics class also taught me nationalism trumps sectionalism.
In his First Inaugural Address (1861), President Abraham Lincoln talked of “the better angels of our nature.”
Hopefully, the better angels of our nature will guide stubborn congressmen -those proud they shut down the government- to realize that their intractable, collective stance doesn’t benefit anyone. In fact, it’s inherently and insidiously destructive to our great nation.
In his Gettysburg Address (1863) Lincoln also hoped that our “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Congressmen holding the American people and American economy hostage, stubbornly trying to get their way by causing a federal shutdown are not emblematic of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
If the stubborn congressmen learned anything in civics class about how their predecessors got the job done, they would have learned that no one, not even a congressman gets everything he wants in life.
At some point, everyone has to compromise to reach a desired outcome.
If the stubborn congressmen want to continue efforts to repeal ACA/Obamacare, they need to review their “How to Be A Congressman” manuals and refresh themselves with the section that implies more bees are gotten with honey than with vinegar.
These stubborn congressmen need to review the acts of prior Congresses and learn how those members succeeded in getting the job done for all American people, not just for a tiny constituency.
The stubborn congressmen should remember that the immature kid who walks off the basketball court with the ball because he can’t get his way is the kid that other kids eschew.
Civics lesson No. 2: All citizens should exercise their right to vote on Election Day while remembering all the stubborn, congressional incumbents who caused the government shutdown.
Let freedom ring.
Kathleen Rittel
East Williston
