Welcome to the United States of America, where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.
Except, of course, that the rules are in the Constitution and the points are people’s jobs. And it’s all acted upon by squalling, petty middle schoolers.
If our Student Government can keep itself in line enough to keep going even during last semester’s fiasco of an election, you’d think those we’ve elected into national office would be able to do the same.
But they’ve failed us, and we should be revolting right now.
Whether or not we agree on different policies, I think most Americans agree that a government shutdown is an unprofessional way to conduct business.
It’s disorganized, and points to a larger issue behind the lack of marriage licenses and legal rowing in Washington D.C.
While the closure of national parks may not affect students specifically, what matters most is the gesture.
The shutdown tells citizens their government only exists as a job factory. It’s not the end of the world. Instead, we’re left with 800,000 out-of-work constituents and a creeping sense of dread.
But this isn’t an apocalyptic movie.
We just can’t access public records, the Army-Navy game won’t happen and the live panda cam is off.
Who needs the government anyway?
The government-sponsored panda cam is off, but Time magazine jumped on that one, placing a fluffy stuffed version on a stool in its offices and a livestream on its website.
There’s a creative quasi-solution for you.
Instead of thinking outside the box, or really thinking at all, Congress has turned into a stubborn child who’s just swallowed the key to a select few doors, and we’re the fed-up parents who locked Congress in its room.
We’re so fed up, even a trip to the emergency room is out of the question, because we know eventually we’ll get the keys back somehow.
If Congress fails to fix this problem, we’ll once and for all be the most immature nation on the face of the planet. Welcome to your future as a U.S. citizen — and, really, your present.
This — like every other debate-heavy political issue — has turned into a blame game among political parties.
Fox News said in a news story that “what the Obama administration is portraying as a ‘shutdown…’ is turning out to be more of a slimdown.”
Anyone who’s followed the facts of this story would know there have always been provisions for essential employees.
It is a shutdown. That’s what the word has meant since people have begun talking about this issue. Slimdown is just their attempt at re-appropriating the vocabulary.
This isn’t a surprise to anyone but Fox News, who goes on to talk about how the shutdown really isn’t a big deal, except that Obama is a big bully. Again we find a news outlet using an actual issue as partisan leverage.
MSNBC, on the other hand, keeps the focus on our deeply divided Congress.
Pretty sure this bickering is the definition of immaturity.
Every day, The Daily Reveille management staff meets to discuss what will run in the paper the next day. We spend a half an hour on average arguing about what will make the front page, and sometimes the results favor our sports section over news or entertainment.
But we always come to some sort of conclusion.
Yes, some editors end up angry, but the next day they will end up with the front of their dreams.
While this is a micro-scale issue, imagine how it would feel if instead of talking out different ideas, we stared each other down until someone caved.
#reveilleshutdown
If college students are capable of compromise, what’s stopping our leaders?