Politically speaking…

I have been biting my tongue, really, really hard over the past few months as it related to our government, the two parties, Obamacare and all that goes with it, including the shutdown that we just endured.

I love talking politics and I really believe, even though it is hard at times, VERY hard, that most of our elected representatives are not as evil as we perceive them to be. It is not as easy to convince myself of that these days, but I do have hope that one day that feeling will return…someday.

While I tend to lean one way in my beliefs that does not mean that I always agree with “my side”. And I am most certainly not someone who only finds fault with one side or the other. I hate to say this, but if you are one of those people, you are part of the problem. Big time.

I did not want the government to “shutdown” and I was pretty disturbed by the actions of ALL lawmakers and the President during the last few weeks.

Here are a few of my observations and feelings that resulted from this latest mess.

A law is a law, but bad laws can and SHOULD be fixed.

I felt bad for the thousands of federal workers who were without a paycheck for the past 16 days, and I was glad to see they were going to be paid one way or another once the two sides reached an agreement. However, I wondered where all the outrage was/is in the media regarding the millions, including myself, who were or are still unemployed due to a lousy economy.

I am not a fan of some areas of Obamacare and I wish, instead of voting to defund it or repeal it over and over, that the Republicans would have grabbed on to a few of the most “hated” sections of the law and worked to fix them instead of trying to do the impossible. Look how much of it has been delayed already and what is going forward now is sort of a messy nightmare.

On the flip side, I find it rather arrogant of the President to refuse to negotiate and only want a vote on HIS (and his parties) terms. That is why we have the two party system, right? Even if you disagree with the other side, you work together and sort it out? I am as fed up with Congress as everyone else, but I also lay blame with the “non-negotiator in chief. Ronald Reagan worked with Tip O’Neill; Bill Clinton worked with Newt Gingrich and President Bush worked with Ted Kennedy. It can and SHOULD be done more often. Those men, all of them, were leaders, whether you liked them or not.

On a much lighter note, my faith in humanity was restored a bit this past weekend. My wife offered to help a friend at church set up a “mom to mom” sale. As they worked to set up tables and whatever else one does when setting up for such an event, my wife noticed a rocking chair that one lady brought in to sell. A real rocking chair! My wife has always talked about how she would love to have one.

Casually mentioning to the woman who was trying to sell the chair that she liked it and always wished she had one when rocking her newborns, Heather went on about her work before heading home.

The next day we had a voicemail from the church. The chair didn’t sell and the lady left it for Heather to have. Not to buy, but to have. I do not even think my wife knew her name. Instead of keeping it or trying to make money off it at another sale she just gave it to Heather, no strings attached. The kindness of strangers is so inspiring. It is too bad that we live in such a self-centered world today that these kinds of actions are few and far between!