Not Me!

When my children were younger something would occasionally get broken--a lamp that had been carelessly bumped during a footrace through the living room; a chair that fell apart because somebody sat on it with a sibling or friend in their lap . . . those sort of things.  Somehow whenever we tried to find out who was responsible we never seemed to get to the bottom of it.  "Not me," they'd all say one after another.  Sometimes they would blame one another.  "He did it!  I saw him running!"  "She did it!  I saw her horsing around!"  It was a game--the blame game.  And, unlike most other games, it was a game nobody ever really won--and in fact, if we got really exasperated, we'd send them all to their rooms.  And everybody lost.

Maybe that's what we ought to do.  Maybe we should send all our elected officials to their rooms.  I mean, government is broken, but nobody seems to be taking responsibility for it!  "He did it!"  "She did it!"  The Republicans are responsible!  The President is at fault!  The Tea Party's brought it on us!  The old blame game.  The one nobody wins--and in this case, the one where certain people really lose.  Elderly vets who want to see the World War II Memorial and remember their fallen comrades.  A lost hiker on federal lands.  The thousands of hard working public servants who've been furloughed.  The children who need the meager amount of fresh food supplied though their WIC stipends worth forty-five dollars a month.  Losers now--or soon enough.  And that's just a few of them.

Here's a thought.  Not only do we send them all to their rooms.  We also take away their desserts--or at least their paychecks.  Maybe we don't let them watch television or play video games for a week or two or at least until the debt ceiling is raised.  I don't believe in corporal punishment, so washing their mouths out with soap is out of the question.  But hey, it just might work!

I vote.  I write letters to my congressional representatives.  I pray for the President, the Governor and other elected officials most very day.  I keep abreast of politics and public policy.  I like democracy, and I'm willing to do my part--for free!  So why can't those we pay to make it work do their part?