In a move full of irony, Google is celebrating the anniversary of Yosemite and the park is not open due to government shut down. I’m not really sure how I feel about this, but I have a presentment that my feelings aren’t good.
“Did you hear that the government is officially shut down?” I said to Brian this morning.
“No. I mean, really?! The Tea Party is full of awesome,” he said with sarcasm. “I can’t believe it.”
“Oh, I can believe it,” I said. “I might be outraged, but I’m really not surprised.”
“But we’ve been so close to the brink before and it’s always ended fine,” said Brian.
“I think that’s why I’m not surprised,” I said. “How long have they been threatening this?”
I thought about how we’re trying to get a home loan, and how that process can’t happen without the government. I thought about the millions of students who may also have trouble with their loans. Of the millions of government workers who aren’t getting paid. California has announced that only a few weeks of funding remain before people here will start to starve. Without federal checks, they can’t pay for food stamps nor can they pay for school breakfast programs. The Pentagon is running with a skeleton crew. The people at the FDA have gone home. Is it only a matter of time before we also have to deal with terrorism and botulism?
These are the thoughts that ran through my head this morning. I sped down the white freeway, the sun cresting on my left, and felt like civilization had ended. We were just waiting for it to collapse.
I usually consider myself a very middle of the road girl when it comes to politics. I don’t feel like the Tea Party is for hating. For mocking, maybe, but not for outright vitriol. Still, I will never understand why they have decided, in an unwillingness to drop a fight they’ve already lost, to gamble with the death, destruction, and future of the country they claim to care for.
Today I have lost faith in the American system.
Casey E. Hamilton 