As I write this column the legislature is set to vote on reopening the government. The shutdown created a lot of inconveniences for a lot of people. Airlines had a lot of delayed or cancelled flights. Since the company I now work for does a fairly large number of airport drop-offs and pick-ups, the delays and cancellations made it difficult to schedule the one-hour trip to the airport, and there were many people who had to change their flight plans – some were stuck at the airport for many hours. Some had to change their plans completely. Many air traffic controllers called in sick, adding to the problems at airports.
People stopped receiving “SNAP” benefits (what I would call food stamps) and had to rely on food shelves for the items they needed to feed their families. In the area where our home is located, there were people stealing groceries from shoppers who were outside the stores, in the parking lots, as they tried to load their food items into their cars.
I’m sure there were many, many more examples of federal employees not being paid, waiting for their jobs to start again. They are fortunate to get back pay once their jobs restart.
I’m convinced it is totally unfair that our lawmakers continue to get paid while the government is shut down and programs stop. They should be forced to go without pay (and no back pay) since they didn’t do their jobs well enough to keep our government running.
Naturally, both sides point their fingers at each other and find ways to blame each other, and you hear each side during news reports, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s wrong for those we elect to drop the ball and refuse to do what they need to do to keep our government open – they all should be embarrassed and ashamed of how they let the American people down.
The shutdown is a topic I try to stay away from during conversations because you never know what side people are on, and some people are very passionate about their political beliefs. Besides, there isn’t anything any of us can do to change these situations, unless it’s at the voting booth.
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Last week, Florida had a blast of “arctic” air with the temperatures reaching the freezing point a couple of nights in a row – about two months earlier than what’s expected here, and Minnesota’s temperatures were very close to Florida’s –– the difference is that it’s expected to be about 80 degrees in Florida, two days after those cold nights.
Have A Good Week!
