20130928.1048

It has been a while since I explicitly commented on political matters in the sense of "political" as "having to do with Washington, D.C., policymakers and their antics."  It may be a while before I do so again.  But I feel the need to do so now, because I am honestly and frankly worried about the possibility of another government shutdown in my lifetime.

I remember the one during the Clinton administration.  I remember being a child in my parents' house on the outskirts of a Texas Hill Country town and watching the shutdown loom larger.  And I remember being quite worried, for then as now, the majority of my parents' household income came from my dad's paycheck--and he worked for the VA Hospital.  I suppose some people could say that he needed to be working a "real" job in the private sector, one where he was not sucking at the public teat and draining tax dollars collected unjustly and in too great a number from private enterprise--because of course all federal employees work for the government because they are not competent to work anywhere else.

A sarcasm font would be helpful.

Dad still works for the VA, and while neither of his kids are at home anymore, I imagine he is still not thrilled about the prospect of his paycheck being switched off again--and possibly not restarted, if something I heard on the radio as I was buying food yesterday is correct.  And now I work for a state agency, one that receives a fair bit of funding from federal money--yes, yes, I, too, am sucking at the government teat, draining away the hard-earned money of real Americans so that I cam cavort without oversight in the ivory tower and undermine the beliefs of the youth in what the Founding Fathers in their infinite and undying wisdom intended for the US to be.

While I am insulated by several layers of bureaucracy and governmental division from the sources of the shutdown problem, the possibility remains that my paycheck will be inhibited by the shutdown, if (more likely when) it happens.  And I am not the only one who depends on that paycheck at the moment...

I have not, so far as I know, been in Oklahoma long enough to establish residency or be eligible to vote (if any of you know, please tell me).  But that does not mean that I am not paying attention to who is doing what in the lead-up to the shutdown--and my memory is long.