There is a fire growing in my stomach.

Reagan's brilliant stroke must have us all tongue tied.  In the face of
the most demeaning action by Congress in the history of the civil
service we remain silent.

When they sent us home in November I wasn't pleased, but I made the
best of it. Each day I did something special, something I couldn't have
done otherwise-- visited a friend in the hospital, spent a day with a
retired friend who had returned to the midwest from Florida.  I thought
I had a good attitude.

Hey, if this is what retirement is like, I thought, I can't wait (so
what If I've got 14 years to go).  But this time its different.  I never
believed it would happen again.  After all.. who has any thing to gain?
Won't everone lose?

 I log on the usenet and grab the clari.gov.policy.financial news every
 hour... hoping for good news.  I try to be adult and sophisticated
 about this, but my mood swings with each announcent.... and it hasn't
 swung much for over a week.

It just goes on and on. . .

It reminds of something I learned in my teaching days.  Never make a
threat you don't want to fulfill.  Here they threatened to send us
home... now they can't get out of it.  Who can give in?  We are not in
Japan, but so much is face.

It also reminds me of my early days as a teacher in other ways.  In the
late 60's the Chicago teachers struck for the first time.
It was over quickly.  Before that the mere threat of a lengthy strike
made the city quake.  Then we went on a longer strike. The unthinkable
occurred and yet the city survived. After that each strike was longer.
An unspoken compact had been broken yet the world did not end.


And the same is happening here.  For years, the thought of an extended
shut down was a threat.. chaos would prevail...  But now there is
merely silence...  The indifference is defeaning.  We were pawns.. Now
we are less than that.. we have become ciphers.

Slowly a fire is growing in my stomach... a fire of anger.

I will never forget that Congress chose to go home and let us twist
slowly in the wind.

Regardless of how one feels about the priorities of a balanced budget,
the use of blackmail is abhorent.   Last year's revolution was
not complete. The majority party cannot yet regularly override a veto.
They do not have a mandate to dictate overwhelming change but merely the
opportunity to negotiate progress in the direction they  have chosen.
This is still a democracy, whether they recognize it or not.

The idea that a failure to sign on to a fantasy long term budget plan is
a basis for shutting down the government is absurd.  For the president
to cave in to short term fundamental changes in policy and funding when more
than a third of Congress has not agreed would be unconscionable.  Before
major shifts of policy and direction occur in our democracy, there must
be a much greater consensus than now exists.  That is why the President
has a veto and it takes 2/3's to override it.

The majority party has not yet made its case.  If it can persuade the
voters next November, then it may have the required super majority in
congress to make the changes it desires.  Until then, it should get on
with the business of governing and out of the blackmail business.


Forgive me for rambling so.. but there is a fire growing in my stomach,