Disappointing

Who  else in America could do as poor a job as our federal elected officials and still keep their job? Nobody. In most countries, they’d have to go hide in a cave if they shut down their own government. They have collectively failed our country. It’s very disappointing. Who’s to blame? All of them, in my opinion. We should respect our national leaders. Instead, we find the country resenting them.

I stay away from politics on this site because there are two sides (at least) to every story and this is America — we thrive over being a melting pot of ideas and opinions. It doesn’t seem like our leaders are putting our country first.  This is about the failure in our nation’s Capitol right now among people who should be leading. I would say it’s stupid, but we tell our kids and grandkids not to say that.

I was going to avoid this topic, but I drove by the D’Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge today and saw all the little laminated signs that say, “REFUGE IS CLOSED”. How do the people who work for us close the woods to the people who paid for them and who own them? On the opening day of deer season, no less.

Don’t blame the refuge employees or their department. It’s not their fault. In fact, if it wouldn’t give those fine folks such an undeserved headache, I’d suggest that every gun toting, bow slinging, four-wheeler riding, pickup truck driving, red-blooded American in the country show up at their local refuge one day soon and storm the little orange cones and their little plastic signs just to show we could. They could call the police, but I have a feeling most of them would be taking a personal day to join in!  But that won’t help.

Closing these areas to the very people who paid for them through excise taxes and license fees; closing national monuments to our veterans who fought to give us the right to put them there to start with; threatening to cancel the military academy football games for our servicemen — well, there aren’t words to describe it. Not that you can use on a family site, anyway. Has any federal elected official asked you to make a list of what you think the non-essential services are that YOU PAY FOR. Putting our businesses, our jobs and our economy at risk is crazy. I agree we have to do something, but it should have been done before it got to this point.

I do have one final question.

When the federal government “shuts down” National Wildlife Refuges,  what about all the wildlife? Where do they go when the woods are “closed”?

I’m not sure about the ducks and the deer. One might suggest that a large number of squirrels and turkeys might be in Washington.