Anup Samanta learned a lesson from his mom: Sometimes you have to say “Move on!” Let’s look to 2015 and make things happen.
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I have been very smitten with someone for the past two-and-a-half years. We first met in Los Angeles in March 2011. I thought my search for love stopped that evening. Since that time, I made it my mission to win her love and affection.
As the months went by, I found myself better at chasing my tail than chasing her. As I was lamenting about these frustrations to my mom one day, she responded to me with an exasperated tone, “Don’t you get it? She just doesn’t wanna. Oof. Move on!” Could it be as simple as that? She “just doesn’t wanna”? Were all of my honest and sincere efforts for naught?
As the shutdown of the U.S. federal government approaches one week, it is very evident that many elected officials in the House of Representatives and Senate “just don’t wanna” budge from their hardened stance about key issues either. Many people have likened this behavior as childish and immature, but I disagree. Like the girl from Los Angeles, these elected officials are very staunch about their values and principles. They are willing to trade off long term personal and economic benefits for short term recalcitrance to stimuli perceived to threaten their values and principles. Wow. I should be ashamed of myself to be impressed by this kind of selfishness and myopia.
So after all of the “blood, sweat, and tears” that the current White House administration has placed in turning around the economy, ending a major war, trying to make healthcare affordable and accessible to people who don’t have it, and doing other good things for the public, its efforts now seem to be for naught. Why? Congress “just doesn’t wanna”. It may seem like there is very little we can do about this impasse.
I can’t think of a better time than now to exercise our rights as U.S. citizens and seize as much control as possible of our destiny. Due to the 24/7/365 unrestricted news cycle, we can not only be informed at any point in time, but also make well-rounded judgments by evaluating information in competing sources. We don’t need to blindly check off the ballot for incumbents. Why not write people in for the job? Most importantly, as far as 2015 sounds from today, it will be here in a blink of our eye. Let’s see what presidential candidates can do to prevent national crises before they land on our doorsteps.
In my mind, 2013 is over, but as Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” So, as my lovely and awesome mom would say, let’s “Oof. Move on.”
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Photo: The Capitol and the Moon, by Serge Melki
It’s fine to have principles. But as has been said time and again, the ACA passed the House and the Senate, and was signed into law by the president. It was upheld by the Supreme Court, and ratified once more when the public returned the ACA’s author to the presidency, as well as allowing his party to retrain the Senate. In short, it’s the law. Now, if they think it’s a bad law, then all they have to do is convince most of the country of that fact, gain power, and repeal it. There’s a well established political process for… Read more »