Government shutdown | The Recovering Legalist

The following is political commentary. It also references certain aspects of the Confederacy in a positive light. Be forewarned: I do not now, nor have I ever condoned slavery, so comments along that line will not be accepted.

The Shutdown

By now I am sure most of you, no matter what country you are in, have heard of the government shutdown in America. It is sad on many different levels, especially for those whose livelihoods depend on tourism and trade on government lands. It is even sad for those tourists who planned for years to visit a particular park, only to find it closed and guarded.

Recently, a group of WWII veterans went to visit their memorial in Washington, D.C. Many of those veterans will not live another year, so they were terribly upset to see barricades keeping them out of an open-air memorial. So what did they do? They went in, anyway, carrying American flags and playing Amazing Grace on a bagpipe.

The administration in Washington says that it does not have the funds to operate public parks and monuments/memorials. It even closed Point Park here in Chattanooga. What amazes me, though, is the fact that the places being closed really didn’t need anyone there in the first place. Yet, after saying there is no money, they put guards around a monument which never had people there before! What gives?

Honestly, I feel like the whole thing is intended for political purposes and has nothing to do with a lack of money. If guards can be paid, then so could a senior citizen who needs a few extra dollars. For that matter, there are plenty of volunteers wanting to work the parks, but the government says, “NO!” The proof of spitefulness, I believe, can be found in what monuments/memorials/parks are guarded, and which are not.

Visitors Needed

silverdale cemetery

Yesterday, I drove past this cemetery in Chattanooga. Normally it would have not caught my attention, but this time something stood out – there were no barricades…no guards. Much like the WWI memorial, this place is not actually a national memorial, so maybe that has something to do with why no barricades or guards are present. But, stop and think about it, what’s the difference?

I think the real difference is that people are not visiting the parks that are not barricaded, therefore no barricades or guards are necessary. Only the parks most likely to be visited are guarded, so as to make people more inconvenienced and angry. Pure and simple.

The barricading and guarding of PUBLIC memorials and monuments on PUBLIC land is a testimony to spiteful government that is no longer FOR the people, but AGAINST them.

When I think about that Confederate cemetery, where over 150 men lie in unmarked graves – men who died from wounds suffered in combat after being left when their hospital had to leave – I think about what they fought for. It was not primarily to continue slavery (even though that was an issue), but states’ rights – the rights of the individual states to self-govern.

The idea that our federal government is so big, so intrusive, so overpowering, so dictatorial, so regime-like, and SO much of a playground bully makes me consider the cause of my gray-clad ancestors. If our states had the rights originally given to them by our U.S. Constitution, this shutdown and Obamacare fiasco would not be happening. Maybe we should think long and hard about what our Founding Fathers intended. I guarantee you it is not what we have in Washington today.

Maybe we need to revisit a bit of the past – before Washington barricades it all.