Thursday, June 19, 2014

Relationship: It's complicated

Recently in the news there have been at least a couple of stories in which someone is complaining and asking why all the attention on illegal immigrants from Mexico when military veterans are being ignored. It's like, only one of those can be addressed at a time and the wrong choice was made all in an effort to yet again discredit our African-American president.

Now, in 2012 the U.S, population stood at 319 million. Of those, 4.3 million were employed by the federal government. Among those, 247,113 work for the department of Veterans Affairs. Another 18,000 persons work over at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Given those numbers, isn't it just possible the federal government can do two things at once? The problem is, the critics complaining about the priorities can't see that or are ignorning it for the sake of criticism. It's either one or the other and apparently taking care of Latin American children held in a shelter in Arizona is not as important as veterans, at least to those making the noise this week. It's doubtful that's the case among all the federal employees working in the trenches.

Most likely those working with immigration are also concerned with veterans, but their job is those kids in Arizona. Likewise Veterans Affairs folks have some sympathy for the kids but their job is to straighten out the mess in their own bureaucracy and take care of veterans
.

But it doesn't end there. Life in general and government in particular have gotten so complex and so huge, it's difficult for one person to keep track of everything that's going on, let alone understand it all.  I mean, sure veterans' treatment is important as are those kids being detained, but what about climate change, what about gun violence, what about voter disenfranchisement, what about Benghazi? ( Ok forget Benghazi, that one's just ridiculous) But there is this new push for yet another invasion of Iraq.

Just one of the complications with another invasion.
A Facebook meme from
General Sherman's March To The Sea 
You have to wonder what good that will do.  It would be our fourth invasion into that volatile section of the world in about 20 years or so ( not counting adventures like the capture of Bin Laden) and what the hell makes the saber-rattlers think it would end differently this time. I mean those folks have been fighting each other since the 7th Century with no sign of resolution yet. There was a publication from Narcotics Anonymous in the early 80s that suggested insanity is taking the same action over and over again expecting a different result each time. It's not going to happen, just more lives lost, temporary calm and then American troops leave and it all starts up again.

See how easy it is to get sidetracked, and once you do, the thread to all the other issues fades and confusion is compounded.

The point here is that there is too much going on for a single person to comprehend, so we isolate the ones that bother us the most and work on those. In the 60s as most of us at the time were attempting to embrace the waves of social change we became overwhelmed with it almost immediately. Civil rights gave way to Vietnam protests, leading into environmental rage. Women's liberation got into the mix as well, not to mention the affairs of a criminal in the White House.

Today it's even worse, enflamed by communications made possible by the internet. There's that idiot rancher in Nevada who stands off federal officials when they want to collect money he owes for grazing his cattle on public lands. Incidentally, just in the past couple of days, one of the gun wackos who was at that standoff shot a policeman and a BLM employee. That was the second shooting by a participant since the gang gathered on the Nevada ranch. (Another sidetrack, see?)

Also, in the confusing mix are personal issues, just the necessity to provide the basics for our families, food, clothing, shelter. The result is, we can all get lost in the maze. If we applied a Facebook status to our relationship with the world we would  most likely choose: "It's complicated."

Back to that government, just because the maze is so immense that we can't comprehend it all in one sitting when mixed with all the things we really have to keep track of, that doesn't mean one job is being neglected in favor of another. All those issues can be addressed but not by the same individuals. Faced with that myriad of issues in the 60s I realized you have to choose one or two you can handle and hope someone else is choosing some of the others. 

At the government level that's why we taxpayers pay for all the advisors the president has available, just so he can remain informed across the spectrum, but he too, has to depend on bureaucrats to perform their assigned tasks. If they don't, who gets blamed? It's always Obama. Always. That's an issue in itself, another complication.


As big as it is, the federal government is very capable of fixing the problems for veterans AND working with those children in Arizona, not to mention all the other things Big Fed does, so just back off with that criticism and the complaints that one is being ignored in favor another. That isn't happening.
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  1. JanJune 21, 2014 at 7:48 AM

    Well said, Tim. I always keep in mind when voting for a president that I am also voting for a team -all the appointees and other folks he (or she) will place in critical positions, who then go on to oversee a particular sphere. The most control I feel I can get over the process is to hope a candidate shows up who will make those appointments wisely. It is why I like moderates (that nearly extinct species of politician) who can both compromise and embrace those who do. And I, at my most idealistic, want them to do it with grace, fairness, an even temper, and enough intelligence on issues to know what they don't know and appoint people who can both lead and advise well in their areas of responsibility. No guarantees but a good start... Someone whose agenda is too far to one side of an issue or another needs to be heard, of course, but when it comes to governing, their voices need to be blended with others so compromise can sift through. WHEN can we expect this to happen?

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