As I lay down last night exhausted my brained triggered on the term, "galvanized" in light of what the whole world has been focused on which is the fear and worry of default of the United States of America. So I looked up the definition from my friend Mr Webster and he brings forth this concept of a reaction if stimulated by an electric shock and felt is a perfect description of our global village. The issues in America have truly shocked the world as reflected in global equity market declines and another spike in gold prices. All of that to say that America, with all its stumbling and bickering and rancor is still the most influential nation on this earth.
When I was in college I worked at a local steel mill in Gadsden, AL and one of the million jobs that summer was working on a galvanizing line that coated the raw steel that covered it and protect its surface by some electromagnetic charge in the process. It really was amazing to see something of that magnitude being changed for life. That is what galvanizing does in the steel process is coat through electric charge via a solution to protect it by drawing the molecules in the steel to the surface to be affected. I believe, if nothing else, more people have been galvanized in the last five days over this issue which I think is a great thing in retrospect.
Emails, tweets, letters, phone calls, demonstrations, advertisement, face2face, etc, etc have become the norm in a world where many, including myself, thought the American public had basically threw up their hands in disgust and apathy but no, the public has been galvanized to the point that I believe it has scared the establishment in DC; let's hope but Washington has a very short memory it appears.
While on this mess I have found myself torn deeply over the Tea Party contingent of the young, newly elected breed of Congressmen that took their electorate's mantra serious and executed what appears to be a solid, embraced plan to make a paradigm shift in government thus was the primary driver to pushing the whole discussion underway to the edge of the cliff. I am torn by liking the refreshing, unbeholden nature of these young leaders and have been very impressed by the passioned "cheer leading" of their cause on the Capitol steps to seeing that the bordering arrogance of the passion was forcing the Congress toward that cliff at warp speed. So the Tea Party has established itself not as a fringe of nutcases but a real life component of government going forward. They have been let out of Plato's Cave, seen a new reality and are working their way back to the allegorical cave to change the minds through their new reality and have, naturally, met head on resistance by being called a host of names, like Hobbits, by the veterans of Congress that have, during their far too long career in Washington, been responsible for piling up the very debt that is choking our nation and causing shock and awe in world markets.
So my post this morning is about the physical witnessing of Galvanization in our citizenry that caused our elected leaders to rattle in fear and all that is a GREAT thing and it is my greatest hope that that fear of the public by those that sent them to DC will remain red hot and thus game changing. It is, after all, we the people that elect these people to do our will in our beliefs. It has been heartening to see millions of Americans, including this one, to not sit on the sidelines and casually throw peanuts at he donkeys and elephants as they pass in the regalia of a parade allowed to play the political games that are the norm in Washington.
The People have spoken and the politicians of that electorate listened and thus we see they act and react to the pressures of the electorate once galvanized and active in the process. Again, these men and women in Washington are not stupid and uncaring; quite the contrary. What Washington needed was a good kick in the pants which I believe they got plus, by the way, there are elections in 2012 and many will pay a dear price for these shenanigans. This journey of fear is far from over but we saw a the open salvos of the artillery battle in the last few days.
On that I will give credit to Mr. Boehner for he, in a powerful leadership role, led. He took a position, right or wrong, worked a process to enlist a constituency and did in fact assemble the votes to pass a bill many felt either stupid or unattainable. That bill is neither of those.
What has been dusted off in this battle is that the way it was is no longer the way it will be and it took the brash Tea Party folks to surface that so I applaud the game changers. I am more convinced than ever that time limits on Congress, like the Presidency, is a right thing to do meaning the Congress should be forced to have not more than two consecutive terms and then they are out for two terms before reelection. Staleness and creating a culture of manipulation are dangerous and calcifying verbs which is exactly what we have been witnessing through the scrutiny of the cameras.
Be blessed this weekend and lest we forget, we are truly blessed to live in this great nation even with its warts and flaws. Today I again love being and American!
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