I am a 31 year old girl sitting in Keystone, SD just 10 miles outside of Mount Rushmore. I am on vacation visiting a ton of national parks and monuments, but they are closed. I am not here to lecture you to open the parks and monuments back up.
So here is my story I grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri in a two bedroom apartment. My dad spent my entire life trying to work to support me and my brother. My mom couldn't work for the most part, because she is chronically ill. She was always on medication and going to see doctors. My dad spent years struggling to keep the lights on and keep my mom medicated.
Right now I'm on vacation and didn't realize how much this government shut down affects him. I don't get to see national parks and monuments, which is really nothing compared to what he doesn't get. He doesn't get paid. If this continues my mom might not receive health insurance, which means he can't pay for her meds. Not to mention, he won't be able to pay his mortgage or any of his bills for that matter.
Since I was a freshman in high school my dad has gone into work at least 5 days a week and sometimes 6 days. He is doing at least three people's jobs right now at the USDA. He has never done anything to provoke losing his salary, so why should he suffer?
Now I have to ask the question all these people are out of work right now and congress (not a tiny sum I might add). Congress is receiving health insurance too. How is this fair? Why should my dad lose his salary and his health insurance if Congress is the one shutting down his job? For that matter what about the countless other people losing their salary and their health insurance right now. Why is this fair?
So I'm going to say it's not fair. So what are you going to do? I have a solution, especially for those people in Washington D.C. I think you should picket Congress. I think that all the disgruntled federal employees right now should go march on the Capitol. I don't think this shut down is just or fair to those poor people like my dad who are getting ripped off right now. If that doesn't work I think we should march on Washington. I think we should show our government that it's not right to hurt countless Americans bickering over something like 12 year olds. I don't care who is right and who is wrong. People are suffering right now.
We need to do something big, because every couple of years Congress threatens to shut down. This year they actually shut down the government. If we sit down and write passive aggressive twitter comments or articles it's going to do nothing to help the situation. Our parents did things like protest Vietnam and march on Washington for Civil Rights. What are we doing? We are sitting back and complaining about government on twitter.
I for one am sick of complaining on twitter about this shut down. If in a couple of weeks this thing doesn't resolve itself I might just show up at the Capitol Building. I will drive 1,000+ miles from whatever state I am in, because I believe in justice for my friends and family. So please if a resolution is not made go out and take a stand. Stop sitting on your butts. We need to organize and fight for what's right. We need all federal employees back at work getting paid at their posts. No man left behind.