We've all said it. We've all meant it.

GET ALONG AND STOP FIGHTING!  OPEN THE GOVERNMENT BACK UP!

I know that the lawmakers could care less than to give a hoot's behind about how all of us feel.  If they did, they would have had all of this handled a long time ago.

Am I expecting a miraculous fix to this situation today?  No, because we have a bunch of people that don't want anyone else to win.

It's not about winning and losing, though.  It's about working together.  Clearly, we're sending a message to our citizens and to the world that we can't play nice together and yet, we expect them to.  We get mad at other nations for mistreating their citizens, but they are doing the same to us.  Please don't think that I'm comparing this to chemical weapons.  I'm not.  However, if we expect other nations to treat their citizens humanely, what are we doing?  We're not being a good model.  How would we handle this if this were another nation?  Weren't we mad when North Korea and South Korea had the employment strip in between shut down by the man in charge up north?  How is it that our government could look at that as cruel, but they are essentially doing the same thing here.  (No, not all of the North Korean nonsense.  I'm just talking about shutting down where the people worked.)

We have people on furlough.  Some people will get back pay and some won't.  If they haven't noticed, we've had a bit of a tough economic spot for a while.  There are (and always will be) people living paycheck to paycheck.  They didn't choose not to go to work.  They didn't do something unsavory and are off being punished for it.  We are all being punished for the inactions of a small group of people.

STOP IT NOW.

My husband, not particularly politically minded, is yelling at the TV.  He was watching a crunchy feed of CSPAN on the TV last night (apparently not one of the few channels we get, but it kind of came in.)  He can't get over it.

We truly need for this to be resolved today.  Don't let it hang over.  Work together as you expect everyone else to do.

Fix this problem.

Now.