Government Shutdown

This week on Saturday Night Live, the cold open was (hilarious!) sketch poking fun at the government shutdown. There were two astronauts stuck in space trying to call NASA for help, but the only person there was the janitor because the government shutdown. It was a bad pun, but it still made me think.

I've been sitting her shrugging my shoulders and making jokes about the government shutdown for the past two weeks, mainly because I didn't understand it. It didn't directly affect my small world at that exact moment so I didn't care. I made jokes about it on Twitter and Facebook, but I didn't realize how much it was impacting the world until yesterday.

I stopped for gas and the guy at the pump next to me smiled and waved. I smiled and said, "Hi. How are you today?" I was expecting him to give a short answer and that be the end of the conversation; I was not prepared for the answer I received.

"Pretty good, just trying to figure out how to kill time since the government kicked me out of work."

I was floored, I didn't quite know what to say. I tried to be lighthearted about it, and asked him where he worked. He worked at Kennesaw Mountain Park, and the government shutdown meant that the park was closed. He told me how difficult it's been for him because he loves his job and he loved supporting his family. He has two daughters and a grandson, he lives in the Acworth area, and he told me he's just trying to make ends meet with this economy.

Eventually, both our cars were full of gas and we parted ways but I could not stop thinking about that man all day. It broke my heart to think of him without a job and being unable to pay his bills to support his family. Then it hit me. He's not the only one whose job was put on hold for the past two weeks. There are millions of people across the country in the same position that he's in. They're struggling to make ends meet as it is, then the government shuts down and forces them to not come to work. Many of them rely on every dime that comes out of their paycheck, and now they don't have it.

It really opened my eyes to be more aware of the political goings on. Just because I didn't lose my job during this government shutdown doesn't mean it won't affect me. It will affect me. I have a mountain of student loans to pay back. That's not going to go over nicely with a government that is trillions of dollars in debt. This is affecting me and I've got to open my eyes. Not just me, we all do. We're the future of this economy and if we're ignoring all the signs now, how will we make it better in the future?