Walking off the job

Two months ago, my hard-working, highly principled wife was fired from her job of fifteen years for insubordination. The month before, she had been "Employee of the Month" --- well deserved, I might add. Insubordination? Sticking up for a team member who had been treated shabbily. That's my girl. They told her she was terminated immediately and sent someone with her to her locker and out to the parking lot. Fifteen years. No recourse. There are few employee protections in the "Right to Work" state of North Carolina.

All that is water under the bridge now. After six weeks of nail biting, she got a better job. But today, as I listen to the news, I wonder again about our folks up in Washington, D.C. and the kind of jobs they have.

The House Democrats are sitting-in. It's a last ditch effort to be heard and to bring legislation to a vote which so many of their constituents are asking for. House leadership decided, after decrying this tactic as a publicity stunt, to pack it in and leave more than a week early for the July 4th holiday. It's the congressional equivalent of taking your bat and ball and going home.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a job where you can not only call all the shots, not entertain opposing ideas, and get paid whether you're there or not? They simply walked out during the work week and did NOT GET FIRED.

Oh, you say, they can get fired at the next election. Hmmmm. It sure would have helped when Jill got fired if she'd had several months to line up another job before the paychecks came to an end. 

This is simply another indication of why they are so far removed from the lives that most of us live. In real life, you don't get to do things like this. You don't get to have tantrums and plug up your ears and say "La La La, I can't hear you" or go on vacation when you're uncomfortable with the task ahead.

Should the Dems be sitting-in on the House floor? Should they have to, in order to get their jobs done? We all know that gun legislation won't fly. But not even bringing it to the floor for a vote is a slap in the face to all the voters who go to the polls hoping that the person they elect to represent them will actually be allowed to do so.

No wonder voter turnout is low. It's hard not to think it doesn't matter.