People Are Mad at the Government...(and why I'm really not)

The month of August has seen town hall after bloody town hall, talking head know-it-alls from every news outlet you can think of, and political pandering from your favorite local representative (btw, if the Spirit moves you, contact your local representative - http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#fl).

On one hand it's been great to see the passion return to the heartland and not be dominated by the fringe outskirts of Los Angeles and New York, but in another sense it's disheartening to see such lack of self-control from so many of these good folk. And make no mistake, I think they're good folk, and when you tick off good folk for long enough, they'll fight back.

But really, the government isn't the problem. Don't misinterpret me, I didn't vote for our current president and wasn't too happy about how the former one spent his last 2 years in office. The real issue is not these institutions, but rather good ol' individual American apathy. We got so used to the glitz and glamour of the wealthiest nation on earth that we got arrogant; we felt entitled to such wealth, and assumed we'd continually increase it....increase it without acknowledging the One who enabled us to get here in the first place. Entitlement gave way to apathy, and before we knew it, our representatives - not all, to be sure, but many - hijacked power from the people who were too self-absorbed to care about whom they weren't electing. And now, it's an ever-loving mess.

So should people be mad at the government? Sure, knock your socks off. But I'm not - I'm mad at myself, because I fell into the same apathetic trap of everyone else.

Surely I'm not the only one who will admit it...