Sportsmen punished during federal shutdown
Ever been in a restaurant with your significant other and have the family from hell seated right next to you? You know the family I’m talking about: The one with three kids throwing nonstop tantrums while their parents seem oblivious to the chaos.
My wife and I are magnets for these undisciplined families, and have had many a date night ruined because the parents would not, you know, be parents and stomp a hole in their kids.
The sad thing is that those children are likely to grow up thinking the only way to get attention is to throw a fit. Want a snack? Fall out on the floor. Don’t get that raise? Just scream until your boss gives in.
Problem is that few bosses cave to screaming employees, and that’s when the rotten children of today learn awfully hard lessons as adults.
But maybe those spoiled brats should just work their way through the political system to the U.S. Congress, where it apparently is completely acceptable to act like 2-year-olds.
It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on — left-wing Commie or right-wing Ditto Head — what happened last month is just embarrassing. Our congressional representatives are paid — and paid well — to work together for the good of the country. Instead, they’re more interested in getting their way than coming to agreement on how to move forward.
It’s so dysfunctional that many of us are tempted to ignore the goings-on in Washington, D.C. I know I didn’t pay much attention when the federal government shut down Oct. 1.
But we learned from the 16-day shutdown that, whether you like government or not, we all suffer from such childishness. Do you like to make some trips to the national wildlife refuges to shoot squirrels or chase deer? Nope, sorry, government’s closed.
And what is most maddening is that these closures were unnecessary, even if the government is shut down.
Take the National Forest Service, for instance. Most employees of that agency were sent home, but the hundreds of thousands of acres of forests within Louisiana under that agency’s supervision remained open to hunting and fishing, with the exception of developed areas being closed. The NFS folks are to be commended for acting in the interest of their constituency.
On the other hand, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials followed the Congressional lead, gating off tens of thousands of acres of public land — despite the fact that enforcement agents remained on the job. Apparently agents were paid solely to ensure that no one enjoyed the lands our tax dollars finance.
Hunting grounds like Tensas River and Lake Ophelia NWRs were off limits for the first 16 days of the squirrel season. And, technically, it was illegal to fish easily accessible areas like Delta NWR.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that orders came down to ensure we felt the pain of life without the federal government. I guess they figured if no one noticed the shutdown we’d decide we don’t need big government.
But it’s time our officials grow up and stop acting like spoiled children. We all lose during these tantrums.
