Let’s talk about common sense citizenship approaches to coping with the longest government shutdown in American history. Have you been affected in some way by the shutdown? What if it goes on for an extended period? What exactly would be a crisis level situation in your opinion? I am all about using common sense to cope. Let’s go there. But first, if you comment below, please do not mention political parties and vent your anger at groups or individuals. Do not post a link to other sites. We the People have heard it all, and in some cases, we’ve seen it all. Let’s talk about how to handle the longest government shutdown in our history.
I absolutely love the story of the two sisters who made a cheesecake over the recent Christmas holiday. Compliments were plentiful. They got the idea to open up their own cheesecake business as a means of gaining an income stream during the shutdown when no paychecks would be issued. Look, maybe it doesn’t pay the rent, but it does help to have some “pin” money on hand that could be used to pay for essentials if the shutdown goes on for a long time. What an entrepreneurial spirit these ladies have! Foresight may not be 20/20, but it’s better than hindsight and “should have’s.”
There’s the eleven-year-old girl who is selling her homemade spa sugar scrub to help her mother with expenses that are occurring during the shutdown. That child is learning great business lessons at a young age that will do her a world of good as she grows older. Kudos to that mom for raising a daughter who wants to “pitch in” and help out.
I’ve said this before… it pays to put “hay in the barn” just as our forefathers were taught to do. Our government employees will get their back pay eventually. The possibility of a shutdown goes with the territory of working for the government. Have you been able to set aside even a small amount of money for emergencies? Are you working toward the goal of putting even a little sum away for “a rainy day?” It’s hard. Been there. Done that.
My father worked in the steel mills. When the United Steelworkers went on a strike that lasted thirteen weeks, we jumped in the station wagon and took Route 66 all the way to California via Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, etc. You might say that we took a lap through the desert. Air conditioning was a new thing. You had to carry a supply of water and fill the unit that straddled the “bump” on the floor of the car. There we were, a family of 6, crawling through desert heat. The a/c really didn’t cool much. It did little more than soothe a state of mind. My parents arranged for us to stay at little places along the way with one nice hotel in Oklahoma. It had 3 full-size beds. That one night, we didn’t have to sleep on the floor, or in the car, or crowd into a couple of beds as usual! I honestly thought this hotel room was the Taj Mahal. When we finally made it to SoCal, we stayed in the home of my parents’ friends. In exchange for housing us, my father helped build their backyard patio. All totaled, we were gone 3 weeks.
I was rather young, but I remember wondering how we could go on a vacation for so long when my dad wasn’t working. My parents economized, and we traveled on a “shoestring” budget with minimal allowances for niceties. Credit cards had not yet come into the economy. My father received no back pay for the time he was out of work. The strike was what it was. My parents made the best of it, but they also planned for it.
Look around for stories of Americans who are using creative strategies to cope with the shutdown rather than just hearing from pundits who talk about it. That’s Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.??
