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This is personal. It is very popular to run down Congress and politicians and it’s an easy thing to do. They are all “no good”, out for themselves, trying to make deals, you name it. We’ve all heard it all our lives.
Gabrielle Giffords resigned today as a member of the House. It is obvious she has a long way to go in her recovery from the gunshot that almost killed her. From all indications, she is a wonderful person, the kind we should consider ourselves lucky to have wanted to serve in Congress in the first place. I did not know her personally, but I wish I had. It seems she enriched the lives of those she met and worked with just by being around and she continues to do so despite the severity of her brain injuries from the Glock 9mm that was fired at close range at her head.
I covered Congress for a number of years at the ground level, meeting and interviewing senators and House members daily, talking to their staffs, wandering the halls, attending committee meetings and occasionally watching floor debates in the House and Senate. I met and got to know a good many members who were fine people, intelligent, capable and trying to do their best for their home districts and states. I met people I would have been pleased to call my friend, had I met them in different circumstances without the complications of professional dealings that require reporters to keep a safe distance from personal involvement. I met people there who clearly outshine some of the others who are constantly barking criticism at Congress and politicians, people doing a difficult, demanding job that requires being able to deal with being pulled in all directions at once and still, in the process, retaining values and decency.
Of course, these terms don’t apply to many of those I met and I was variously disgusted and surprised by the depth of the pettiness and narrow views I sometimes saw. Some people in Congress would, in my personal view, only redeem themselves by leaving and never coming back. But, in time, the voters or simple aging took care of those. Sadly, many of the better members were gone ahead of the political warhorses, tired of the routine or just worn down by the job and all the criticism that comes with it.
I only wish that the good feelings, and some of the tears, that were shed on Capitol Hill today with the departure of Gabrielle Giffords could last more than an hour and wake up the Congress to its duty. The job is not to be in constant, angry battle with each other, only looking to the next election as the goal. It should be to take the great sense of caring one has and to translate it into action that, in the end, results in a better, stronger nation where people can live peacefully and advance themselves as their abilities and desires dictate.
The era of bad feelings when are in now resulted from a number of forces. It began in earnest when the Republicans won control of the House in 1994 and Newt Gingrich came to power. His method is best described as search and destroy. Around the same time, the techniques of viciously negative campaigning were perfected by the late Lee Atwater and hundreds of other campaign consultants who, for their own gain, have come close to wrecking our democracy and have certainly convinced millions that we are all enemies of each other. This, coupled with the rise of a new form of wealth that has showered down like a blizzard of money on the top wage earners, has created a Congress that reflects the divide of economic interests in America and threatens to run us off the rails. There is no point in reaching compromise if you are rich beyond dreams and your main goal in life is to keep those riches and see that nothing threatens them, not even basic social justice or the survival of the old and infirm.
So, thank you, Gabrielle Giffords for reminding Congress, and all of us, of our humanity and the need for caring and decency. Frankly, Congress right now is no place for someone as kind and thoughtful as you to be spending your time, whether recovering or not. I wish you well in all things and I hope we can all learn from your example. We surely need to.
Doug Terry, 1.25.12
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