Egos and power

The government shutdown with no apparent end is not about border security, whether a wall is the best way to secure the border, whether the U.S. will be overrun by illegals and terrorists if a wall isn’t built, whether drugs smuggled into the country are coming through the main ports of entry or the desolate stretches of terrain with no wall. This is not a dispute that can be settled with facts, informed by the experience of those who live on the border.

No, the government shutdown is a power struggle, an epic battle of egos. This is a struggle among wills, the wills of four people: the President, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, and Senate Minority Leader. The President is motivated by his own ego and obsession to win, while the others carry the ideologies, fears, and longstanding grievances of the Republican and Democratic parties.

Tragically, it seems each is only interested in vanquishing the other. Until they step away from their egos and ideologies to see their common humanity and shared purpose — to faithfully serve the founding ideals of this country — there will be no resolution to this crisis. Our fellow citizens who have chosen government service as their careers will be punished, as will so many connected to them, from family to suppliers and contractors.

This blatantly corrupt power play by the leadership of this country reflects a spiritual crisis. Ego is trumping the vision articulated so elegantly, if imperfectly, when the government was forged.

Who will claim the soul of America, the mantle to tell our history and paint the canvass of the nation we will become?

“Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke