Lost Appetite

Dear Friends,

My choice in life is to never throw away friends, no matter their station in life. I will mention one such friend, whom my family and other friends have experienced from time to time. After his third incarceration in a state prison, I assisted him in securing a room in a half-way house. After all, he had been framed, yet again.

Anyway, one of the requirements of those in residence at a half-way house is to spend each day looking for work. I was alarmed when I received a phone call two months later from the director of the half-way house telling me that my friend left the house each morning and it was discovered that he spent each day at the neighborhood garage that serviced the cars of locals.

With disappointment in my heart and anger in my voice, I met with my friend and asked why he pretended to search for employment and instead hung out with “a bunch of stumbling vagabonds” (I apologized for my language). He looked at me and said, “Rev, I’m sorry but it’s been so long that I have just lost my appetite for work.”

Senior Republican and Democratic Members of the House have said something like, “We use to get things done; we used to compromise”, but that seems so long ago that getting legislation done doesn’t even seem natural anymore. In other words, Congress has lost its appetite for success, for doing the business of the Nation. The public, through low approval ratings, has a new philosophy – low outlook; low let down!