{"id":431,"date":"2009-12-18T12:22:49","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T17:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/blog\/?p=431"},"modified":"2009-12-18T12:22:49","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T17:22:49","slug":"government-of-the-people-by-the-people-for-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"Government: of the People, by the People, for the People…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GRBJ0737\"<\/p>\n

Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal<\/em>, December 7, 2009<\/p>\n

A few years ago I was in Washington DC in July. For those of you who don\u2019t know, DC is a swamp. Or rather, it was built in what was formerly (and, some would argue, is currently) a sweaty, steaming, thick, suffocating swamp. So if you are fool enough to go out for a run (and I was), it\u2019s best to do it in the early morning before all the oxygen goes away. It is also a safer time to wind yourself through the city before it becomes packed with people and cars.<\/p>\n

This particular morning I ran from the Elliot Spitzer Hotel (that\u2019s not the real name; I can\u2019t seem to recall it. I could Google it. It\u2019s the hotel where Spitzer hooked up when he was in town. I tell you this because I think it\u2019s really sad that this is what I do remember. Wow. Will future stories of Florida be relatable only through Tiger Woods references?) But I digress. I ran from the hotel, down past the White House, on to the Mall, and eventually made my way to the Lincoln Memorial just as the park workers started to allow people on to the grounds. And I was the only people.<\/p>\n

I ran up the steps and stood dripping with sweat before the great man, just me and him. A look one side to read the Gettysburg Address <\/a>chiseled into the wall. A look to the other side to read his second inauguration address<\/a>. A turn to see the sun rising over the Washington Monument and the Capitol beyond. And then back to the run. I have never felt so \u201cone\u201d with my country. Not necessarily patriotic (which I think is best exemplified by Mel Brooks\u2019s 2000 year-old man\u2019s national anthem for his cave<\/a>) — but a feeling that I am the United States and the United States is me.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So we can argue and discuss the necessary roles of our government and its optimal size, but we should not forget that it, our government, is us. Trying to disassociate ourselves with a \u201cthe dern government screws up everything\u201d won\u2019t work. It\u2019s weak and cowardly. If something is screwed up, it\u2019s because we all screwed it up. And we all better get serious about fixing it. It won\u2019t be nice, and it won\u2019t be easy. You can ask Abraham Lincoln about that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, December 7, 2009 A few years ago I was in Washington DC in July. For those of you who don\u2019t know, DC is a swamp. Or rather, it was built in what was formerly (and, some would argue, is currently) a sweaty, steaming, thick, suffocating swamp. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-rapids-business-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}