Time for a reboot?
I recently struggled with my laptop and my printer. They stopped “talking” to each other. So after many tries with gentle tweaks, I finally gave in, unplugged them both, went to a deep shutdown and a reboot (which ultimately worked).
It occurred to me that complex systems can only begin to function again after a shutdown, pause and reboot. Today politics in American society is definitely a complex system, so my thinking led me to the idea of not shutting the government down without pay, but pausing Congress — putting them in a timeout — the elected members and their staffs for 60 or 90 days (and maybe longer). Send them back to their districts to face their constituents face to face, then sit with their peers to come up with a realistic, doable plan for Congress to return to the podium and carry out their responsibilities. The concept may sound intriguing but how to execute it escapes me.
The point is what has transpired and is (or is not) going on now certainly is not working! So how do we change the dynamic? I am perplexed and frustrated but I really get anxious when I think about my 30-something son and daughter and more so for my two 2-year-old granddaughters. Time for a reboot?