Between tests and projects for classes, and finals being just around the corner, I think most of us struggle to stay on top of our course loads.
It can be an effort to get everything done on time, and that can mean late nights of working at the last minute.
Personally, I have come to see cramming for a test the night before as something of a rite of passage in college life; an experience most of us have while we gain the maturity needed to prepare for the challenges we face the rest of our lives. For most of us, this is only a phase, something we’ll hopefully leave behind when we walk down the aisle at graduation.
That is why I find the recent behavior of the U.S. Congress so disturbing. On April 8, Republicans and Democrats narrowly avoided causing a shutdown of the federal government because of their inability to pass a simple spending bill.
Had they not succeeded, up to 800,000 soldiers, park officials, IRS agents and others employed directly by the federal government could have stopped being paid for doing their jobs, though we’d have continued to pay members of Congress for not doing theirs.
After watching the two sides bicker for the last month or so, I’d say both parties in Congress came off looking more like college students who put off actually doing their work until the very last minute, rather than the responsible, venerated professionals they are supposed to be.
I don’t want to imply that carrying out the task of operating the federal government on a day-to-day basis is trivial. I’m sure it’s not. Still, I can’t help but wonder about the quality of our elected representatives.
If student organizations, faculty departments and administration on campus can plan their budgets without self-destructing, why can’t those we elect to be the best among us do the same?
Thomas Sowell once said, “You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats, procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”
I think his words depict our government today, especially given how long it took Congress to merely agree on a plan. As of the deadline, they didn’t even have a bill that could be passed, leaving them no choice but to seek yet another extension.
As a student, I realize many of us still have a lot of growing up to do, myself included. That’s part of college life. However, there is something wrong when student organizations on campus seem just as, if not more, effective than Congress.
Clearly our government still has a lot of growing up left to do, too.