The Government Shutdown is Over: My Thoughts on the Mental Health of Our Country

The shutdown is finally over. President Trump announced today at around 2:10pm EST that an agreement had been reached finally opening the government for at least three weeks. All federal workers will "very quickly" receive their back-pay for the time they worked without a paycheck.While remaining minimally political, I want to give my thoughts about the mental health of our country right now. Regardless of who you think is at fault for the government shutdown, the whole thing was a parade of dysfunction and reactive behavior. Imagine a family in which the parents regularly argue with each other and reach stalemates. As a response to these stalemates, the children are grounded and essentially held hostage until the parents come to an agreement. We would, without hesitation, say that that family needs serious help in order to function properly. We would immediately condemn any action that harmed the innocent children in the family. We would tell the parents to be adults and have a civil conversation in order to reach an agreement rather than putting the wellbeing of other people in the balance. Yet, somehow, when this happens in our government, we blame each other rather than holding the "parents" responsible. We take a side and paint the other side as the enemy. That is not how problems get solved; that's how fights, resentments, and even wars start.I'm glad that this unfortunate shutdown is over for now, but who knows what will happen in three weeks? All I can hope for is that we learn how to hold the people in charge accountable and insist that they behave like high-functioning adults and come to agreements while still taking care of their fellow countrymen and women. These are the people who are representing us and running this country. We should expect healthy, mature behavior from them no matter what. It doesn't matter if one side thinks the other side is being unreasonable. We need to listen to each other and try to come to an understanding before we paint the other side as irrational or evil. Nobody is going to be willing to hear an opposing opinion unless they feel heard first. So let's do what we would want to be done for us. Let's listen to the people we disagree with and try to understand where they're coming from, no matter how silly it may sound to us. It's the only way we'll ever stop being a dysfunctional family.