By Ray Smock

The Capitol dome is one of the great symbols of freedom, democracy, and representative government in the United States and it is a world-wide icon of government by the people. It is altogether fitting and proper (to borrow a phrase from Lincoln), to restore this great symbol and preserve it in all its glory for future generations.  This is a massive restoration process requiring a colossal system of scaffolding twenty-five stories high which is composed of 75,000 parts and 52 miles of steel pipes.  The work will take two years and cost $60 million. The restoration is expected to last for 100 years.

But what are we doing to restore what goes on under this magnificent dome?  There are no quick fixes or dollar amounts we can attach to this larger problem. There are no sandblasters, welders, painters, engineers, and architects who can fix a dysfunctional Congress trapped in hyper-partisanship and blinding ideology.  What has happened to Congress when threats of impeachment and government shutdown follow every major disagreement with the President?  This is not governance; it is warfare, with the U.S. Constitution and the American people, not partisan officeholders, as the ultimate victims.

Our current crisis of governance did not occur overnight any more than the Capitol dome began to rust overnight. But neglect of cast iron leads to rust, and neglect of what Congress is supposed to be and do under the Constitution leads to another kind of rot that is so much harder to fix and far more dangerous to the wellbeing of an entire nation.

By Ray Smock

Today is Veterans Day and I acknowledge with deep gratitude the service of the men and women of all our armed forces whether on active duty or in the reserves.  Veterans Day is a federal holiday set aside for the purpose of showing our respect for military service to our nation.  We also have another day, Memorial Day, which we set aside to remember those who died in all the wars that have been fought in the history of our country.  Today I combine both of these holidays to remember one soldier. I learned yesterday morning of the passing of Tomas Young, who was the subject of a remarkable 2007 documentary Body of War.

Tomas was a young man of 24 who enlisted to fight the terrorists who brought down the Twin Towers in New York City, attacked the Pentagon, and downed Flight 93 in Pennsylvania on that tragic day of 9/11/2001. He thought he was going to fight in Afghanistan, but found himself deployed to Iraq instead. His spine was severed by a shot from an AK-47 rifle within days of his arrival in Iraq.  He came home a paraplegic and his injuries worsened with complications until he lost the use of all his limbs and was paralyzed from the neck down.