Rosh Hashanah Woes

So yesterday was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year (Sept. 30). For this holiday it is custom to focus on cleansing one's life of sin in preparation for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In institute last night (where I was reminded of these things) my teacher mentioned how Christians and Jews have many similarities and because of this it can be benefitial to be aware of Jewish customs. I find it fascinating the way other people worship and I try to learn as much as possible from other cultures; however, this is not why I titled this entry "Rosh Hashanah Woes".

My complaint is with Congress for having the nerve to take a day of vacation right in the midst of the greatest financial crisis the nation has faced since the great depression, and possibly the second greatest financial crisis in the history of the US. I don't just think they should have worked because it was just a Jewish holiday, if this was in December I would expect them to work on Christmas also (maybe not Christmas morning though). The are the leaders of this nation and they were elected and are paid by our money to serve the people, why then are they taking a couple days off for a holiday that most of them probably don't even understand let alone recognize themselves. They should be working non stop until this issue is resolved. Although perhaps the best thing for them to do is to leave Washington and do nothing, the current Congress doesn't exactly instill confidence and hasn't really accomplished anything of note in the past four years, and what's more, who's to say that their "answer" won't cause more problems.

Another thing that annoys me is how even now members of Congress are playing politics. John McCain suspended his campaign to try to help in Washington by doing his job and working out a solution to this problem (I don't think he had to announce to the world he was 'suspending his campaign', if it was purely altruisticly motivated and not to look more presidential to get a boost in the poles why didn't he just go and not announce it, perhaps there are logistical intricacies that I don't understand). The Democratic Congress then announced that they had an agreed upon bill that would pass the vote when in reality they didn't. The vote came and failed by about 20 votes (which could have easily been covered by Democrats in Congress if they all agreed on their pork-filled bill) and the Democrats and the media lumped the blame on McCain for getting in the way while trying to be some cowboy riding in to save the day.

These elections are really starting to bug.

Go BYU!!!! (ranked 8th in the nation)