Look at any poll out there today and the number one priority of John Q. Public is jobs. Congress, especially the Republican contingent, has not really gotten the message that jobs are the most important thing on our collective minds.
Just how far out of touch with the American people is Congress?
Congressional gold medals were granted to Glenn, a former U.S. Senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth, and the crew of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission: Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon; Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., who piloted the lunar module and was the second person to walk on the moon; and their command module pilot, Michael Collins.
Now I am a self-proclaimed space nut. I grew up with the Apollo missions, I remember standing on Jacobson avenue with my neighbors when I was eight years old watching Apollo-Soyuz orbit overhead. I remember getting up early on Sunday April 12th, 1981 to watch the liftoff of STS-1 (Shuttle Columbia) with my dad. On the following Tuesday I was in the Library at Marquette [O'Keefe] Middle School over my lunch hour to watch the shuttle land in the California desert.
On January 28th, 1986 I had just come off duty in Wildflecken, Germany and saw the news on the dayroom TV that Challenger had had a, "[M]ajor malfunction." As they replayed the disaster on AFN (Armed Forces Network) a large crowd had gathered to watch the shuttle explode. When the news was over we headed to the Mess Hall for the quietest meal I had ever eaten. No one spoke.
The Columbia disaster was surreal; I remember watching debris falling on a path across Texas. It brought the powerful memories of the Challenger disaster back to me.
I grew up wanting to be an astronaut. I have even sent my resume into NASA for the astronaut program, and I am still waiting for the rejection letter saying I have the wrong stuff to be an astronaut.
That all being said: WHAT IN THE HELL IS CONGRESS THINKING? While I list Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins and Glenn as personal heroes and would give my left arm just to talk to them for five minutes I don't understand why in the hell Congress is taking time giving them gold medals. I look around this country and I see one hell of a lot of people suffering, I see people who don't know where their next meal is coming from. People are losing their homes and yet Congress felt it was more important to give out medals for something that happened 40+ years ago than to put some effort into putting Americans back to work.
Now I doubt that the House and Senate leadership read what I have to say. I am not even a pimple on their collective asses. But just in case, "CONGRESS! Get your shit together. No more handing out awards to make you feel good. Start working and creating JOBS. Let me spell that out for you J-O-B-S, not awards, not investigations, none of this deficit reduction bullshit...JOBS. That is what the American public wants, get that through your heads!"