The Ass and His Shadow by Aesop
A traveler hired an Ass to convey him to a distant place. The day being intensely hot, and the sun shining in its strength, the Traveler stopped to rest, and sought shelter from the heat under the Shadow of the Ass. As this afforded only protection for one, and as the Traveler and the owner of the Ass both claimed it, a violent dispute arose between them as to which of them had the right to the Shadow. The owner maintained that he had let the Ass only, and not his Shadow. The Traveler asserted that he had, with the hire of the Ass, hired his Shadow also. The quarrel proceeded from words to blows, and while the men fought, the Ass galloped off.
In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.
As the American people and their elected representatives quarrel over the shadow of the U.S. Government, the Republic, which has given us shade from the constellation of less beneficent political systems, is slowly moving away from us.
We can argue about the size of government, the reach of the surveillance state and the extent of the administrative state, but at the end of the day we the people are responsible for the whole mess. We own it, we’ve borrowed heavily to grow it and we’re now faced with the challenge of figuring out where to go from here.
The course we’ve been on is clearly not sustainable!
Gregory Hake 
Giving thanks for what is, opens the way for a heightened perspective.
Oft times, the quarrelling is maintained and the state worsened because the assumption of responsibility is seen as losing.
Wise is one who refuses to quarrel, and assumes responsibility regardless of percieved loss. An added plus to this stance is such an one sees that what is lost wasn’t worth a moments quarrel anyway. Nothing of truth can be lost, altered or gotten by human opinion, regardless of the quantity or quality of the votes backing it.
Those who square their experience to truth, are certainly needed here and now.
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It is good to consider how we individually can make the changes for the good of the whole.
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Good analogy! I can’t believe our elected officials could look at one of the latest approval rating polls and not immediately sit down to address this stand still we’re at. Our next election I’m hoping we can remember this and vote in responsible representation who are not tied to the part system but actually will do the right thing. There is another route we could start anew beginning with votes of no confidence for the officials that seem more concerned about their egos then the job they were hired to do. I guess the bottom line may be, have we the public, become too lazy to actually take the responsibility to make the necessary changes ?
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