I’m really lucky because for the past 40 years I’ve been able to work at any time, day or night. It can be the standard 9am to 5pm or anything else. There were many years when it was 9am to 1:30pm and then 8pm to midnight every day. All that matters is that it’s done on time and in truth, I usually get everything done early. It’s been great because I can go to a child’s–now grandchild’s–game or play, get to doctor’s appointments fairly easily, and occasionally have lunch with a friend (at least until the pandemic–now it’s FaceTiming) I’ve also been able to take the time to watch key House or Senate hearings, State of the Union addresses, and even impeachment. And thank heavens for C-SPAN where I didn’t have to hear the pundits blathering on. C-SPAN carries the actual people involved so I can come to my own conclusions. This past week, I worked in the morning and evening, but all afternoon I got out my knitting and watched the impeachment. But I know that I was one of the very few who did that.

So that brings me to my questions.

A) Why did relatively few people listen to, or watch, the events? Or for that matter things like the State of the Union speeches, Inaugural speeches, or prime-time presidential speeches. Is it because everyone is busy and don’t have time to watch or listen? That certainly makes sense. Are those thing boring? Sometimes even I think they are😒 but if you don’t listen, you won’t know what’s going on. Do people just really dislike the person who’s talking and would rather not hear him/her? Maybe. There are plenty of speakers who I don’t like, but I’ve found that it’s better to hear the ones I disagree with so that I can develop a solid, sensible disagreement rather than just saying that the person is an idiot.

B) If people are really just too busy, when they do have time, do they get information online or on TV or radio–or even (gasp) a newspaper? I hope so. And I hope that they take a look at a variety of news articles. Why? See question A.

C) Are people simply so DONE with the constant bickering of both sides that they don’t want to listen to any of it? Do people simply want Congress to get to work on what they were actually send there to do? Makes perfect sense. And I can understand why people just aren’t interesting in listening to hearings or speeches. They pontificate, not actually LISTEN to each other. All I can say is that if you want Congress to be held accountable for what has been done, and what hasn’t been done, you need to take a deep breath and find a little time to see what they’ve been up to.