Beltway

December 31, 2009

Fighting the Beltway Mentality

By Beverly Gunn

I have heard many folks openly observe that all members of Congress must live in a different world than we live in. I have pondered this oft heard statement and I must concur. I have a direct sense and understanding of these, now particularly odious folks, with a story of life as we knew it around the Beltway of Washington.

Back in the late 1980's we were assigned to the D.C. area due to military posting. It was a cultural shock to the entire family. In part, the disparity was due to having lived in Germany for four wonderful years and being more accustomed to a quieter, less stressful lifestyle. While in Germany we enjoyed no loud noises on Sunday, closed stores, and simply a slower, easier lifestyle. When we hit the D.C. area, living went into warp speed. And not only that, we were surrounded by people, each of whom felt he was more important than the last person introduced, and we found a permeated self-centered mindset unlike anything we had ever seen anywhere in all our adventures around the world.

This was demonstrated as each person we met immediately gave us their job title, followed by the title of whatever their (significant other) did for a living. It was clear this was done to highlight personal importance. In part this amused me, but I soon came to understand this was only the beginning of what we learned was called Beltway Mentality. We discovered that this was an area where each person we met was competing to out-do everyone else, while also cultivating self-importance.

It was a singularly insular place where a certain framework of assumption included the concept that ideas formed here should be the gold standard for the nation and the rest of the world. Or worse, the assumption's further corollary was that if others did not think your way, then they must have a significant defect!

To keep our children from developing presumptuous, arrogant, and self-centered attitudes took immense diligence within our home. I found a good way myself by staying focused on keeping our home life balanced and by heading home to my parents' ranch in Texas and doing manual labor several times a year. There is nothing that keeps a person grounded more than doing manual labor.

I noticed few in Washington, D.C. ever did real manual labor. Seemed most lived what my old Daddy called privileged lives. I found that one trip home and working cattle or walking fence lines to look for fencing issues could reinvigorate me and keep me sound and balanced, so I went as often as I could afford to and we took the children home during long summers, for similar reasons.

The day we left Washington, I picked up the Washington Post newspaper on the lawn, before our car pulled out of the driveway, on our departure to Texas. Quickly scanning the news, we opened the comic page and the comic strip that jumped off the page was a strip about two sad-sack fellows called Frank and Ernest. These two hapless characters were depicted this day in the strip by standing at a crossroads. A signpost stood next to them to point directions. One sign pointed to Washington, D.C., and was so posted. The opposing signpost read, quite simply, "to the rest of the world." Never have I seen a thought so quite revealing and accurate.

I would say that this thought has been amplified in the years that have passed since we moved away to our ranch, living what we feel is a privileged, grounded, and wonderful life. And as I watch the spectacle of arrogance exuding from the halls of Congress I have drawn a conclusion: collectively, we need to give the seated legislators more grounding, by sending them packing and allowing these privileged fools the opportunity to do work in the real world and never give them another opportunity to force the rest of us into their truly warped and dysfunctional world.

Frankly, we'd just as soon live in a world where we work happily with our hands and find meaning in family, in church and community and the satisfaction of home and hearth. You see, outside of Washington, D.C., we have grounded lives and generally put the welfare of others before ourselves.

Beverly Gunn is a rancher living in East Texas. She appreciates hard work and believes her cattle are more intelligent and can be trusted more than our country's elected representatives. She is grateful to live and work on the land.

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