As the new year begins and the old year ends, we begin another transition in our lives. We make our individual resolutions, our resolutions as couples and as a family. Some of us no longer make resolutions because we have failed to keep, meet or come close to achieving our goals.

To make a resolution is to make a firm decision to do or not to do something. When we make resolutions, we take an action, or at least we say we are going to take an action, to solve a problem, a dispute, or contentious matter. We hope to have “peaceful” resolutions with others so that we can come to a satisfactory agreement, one that will benefit both parties involved, and if necessary, to the benefit of others that we advocate for or who will also benefit from the resolution of the problem.

As I write this article, our government is trying to resolve the issue of building “a wall” that the President of the USA wants to build at the price of five million dollars. Americans are looking at a government shutdown for their new year in 2019.  Both the House and the Senate put the battle to rest on December 27 until New Year’s Eve. 

During that time, many Americans will be wondering if they will receive their government checks, their medical insurance and even their tax returns in January 2019. Meanwhile, the members of our governing body will be relaxing in their homes, with their families, secure in the fact that their life will go on as it always has gone on, because what happens to the “regular” American really doesn’t affect their personal lives. 

They don’t receive Medicare, Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, food stamps or food from the food pantries. They don’t ride the city bus, subway, Main Stream buses for the disabled or need free rides to the hospital, medical or psychiatric centers. They don’t wait once a month for their SSI, SSDI, Retirement Benefits and welfare checks. They aren’t on the budget for their gas, electric or any utility bill. They don’t use free government phones with two-hundred and fifty free minutes and texts so that they can keep in contact with their families or be able to call 911 for an emergency. The real truth is that they not only are unaffected by a government shutdown but they don’t really care if there is a government shut-down.

It is well known that the President doesn’t care about the poor, minorities, seniors and people with disabilities, based on his own statements out of his mouth. His only concern at this point is to win. What is it he wants to win? He wants to win in the battle between him, the House and Senate, and between anyone who doesn’t give him what he wants, which is a wall. Forget that as of this writing there have been two children die in his concentration camps. Yes, concentration is the word that I’m using at this time.

Concentration camps existed in Germany as of 1933 and were detention centers for Jews, political prisoners and other perceived enemies of the Nazi state. At this time, Americans, on the orders of their leader, are holding in detention individuals, families with children, pregnant women and babies, in harmful conditions that are causing illness, separation of children from their parents and a blatant lack of medical care. 

Why? Because our leader perceives these people as “enemies” of our country. Yet this same leader believes the Russians are our friends and that he has a “love” relationship with Korea’s leader.

I believe that one of the best resolutions that we can have as a country is to find a way to eliminate the fear that has arisen in American. As a nation we need a sense of unity in our government body.

We need to find a way for the focus to be put back on making Americans feel safe again in regard to their everyday needs being met, in regard to being led by a government that looks at their immediate needs first. A leader that is more caught up in leading the nation to a successful victory instead of his personal victory in regard to winning a five-million-dollar contract for his business associates, who will benefit from the contracts that he has probably already promised them in exchange for helping him win the Presidential election. 

Because let's face it, the only people who are going to benefit from his five-million dollar “job” is corporate America and not the people of America. In 2019, Americans are at the whim of the resolution of the President and government body. Let’s pray for a successful ending that will benefit us all.