Dancing around issues

Government shutdown. Obamacare. Debt ceiling. Iran. Syria. Amnesty.

Let's count the ways our elected officials can find disagreement and continue to disregard the American people.

But as we all know, the list is growing daily.

As the great modern-day philosopher Rodney King once said, "Can't we all get along?"

By now, we should know the answer.

In the world of Obama -- who promised to redistribute wealth and fundamentally change this country -- any chances of compromise disappear in an instant.

The Shutdown Showdown will be followed by more in the months and years ahead. And though the American people are growing increasingly tired of this partisan rhetoric, less action in Congress is more often than not a good thing.

The president says he's through with this monetary discussion and wants to move on to more important issues.

And rest assured this administration -- with no concern for re-election -- has a laundry list of "progressive" ideas they hope to shove down the throats of each and every American.

Like gun control -- that hot button topic that drives liberals insane.

When we rearrange our economic furniture once again, the president says he wants to revisit amnesty and gun control.

Were he serious about gun control -- and we all know he's not -- the president would address the real problem -- inner city thugs with illegal handguns living in a culture of violence.

When the city of Chicago can publicly tout 300 or 400 handgun murders as a "drop in crime," we have a fundamental problem.

But discussions of gang violence with handguns doesn't raise the cash like hyped-up language on assault weapons. So we ignore the obvious to fan the flames.

Oh sure, let's upgrade background checks because that surely would have stopped the drive-by murders in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, etc.

Let's send children home from school who act out "shoot-'em-up" games.

But be quiet about urban murder at an alarming rate.

Let's monitor each and every gun show, but let's ignore the thug who sells stolen guns from the trunk of his car.

In other words, let's dance around the real issue and never address the real problem.

The one missing ingredient in all of these discussions is honesty.

And sadly, don't look for any of this to change.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.