Happy Fourth of July

As yet another Holiday approaches, this one rife with symbolism and a rising Patriotic furor, it becomes more and more common for people to include in their greeting or concluding conversational remarks something to the effect of "Have a great 4th!"
As if, you know, they did not wish their conversational partners to have a great 3rd or 5th...only 4th. Of course, many people WON'T have a great 5th...as they lay around in hung-over stupors saying, "I am never drinking again" in the midst of a conversation on how much they hate the dishonesty of politicians.
That is one of the great myths of modern life. People, myself included, make numerous jokes and allusions to the incredible levels of dishonesty from the elected officials on the Hill. The problem is, those people are no more and no less honest than any of the rest of us. They actually are a farily accurate representation, a decent cross-section, of "real Americans". Perhaps on average a little wealthier, but in terms of ethics, integrity, and honesty...I have to say they bear a very real resemblance to the "average American".
How many times have you heard your friends/neighbors/coworkers talk about beating a ticket, slacking off at work, cheating on their taxes, taking advantage of questionable opportunities...
and think about this. I seriously doubt that even one Congressman or Senator set out to be a poor one. Not one ever said, "It is enough to have gotten in, now I am going to do a lousy job." It is perhaps scarier that yes, many of them actually ARE doing the best jobs they can. It isn't their fault they are idiots. Well, it might be, I have no clue how much effort they put into their schooling.
I will say the same thing for the talking heads. Not once has Larry King, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michael Kinsley, etc., ever thought, "I am a famous media personality. I am mailing it in for the rest of my career." Doesn't change the outcome. The next intelligent thing Larry King breaks loose with might also, by amazing coincidence, be the first, but he isn't trying to be an idiot. He is just good at it.
I have often been amazed by that dichotomy. At every job I have been at I have been fortunate to, for the most part, be working with people doing their best to do a good job. We take pride in what we do. When I worked in fast food, we took pride in providing "quality" (actually, we bought into it...the "fresh" beef of the B-ville philosophy, the secret sauce, etc) food quickly. We worked hard to do the job quickly and correctly, we took pride in leaving at night with the place cleaner and better prepared for the next morning than was ever thought possible. When I worked at the lumber yard it was more of the same...we worked hard to get loads out quickly, to provide correct information to the customers, to be as helpful as possible. Doesn't mean we were all good at it...but we worked hard and it and took pride in it.
What I am saying is the average "American" DOES take pride in their work and job, no matter how menial or important that job is and the Congress is no different. And just like the high school drop-out flipping burgers, some are just better than others...but all are perceived to be terrible. Okay, so some of them...most of them...ARE terrible, they don't MEAN to be.