When the vote to reopen the government ended in the House of Representatives last night a woman staffer grabbed a microphone and as she was rudely escorted from the hall she imparted to the crowd snippets of her religious beliefs along with epithets against the Freemasons. When the overseers of an institution act like inmates it is not surprising that the inmates become the normal ones.

In the context of threats to burn down our home because the grass on the front lawn is too high, the unnecessary game of Russian Roulette, the un-Sparticus-like insurrectional side show with no popcorn, the silly circle twerck, the infamous act of extortion---in fact, the whole sixteen day un-deodorized full monty peep show---Dianne Reidy might have been the only sane one, the sober canary who rightfully ended the shutdown debacle and ushered her overseers out before they could do any more damage to themselves or the country.

I am not sure why Dianne Reidy chose the Freemasons and I didn't know too much about them even though my Dad was a 32 degree Mason and Shriner.( I carelessly link all Masons together.)  One night a week he and his buddies would drop their poker game at the Elks Club and meet in secret at the Masonic Lodge and when I once asked him what the purpose of a little red pin on his lapel was, he said, "I got that for telling the truth."

My Dad's Masonic ring is stashed somewhere, and while it is gold and has a diamond and rubies I wasn't sure if it had any value and spurred by the comments of Ms. Reidy, I googled the Freemasons only to find out that there is a rowdy, somewhat Christian-based war of words and picketing campaign against the Freemasons. I'm surprised that Dr. Ben Carson didn't use the Freemasons in his Obamacare analogy instead of "Slavery". It seems that in addition to subverting our Constitution, controlling the banks, and instigating the Ku Klux Klan, the Freemasons are the arch enemies of Christendom itself. No doubt Obamacare is worse than the Freemasons.

What I can remember about the Shriners is my Dad marching in his Fez down Main Street(the Muslims were just gaining a foothold in Xenia) and that the organization seemed to do some good for others, like staging a Circus (that's relevant) and rounding up "underprivileged" kids to take there. On one such occasion we drove in Dad's 2-door Pontiac to the "other side" of town to pick up some kids. I was about ten and because we lived out in the country I had not spent a lot of time over "there". We were looking at about a four hour drive over to Columbus, my Dad was stashing a bunch of kids in the back seat (no seat belts), and a gangly black teenage girl about twice my size sidled in next to me on the front seat. I slid over under the steering wheel and out of the car, telling my Dad I really didn't want to sit next to her. He took my arm and said, "Get your ass back in there". My Dad had that adult side to him and I might have learned something about manners, and race. I had one of the best times of my life.

I have to admit that some of the really sad things about the shutdown spectacle were the overt racial ploys of some folks. The waving of the Confederate flag in front of the White House and the hideous language used there was unfortunately not surprising. Nor was it surprising that demagogues like the junior senator from Texas, a beneficiary of Goldman Sachs, did not condemn such regrettable actions of others. I suppose I was fortunate not to have been subjected to prejudice in my family growing up. I never heard a racial slur from either of my parents. My Dad was born in a dirt-floored cabin in Pike County, Kentucky and had no formal education. His only issue was with the Catholics who could go to confession---something I linked to some of his nefarious activities at the Elk's Club. Both my parents worked for Jewish business owners, one of whom helped my Dad lift himself from factory assembly worker to successful real estate developer. I never knew that Jews should be excluded from anything until I got to college and partook of some secret elections.(I cannot reveal any heritage in the Freemason movement).

Going forward I do have some positive feelings. We older folks are phasing out and being replaced by younger ones who hopefully will not view their own resentments and life regrets as having any relation to any nefarious group, be it the Freemasons or other racial groups. I have hope that poor children who didn't ask to be brought into this world will not be used as pawns in a scandalous political exercise.

I hope that at least for the short term the "right wing" in Washington won't repeat the self-demeaning spectacle of shutting down the government and pushing our country and the world into an economic and financial crises for the selfish reasons of getting their own way and protecting their own government largesse. As for Dianne Reidy, the quizzical commentator of the strange spectacle of adults congratulating themselves for not burning down their own house, I hope that she will live a free and prosperous life.