October 4, 2008 | Filed under: Because They Pay Me, Good Things Come to Those Who Are Impatient Whiners

You know that $700 billion financial bailout package the House failed to pass last Monday?  That the Senate voted out on Wednesday?  That the House DID pass on Friday and the President nearly immediately signed into law?  Well, somewhere in those 400-and-some-odd pages are about five pages dedicated to my organization’s top priority.  A policy we’ve been working on getting enacted for nearly two years.  (To be fair, that’s pretty decent turnaround time.  Some groups have fought for policy changes for better than a decade, without success.)  A policy which commands the attention of much of the staff and sucks all the air out of the room whenever we consider tackling other projects.

One 15-minute vote, and just like that, the whole world changed. 

We high-fived and hugged and drank champagne and went to the roof deck to smoke cigars.  Somebody thought to order pizza.  When we ran out of booze, we went to the bar downstairs.

My role isn’t to be the office cynic — someone else has that title wrapped up — but I am, at best, “cautiously optimistic” when it comes to this sort of stuff.  I know the many, many, many ways in which things can go wrong, so I take a firm stance of not counting one’s chickens before they’re hatched.  Thus, even yesterday morning I was unconvinced this bill would actually pass with our policy intact.  Blame it on my conservative Midwestern upbringing, where even deserved celebrating is frowned upon, let alone premature celebration. 

It’s slowly sinking in, but I don’t think it will be real for a week or two or maybe not for another couple of months, when our Board sits down to identify next year’s priorities and we have to find something new to put in that #1 slot.  It’s somewhat frightening to realize that the issues I work on are leading contenders, but that’s a good problem to have.

1. kat says:
   

   The whole damned plan scares me, especially since I didn’t get to read the 400 page document that outlines what’s really going on. It’s a challenge to feel confident that what is right for most of the country and the economy will actually be what is set into place. Basically, it’s a challenge for me to feel secure about anything coming out of Washington. Yes, paint me cynical. I do wish you luck on whatever your part of this puzzle is. I hope whatever it is, it’s for the best for everyone and if that’s the case, then I hope things roll out just as you’d like them to. Good luck. I agree though, I’d probably hold off on the champagne and cake celebration for just awhile.

   Good to see you online. Take care.

   October 5th, 2008 at 1:34 pm