Sure, the economy sucks. Unemployment is at least 10.2% and, yes, if you include part-time workers who would rather have full-time jobs it may be over 17%. The government is showering our cash on Wall Street and burning through piles of our children and grandchildren’s money “saving” phantom jobs in Congressional Districts that don’t exist.
Oh yeah, and Congress is planning for a government take-over of our health care system, legislating higher energy prices and raising taxes. Sheesh, no wonder we’re feeling blue.
Well, not to worry, three-term Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) has found a solution: Stop Complaining So Much. Rep. Cleaver is currently circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter, seeking co-sponsors for House Concurrent Resolution 155, designating the day before Thanksgiving as the official “Complaint Free Wednesday.”
You see, as the Congressman explains:
From time to time, we all experience anxiety, frustration, stress, and regret. And often, we respond to these feelings with a criticism or a complaint. Regrettably, complaining keeps people stuck on current problems, inhibiting them from thinking constructively to find solutions. Research has also shown that complaining can be harmful to one’s emotional and physical health; relationships; and can limit professional career success.
We will set aside the question of whether Rep. Cleaver has discovered the risk of too much complaining only because his party’s legislative proposals are tanking in the polls. We do think it is interesting that he believes we should focus on “solutions” and “look forward”, subtle prods to enact new laws and programs.
We are torn on the larger question of whether Congress should even be wasting any time on such silliness as “official” days for this or that. On the one hand, it is surely a waste of taxpayer money and a decidedly unserious response to our challenges. On the other, though, every moment spent on things like this is a moment that isn’t spent re-regulating huge swaths of the economy.
We do know one thing, though: The Age of Pericles this ain’t.
Oh yeah, and Congress is planning for a government take-over of our health care system, legislating higher energy prices and raising taxes. Sheesh, no wonder we’re feeling blue.
Well, not to worry, three-term Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) has found a solution: Stop Complaining So Much. Rep. Cleaver is currently circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter, seeking co-sponsors for House Concurrent Resolution 155, designating the day before Thanksgiving as the official “Complaint Free Wednesday.”
You see, as the Congressman explains:
From time to time, we all experience anxiety, frustration, stress, and regret. And often, we respond to these feelings with a criticism or a complaint. Regrettably, complaining keeps people stuck on current problems, inhibiting them from thinking constructively to find solutions. Research has also shown that complaining can be harmful to one’s emotional and physical health; relationships; and can limit professional career success.
We will set aside the question of whether Rep. Cleaver has discovered the risk of too much complaining only because his party’s legislative proposals are tanking in the polls. We do think it is interesting that he believes we should focus on “solutions” and “look forward”, subtle prods to enact new laws and programs.
We are torn on the larger question of whether Congress should even be wasting any time on such silliness as “official” days for this or that. On the one hand, it is surely a waste of taxpayer money and a decidedly unserious response to our challenges. On the other, though, every moment spent on things like this is a moment that isn’t spent re-regulating huge swaths of the economy.
We do know one thing, though: The Age of Pericles this ain’t.
22 comments:
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver has a pretty good point here! He is right, America should calm down a bit. It is the fact that we worry to much that gets us all worked up about the economy. Of course its a very scary thing that there might me another recession, but we can't dwell on it. We should just look foward just as Mr.Cleaver said. With being calm an d peaceful I believe that our economy will work its way up to success, we just got to chill for right now. Great Insight Cleaver!
I don't believe that its wise for a congressman to tell people to stop complaining. Its almost as if hes asking Americans to back down and not care about what congress is doing. I think Americans should still complain, but show a little more optimism.
I think it's a good idea to have an official Complaint Free Wednesday, especially since the times are so trying. Time after time we always seem to find a reason to complain about something whether it is politics or personal matters. The thing is, Americans tend to be optimistic people and so when things don't go their way they tend to complain as many are doing now. If we keep complaining, things can't get any better and we should look to take action to better the situation. This first step of creating a complaint free attitude is an important first step to bettering ourselves.
This doesn't really sound like a good idea, though I suppose it's a pleasant thought. It just seems like Congress could be focusing on more important things because people are still going to complain even if it's a "no complaint" day. This is really just a waste of time. Maybe they should try fixing some of these problems instead of saying people shouldn't complain about them.
Ha! I would love to see this if it actually worked. I really believe that if people weren't able to complain for a day, it'd be kinda quiet in some classes since that's all some people do -- complain.
I think we all complain too much, but I think it's more like a habit for most people. I complain without really thinking about it, so I'm not sure how this would work or take any real effect. Some wouldn't know about it or others would, but not care. In theory, it's a good idea, but getting a nation of complainers to stop complaining is nearly impossible.
This would be fantastic if it applied to my orchestra class...stupid violins...always complaining...The general idea is a pretty good concept, and if everyone in the world could be optimistic like that all the time the world would be great...for a while. Exuberant amounts of optimism just gets annoying. I am a pessimist by nature and while listening to other people complain all the time is really annoying, listening to people being optimistic all the time is really annoying too. I should know, my mom is an optimist. It's a good idea, but I'm afraid that it won't amount to much.
i think it's funny he wants a complaint free wednesday. ha. i think it is a very simple way to look at all the situations and problems today.
I think that this day set aside for reflection on our attitude is refreshing. No, it does not itself accomplish much, but it does give people a chance to look at the big picture. If more of us attempted to live this way every single day, perhaps accomplishing things would become easier.
I think that it is interesting that Rep.Clever is interested in that type of stuff for the people. Yes, its time that can be spent on something more serious, like economy problems...but its cool that he actually cares about the solutions that can be done about it, because unemployment is a serious problem right now.
I agree with him because complaining gets on my nerves. Instead of always complaining for things we should use that energy to create solutions.
This article is obviously very opinionated. Yet, i agree. All government should be doing is trying to help ALL of America.
I think that this is a wonderful idea, and hope that it is spread through out the country. Sure this might not fix our economic system what so ever, for 24 hours, people will act like civil human beings...that'll be a nice change.
I think that in the end, this will be a tremendous benefit to everyone.
People who complain about complainers are hypocrites. A day without complaining would be a strange day. I don't know if it's what the country really needs right now.
"Complaint Free Wednesday" is a wonderful idea. Criticism and complains does often feed on feelings of people making said comments as opposed to the triggers they are claiming to be at fault. Everyone should take that into consideration in every aspect of his life because the less someone complains to other people the more it dampens their mood. When someone else is in a bad mood it triggers them to do the same thing to other people and it becomes a dreadful cycle.
Haha this Rep. Cleaver is a witty man. He appears to knows the all the ins and outs of politics and this "Complain-Free Day" idea is kind of brilliant, in my opinion. In terms of politics, of course. As we've learned in class, politics is who gets what, where, and how. This House Resolution goes to reinforce politics as we know it. Who? Democrats..get what? Healthcare bill, other bills passed..where? In the nation's capital of course, regarding the whole country..and how? Through the support of the people. It's priceless. Though the man writing this article is highly critical of the current administration, you have to give him credit for putting his hand on the issue. This resolution IS indeed with intents of getting democratic bills passed. But so what? It's not like it's unexpected. It's POLITICS! And he can't deny that the resolution states some truths. It is completely true that harping on the way things are and the dismal statistics, being bitter and self-righteous, as the author of this article is, does not solve ANYTHING! The idea of the current administration is change. They're trying to the greatest of their abilities to make things better, to change the sorry state that they inherited the nation in, less than a year ago. By negating and criticizing every action they make is just letting things stay the same. And what does that solve?
Though I think a day with no complaining is a good idea, it is defintely not what out Congress should spend time focusing on. The reason we have a complaining problem is beause a lot of people have a lot to complain about. 17% of Americans are not happy with their job situation, that's almost 1/5th of everyone living in this country. Congress leaders should be happy to have jobs and can agree amongst themselves not to complain, but while they are being paid to fix this country's problems, they should focus on real, life changing issues.
This guy cannot be a congressmen. He's telling the people to find solutions for the problems that congress caused by passing too many bills. He thinks that a ridiculous day like this is gonna help the economy? Just cause he makes this day, is it gonna give people their jobs back? If he just spent that much time that he put into coming up with this day and spent it helping the people with ACTUAL problems, then he might be doing something worth while. I do like the last part of that though. Where he says that hopefully coming up with days like this will help the congress stay away from making our congress worse. That seems like a pretty good plan to me.
A day without complaining..wow.
The day there isn't a complaint in our government will be one of the ages. I think this Emanuel Cleaver fellow has a good little thought, but his expectations are pretty unrealistic. One day is not going to significantly, if at all, change the primary situations at hand. These politicians feel strongly about their stance on specific issues and a "day off" will not, more than likely, alter their opinions in the slightest. Everyone does need to be reminded to just breathe every once in a while, but I do not believe setting wednesday aside for no complaints will have noteworthy results.
I agree with the congressman, that complaining inhibits productivity. Yes our economy is in a slump but sitting around complaining about it does nothing. If we used all the brain power that is used to complain we could come up with a dozen solutions to almost every problem that we are complaining about. I don’t know if we need an official day for it, I think it should be a daily goal to improve our complaining scale.
Is it April 1st already? Dumbest thing I've seen today, I hope his office gets a ridiculous amount of complaints on Wednesday. Either he doesn't take his job very seriously or he's a very good troll, I'm thinking the latter.
I think that Congressman Cleaver is merely trying to be cute with this request. There's no harm in making a request such as this, but it isn't the most professional move. This is a fairly soft gesture, and-- as stated in the article-- it brings no real solution for the problems we face as a nation. The part about it being a waste of taxpayer money is just pathetic; what funding would this actually require? That being said, having this movement take place the day before Thanksgiving could make for two very interesting days in the news. Those political analyst will be ready to explode come Friday.
Although, I believe that complaining about tHings is annoying and stupid, I think that this particular situation is something that should be complained about. If we stop complaining and let it go, then it would not seem as important to get done.
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