The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart. It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office. If another Gunpowder Plot had been discovered half an hour before the lighting of the match, nobody would have been justified in saving the parliament until there had been half a score of boards, half a bushel of minutes, several sacks of official memoranda, and a family-vault full of ungrammatical correspondence, on the part of the Circumlocution Office.
I have been reading Little Dorrit over the past few weeks and, despite it's dark undertone, I have been really enjoying it. Particularly striking to me is the concept of the Circumlocution Office (Dickens' satirical name for the Government of that day). In the story the government sends the hero round and round, driving him from pillar to post in hopes of getting justice, but justice was never gained. No one in office accepted responsibility for anything, he was always referred to someone else.
It is with increased fascination that I have watched the working of our government over the past several months. It is a fascination mixed with curiosity and a sense of the unbelievable; the America that I know and love, the America that my parents and grandparents knew, the America that countless thousands of brave men have died to defend, is fast disappearing. It seems that the voice of the people is being suppressed under a hand that is getting heavier every day; it is the hand of an ever increasing and more powerful government. Mommy describes it as a nightmare where some impending terror looms over you and all you can give is a silent scream.
If Dickens were alive today, I am sure that our government would provide him with a smorgasbord of personalities to caricature. America, the essence of liberty and example to the world, is fast becoming the representation of "How not to do it". Laws are being proposed which would do nothing, but halt the wheels of progress in America and create a Circumlocution Office out of our health care and justice systems and any other system which they can possibly control or create.
In spite of this, however, I have not lost all hope for my beloved country. I know that the King of Kings is on the throne and His rule is sovereign and just. Even if this country or world in which I live should fall apart (and it will some day), my security is in my eternal home. I know that any prayer I make to my heavenly Father flies unhindered to heaven. Any trouble or injustice on earth is observed by His all seeing eye. Resting in that confidence, I will pray diligently for my country and trust God to work out His perfect will.
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