Recent events in our nation’s capital have surely inspired Americans around the country, if not people around the world, to wonder, “What the heck is going on?”

There is such a thing as governmental gridlock. Bureaucratic red tape. The federal run-around. But the governmental shutdown that could not be avoided yesterday is a violation of everything a government should be doing for its constituency in a democratic society.

The shutdown will affect millions of Americans as the following services are affected:

* New Social Security applications cannot be processed.

* Passports will not be issued, except in emergencies.

* National park visitor centers and monuments will be closed.

* More than 800,000 federal employees were anticipated to have been sent home yesterday.

* As much as 40 percent of the federal work force is estimated to be idle beginning yesterday.

The shutdown became reality after President Clinton and Republican leaders were unable to agree on a budget deal after late-night talks on Monday. With no resolution and no funding authority to keep the U.S. government operating, the first governmental shutdown occurred in five years.

The worst part of this government shutdown is that this could have been avoided.

For several months now polls and studies have come out have shown that the majority of the American people have opposed the GOP’s recommended budgetary cuts in areas such as education environmental provisions, as well as raising Medicare premiums.

It was because of these areas on the Republican’s twin spending and borrowing bills that President Clinton vetoed them, stating that, “I cannot and will not under pressure sign a budget that will rob the American dream from millions of Americans.”

Republican leaders were as committed to their position as Clinton is to is. Newt Gingrich, the Republican House Speaker, said in response to the White House’s refusal to sign their measures into law, “They’re opposed to cutting spending … our goal is to balance the budget and keep the government operating…”

How ironic. Gingrich’s comments are laughable, considering that the he is saying the cause of the government shutdown is his “motivation” to keep the government operating. Seems like that isn’t a very strong motivator, considering that priority fell by the wayside rather quickly.

So here we sit. Our Congress, unwilling to pass a budget acceptable to not only the White House, but to the American people, on one side of the table.

Our president, committed to protecting the “American dream”by not giving in to what amounts to political blackmail, with Americans as the pawns.

The shutdown can’t be avoided; it’s already occurred. But our political representatives must now make this issue more than a priority. This debate must be resolved as quickly as possible, As in, an agreement should have been reached yesterday.

It is shameful that the single largest entity of the world, the supposed model for democratic nations in the world, the government that is supposed to be as close to a perfect system of representation as humanly possible, fails to operate at 100 percent efficiency because of political squabbling.

Knock it off, Washington. The only thing you’re doing is making yourselves look like fools. It’s the rest of us that will be doing the real suffering.