Explore any part of the vast expanse of the Western United States, and you are sure to stumble across a plaque affixed to the corner of stone stairs leading to a pathway through a national park or monument. You will no doubt get similar unexpected knowledge from a sign hanging on the wall of a library in small-town America.
Things Americans take for granted, many of them, were financed by the federal government, built by U.S. workers, grateful for the Depression-era lifeline provided by the Works Progress Administration. Many of the roads, bridges and sidewalks that crisscross cities in every part of the country share the same provenance — the federal government everyone complains about.
It all works, somehow, until a shutdown, the latest version of which ended almost before it began. And boy did everyone breathe a sigh of relief when they learned the (much maligned) post office would keep sending and delivering through rain and hail, sleet and shutdown.
