To call this a "testy" General Assembly feels a bit generous. I think there's more than testiness going on, though that's how it seems to exhibit itself.
It was not a terribly happy day yesterday and ait was a late night last night. This day there are still 19 committees with business to report, and the prediction for the closing gavel tonight is midnight.
We have been in plenary for 90 minutes already, and the body has only made 3 or 4 decisions of substance. The rest has been spent in parliamentary procedure - whether we will limit debate, whether we will limit the length of time allowed to ask a question, whether we will take items separately or together.
One of my colleagues described this as seasickness - and we're all stuck on the boat together but the water outside is not a whole lot better. I think I'[d call it motion sickness. Lots of parliamentary strategizing and motion-making has been going on, on every side. This body has felt the need to vote on whether they can talk to each other, for heaven's sake. That says to me that the trust level among commissioners is very low.
Perhaps it is easier to argue about procedure than some of the difficult issues before us. But even if we prefer that, the hard issues are not going to go away.
The mood in the room today feels a bit nervous, somewhat foreboding. Testy? Maybe. Motion sickness? Probably. I wish, for God's sake, that we could find a way to conduct ourselves as the church and rise above the rampant partisanship which is all too prevalent across the country. We've got a lot more to do than to make ourselves motion-sick.
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