Among the greatest gifts a republic can give its citizens is an open mind. In order to be effective voters, people must constantly expose themselves to new ideas and thoughts. They must ward away intellectual stagnancy and constantly push to better themselves. By strengthening the mind, we can strengthen the nation. At least, that’s the idea.

It seems like very few of the students on campus were aware of, or at least talking about, the impending government shutdown before news of it hit social media at midnight on Tuesday. Then, it seemed as if the news was impossible to escape, with shutdown jokes and opinion articles flooding everyone’s Twitter and Facebook feeds.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the uproar over the shortage of Macklemore tickets and asked why this was the only thing Wash. U. was capable of getting mad about. Despite an incredibly intelligent and passionate student body, Wash. U. seemed to me to be incapable of organizing and uniting.

The past two years have seen two high-profile Congressional battles over public spending, the first in 2011 over raising the debt ceiling and the second in 2012 and the early hours of 2013 over the so-called fiscal cliff.

Russ Carnahan, Democratic Congressman for Missouri’s third district—which contains Washington University, spoke to students and community members Wednesday night as part of an event organized by Wash. U. Students for Israel.

On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., was escorted off the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for wearing breaking House rules by wearing a hoodie while the body was in session. But even though he broke the rules, Rep. Rush did the right thing.

In an act of unusual brilliance this week, the U.S. Senate passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a law to bar members of Congress and their staff from acting on private information in regards to trading financial stocks.

Christina Romer, former chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, served as the keynote speaker at Washington University’s Livable Lives Initiative’s first public event.

We received word last week of plans circulating in the House of Representatives to cut funding for NPR and PBS in order to close the budget gap. For some House members, these cuts seem to represent a general sense of responsibility about the federal budget. We feel that this justification is flawed.