The State of The Union (Editorial)

Sign at the National Zoo alerting would-be visitors that the zoo and all Smithsonian Museums are closed because of the government shutdown.

Consider:

► Arkansas Federal Credit Union makes dozens of interest-free loans to members missing paychecks because of the partial government shutdown, and 14 Arkansas banks offer special loan terms.

► Hundreds of food inspectors in the state work without pay.

► The Little Rock Cares Initiative, which began by seeking to help Transportation Security Administration workers at Clinton National Airport, collects more than 25,000 pounds of food for federal workers and contractors.

► A Federal Employee Emergency Fund is established through the Arkansas Community Foundation to help federal workers in Little Rock with expenses such as child care and medicine.

► A company that manages government-subsidized housing for the poor in Newport reverses course and tells renters they can pay their normal rents instead of having to somehow come up with full payment at the last minute in the wake of the shutdown.

► The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas cancels the federal grand jury for January because he doesn’t have the money to transport witnesses and pay other expenses.

► Arkansas residents eligible for food stamps get their February benefits early to ensure they don’t go without food.

► Most employees at the National Center for Toxicological Research facility in Jefferson are furloughed or partially furloughed.

► Chief District Judge Brian S. Miller halts all civil cases involving federal attorneys in the Eastern District of Arkansas because of a lack of funding.

We don’t need a presidential speech to tell us what the state of the union is. It’s broken but held together, at least in Arkansas, by individual and communal acts of goodwill, acts that we salute and appreciate. But goodwill is not government. And it can’t last forever.