Rear Admiral Barry C. Black (RET) is the chaplain of the United States Senate who spoke these words in his morning invocations in the Senate at the beginning of the Government Shutdown:

• “May they remember that all that is necessary for unintended catastrophic consequences is for good people to do nothing.”  Tuesday 10/01/13, the morning of the Government Shutdown

• “Unless you empower our lawmakers, they can see the ideal but not reach it; they can know the right but not do it; they can comprehend their duty but not perform it.”  10/02/13

• “We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness and our pride. Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable.”  10/03/13

• “Remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism. Forgive them the blunders they have committed.”  10/04/13

Thank you, Admiral Black. You are a good person who did something.