There is an apparent disconnect between those who govern from Harrisburg and their employees. That is, because,  regardless of what is done in Harrisburg, life goes on for the rest of us.

There is a budget battle going on in Pennsylvania. Yes, I know it's not unlike other places in the country, especially California. The big difference is that here in Pennsylvania, while Governor Ed Rendell and the state legislature thrust and parry, state workers aren't receiving their pay for work they've done. That's right, they have to stay on their jobs, or they could face disciplinary action. But they have no idea when they might get paid. 

My wife is a state employee. She is not happy about not getting paid. But she does it because she is, in effect, a good neighbor. She believes strongly in helping others, and believes strongly in what she does. It is, in a large measure, more than a paycheck to her.

That does not mean that we do not have economic needs.

Since this idiocy with the 2009-10 state budget began, the worry over who to pay and who to negotiate with has been eating away at us, who will be nice enough to defer their own needs. Car loan? Rent? Gas? Child care? Medicine? Food?

Ford has been nice enough to delay a payment. Can't do it more than once.

We haven't even gone to our landlord, since they have been less than cooperative in the past.

The few creditors we've gone to have been less than understanding. They act as if somehow this is all our doing, that we are not working, that we are less than deserving of any assistance they might be able to give.

A few of our relatives have come forward to help us out a little in the short term. But what if this goes on for another week or two? They don't have unlimited funds.

Friends have brought us clothes, offered rides to and from work. Our church gave us a box full of food.

Somehow political posturing doesn't fit in with this picture of real life.

Governor Rendell said he made deals with banks and credit unions for workers to get short-term loans. As for the loans - We don't, as do many of my wife's co-workers, qualify for short-term loans. Only those who are well-off, and who already have the resources, qualify for them. And these loans are not free. There is interest attached. In other words, the interest attached is actually a fee, or even a tax, assessed against state employees for being state employees.

It is insulting and degrading. According to the Book of Romans, wages earned are not a gift but an obligation.

Makes you wonder if these people really care about their employees.

For the first time in my life, and the life of our children, we've all had to take to a picket line to protest. Why we should be protesting for wages already earned is beyond me.

So as the game goes on in the General Assembly and the Governor's Mansion, their tactics have about as much connection with real life as does the MTV show "Real Life".

To them it's all a game.

To us, it's very much real life.