From the executives at Citigroup who will get 60% of their obscene bonuses even after the bailout to the local vet who refused to euthanize a dog because the owner couldn't afford it, I'm wondering if all the hype over hope and change has failed to penetrate our thick skulls!On the "tell me something I don't know" segment of the Chris Matthews show, Bob Woodward said the issues of unpaid taxes were not over for Obama appointees. He didn't name names but assured Matthews there were names yet to come. A vote is due on an admitted tax cheat for Treasury Secretary. The headlines this morning tell me Lobbyists skirt Obama's earmark ban.
There are efforts being made to include adding sand to a beach in New Jersey and building a water park in Miami as part of the stimulus package! We're told the mall in D.C. needs re-sodded. How many hundreds of those promised jobs is that going to create? Please!
Another headline tells that a lack of grants and other funding will end a transportation service in Spokane to get seniors and disabled to doctors appointments. Well, thats certainly a method of population control!
The mayor of Portland refuses to step down after admitting he had lied about an improper relationship with a minor. He had this to say, "Tomorrow I go back to work as your mayor. I know I have let you down and made mistakes. I ask your forgiveness. I believe I have a lot to offer the city I love during this time of important challenges."
Please forgive him! Please forgive Bill Richardson and Rod Blogojevich and Timothy Geitner. How about throwing in all those banking execs who have gotten billions but won't account for them Forgive them. Don't forget former Treasury Secretary Paulson for giving it to them carte blanche. Forgive him.
My understanding and forgiveness quotient is tapped out. We have a new President who is trying to bring forward ideas to get us out of the mess we've gotten ourselves into. That won't happen unless we get beyond our own selfish interests and work with him. I'm not seeing that. I'm seeing no remorse for anything other than getting caught.
It's a sorry day when the letter "O" no longer brings to mind Obama, but rather a collective "Oops"!
6 comments:
I just don't get it... as we the citizen gasp for breath as we read of jets being bought, bathroom with thousand dollar wastebasket among other... why oh why arent the ones who are in charge above these, be it bank, federal or what have you... why aren't they shocked, why aren't they asking for the money back, why aren't they charging these people with embezzlement?? After all the money was given for what ail the company not for personal purposes. that is fraud in my book
Don't give up. The beach, the park and the mall will all require hiring people to accomplish the tasks. Not like building a bridge, but still, a start.
It must be next to impossible to find people for the administration who don't have some kind of ethics problem somewhere in their pasts. Sometimes, to get the best person for the job, you have to "forgive" and trust that they have reformed.
Hope. Hope. Hope.
Then, again, the bankers aren't worthy of forgiveness. They will never learn, or change their ways.
The Portland kid was 18 at the time of their relationship. They had met when the boy was a minor, but the allegations occured a year later.
Anyways, we're only a week in. Obviously it's going to take more than one man to turn things around - it will take a nation - but it's also going to take more than one week. In a week's time, we've begun to withdraw from Iraq and close Gitmo; the culture of secrecy in Executive Departments has been ordered to stop; and even if Congress' ethics problems will continue, the tightest ethics rules yet have been implemented at the White House. There's a lot going on that I don't like, and a lot of things not going on that I think we need (like stricter orders to the financial industry if they want TARP money), but I'm not letting go of my hope yet. Hope and optimism are not the same thing.
True..
I'm afraid there is really no moral compass anymore. The rich didn't get rich because they were scrupulously honest, you know. It is very difficult to get rich without being slightly crooked unless you have a wonderful original idea and even then I wonder.
All these "public servants" are rich people.
If we Americans truly want to regain our moral compass, the place to begin is in our own backyards. Pointing the fingers at the greedy and immoral is a distraction from looking at the greed and immorality in our own lives. If every family in America helped one other family in need, we would all be richer. That's the American way of yesteryear. It is no longer so--it's now all about "me", what's "mine" and what "I" deserve. No one, from corporate mogul to hamburger flipper, is touting making personal sacrifices (willingly) for others--known and unknown to us. We all have a greedy heart. And until we change that attitude, there is no hope.
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