The following is a letter I wrote in to a large metropolitan newspaper last week but that was not published, there are similarities to an editorial in said newspaper published today that are eerily familiar though, hmmmm . . .
It’s Not Easy Being King
Poor, poor President Stroger, the lesser. He’s had a tough road lately. Ever since taking the trouble to wrangle the nomination for County Board President from those more qualified he has had a tough road to hoe. He’s had to ensure that all of his family and friends have high paying County jobs. He’s had to begin the biggest layoff that the County has seen in more than 20 years. He’s had to give up his elevator and he’s had to answer for his actions. And now he’s trying to downplay the importance of the mess over at the hospital that was named for his father. It must be bad enough skating into a position that shouldn’t have been yours to begin with, but then being expected to clarify the reasons for your actions, well, that must be unbearable.
It’s a funny thing when you decide you want to be in charge of a government system whose budget is larger than the budget of many Fortune 500 companies, you become what we in the rest of the world like to call accountable. And to blame the press for your own inadequacy, well that’s just silly. Some of us take exception as well with the insults handed out to both the press and the commissioners. It is the job of the press, nay their responsibility, to scrutinize our public officials. And to imply that the commissioners lack the ability to think for themselves, well that’s just the inane rumblings of the disenchanted.
I’m going to try to make this as easy to understand as possible Mr. President. We have what is called a system of checks and balances in government here in the United States. The framers of the Constitution, that means the guys who wrote and planned our government, decided that it would not be a good idea to not give too much power to any one branch of the government. Many local governments agreed and put similar systems in place. That way, if say the president decided he wanted to spend a bunch of money that belonged to the people without telling anyone, another branch would question him and ensure thereby that said government remained a democracy instead of a autocracy.
Stop whining chief. No one is making your job hard but you. You got yourself elected, something we’re all still trying to figure out. You made back room deals to get your budget passed, again something we’re all still trying to figure out. For some reason we still haven’t seen this mystery budget that is paid for by the taxpayers of Cook County for their benefit, not yours. At this point it would seem to the general public that nearly everyone in your family and personal circle has a great job within the County, quite frankly we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that you have a four-year-old niece in charge of the County day care system at $85,000 a year.
Sorry but you don’t get to complain about being scrutinized, it comes with the territory and you volunteered for this particular assignment. Now I don’t fault you for taking advantage of one of the last refuges for nepotism in the free world because it’s not just you taking from the kitty, but the time has come to pony up and take some responsibility for your own actions. Nobody ever said it was easy being king, but it’s a hell of a lot harder when you realize that your subjects are willing to take exception with the way you rule. So don’t fret too much because from here on out, it’s only going to get harder.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Charity Begins at Home
Darfur, is that near Cleveland?
Once again the Hollywood community has chosen its cause of the week and this week’s winner is Darfur, which I believe is somewhere near Cleveland. Now before we all get testy let’s be sure to clarify that Hollywood does do a lot of charity work. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that community stepped up and raised a lot of money for the victims and families of those injured or killed. After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast, again Hollywood stepped up and raised money for those devastated by nature’s fury. And, when the list of b-list actors and has-beens grew too large, they created Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Fit Club so these folks would have an outlet for their talents.
So now we are to send our overtaxed, hard earned dollars to the Darfur region that is experiencing atrocities unmentioned. I’m taking this as an affirmation that there are no more problems facing the people of the United States. Apparently there are no more children here who go to bed hungry. I’m assuming that every citizen has health insurance. I surmise that the homeless all found homes, all domestic diseases have been cured and that each of us has a full tank of gas.
Millions of dollars were raised last week when a benefit for the region of Darfur was held last week in Chicago by the new ‘brat pack’. Fat cats happily shelled out hundreds of thousands for a chance to view a movie and have a ‘meet and greet’ with the stars of Oceans Thirteen. Now, from the viewpoint of a middle-class Midwestern boy this is tantamount to holding a benefit for hair plugs for singer/actresses that decide to shave their heads in a moment of supreme drug or alcohol induced idiocy.
I don’t mean to seem insensitive and I’m sure that the problems facing this region are indeed staggering, to say the least, but the fact is that the affluent and infamous of American society, who get affluent and infamous wholly, if not completely, on American dollars, always seem to find causes outside the United States to devote their time and efforts to. And while they do, they continue to collect exorbitant amounts of American money for dressing up and pretending to be someone they’re not or by stripping the public of their money and dignity.
Last time I checked a random microcosm of American society did not closely resemble fuckin’ Mayberry, the greatest threat to our safety was not a drunk named Otis, and we did not all have an Aunt Bee sending us a gingham lined picnic basket full of fried chicken and homemade Apple Pie for our lunches while we sat around our offices with the Bass family singing and strumming our guitars. We have crime and disease and poverty and politicians; all indicators that we still have our own problems to deal with.
So while Hollywood sits around this week and takes a vote on which cause they want to focus on next week, let’s all remember that charity begins at home. We still have people living in the streets, we still have people dying without proper healthcare, and now we have people standing on busy corners holding signs that read, “WILL WORK FOR GAS MONEY”. Until that day comes that there is indeed a chicken in every pot here in the USA, let’s focus on causes at home rather than abroad. Or then again maybe I am wrong and Darfur really is near Cleveland.
Once again the Hollywood community has chosen its cause of the week and this week’s winner is Darfur, which I believe is somewhere near Cleveland. Now before we all get testy let’s be sure to clarify that Hollywood does do a lot of charity work. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that community stepped up and raised a lot of money for the victims and families of those injured or killed. After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast, again Hollywood stepped up and raised money for those devastated by nature’s fury. And, when the list of b-list actors and has-beens grew too large, they created Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Fit Club so these folks would have an outlet for their talents.
So now we are to send our overtaxed, hard earned dollars to the Darfur region that is experiencing atrocities unmentioned. I’m taking this as an affirmation that there are no more problems facing the people of the United States. Apparently there are no more children here who go to bed hungry. I’m assuming that every citizen has health insurance. I surmise that the homeless all found homes, all domestic diseases have been cured and that each of us has a full tank of gas.
Millions of dollars were raised last week when a benefit for the region of Darfur was held last week in Chicago by the new ‘brat pack’. Fat cats happily shelled out hundreds of thousands for a chance to view a movie and have a ‘meet and greet’ with the stars of Oceans Thirteen. Now, from the viewpoint of a middle-class Midwestern boy this is tantamount to holding a benefit for hair plugs for singer/actresses that decide to shave their heads in a moment of supreme drug or alcohol induced idiocy.
I don’t mean to seem insensitive and I’m sure that the problems facing this region are indeed staggering, to say the least, but the fact is that the affluent and infamous of American society, who get affluent and infamous wholly, if not completely, on American dollars, always seem to find causes outside the United States to devote their time and efforts to. And while they do, they continue to collect exorbitant amounts of American money for dressing up and pretending to be someone they’re not or by stripping the public of their money and dignity.
Last time I checked a random microcosm of American society did not closely resemble fuckin’ Mayberry, the greatest threat to our safety was not a drunk named Otis, and we did not all have an Aunt Bee sending us a gingham lined picnic basket full of fried chicken and homemade Apple Pie for our lunches while we sat around our offices with the Bass family singing and strumming our guitars. We have crime and disease and poverty and politicians; all indicators that we still have our own problems to deal with.
So while Hollywood sits around this week and takes a vote on which cause they want to focus on next week, let’s all remember that charity begins at home. We still have people living in the streets, we still have people dying without proper healthcare, and now we have people standing on busy corners holding signs that read, “WILL WORK FOR GAS MONEY”. Until that day comes that there is indeed a chicken in every pot here in the USA, let’s focus on causes at home rather than abroad. Or then again maybe I am wrong and Darfur really is near Cleveland.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Shaking The Foundations
The Year of Living Seriously (Shaking the Foundations) --- Part Three of a Series
There was a wonderful scene in the film National Treasure, a goofy but fun movie, in which Nicholas Cage is clarifying a beautiful passage from the Declaration of Independence. The passage reads:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
He follows reading this section by observing that people don’t speak like that anymore and then clarifying its meaning by saying “If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action”. Not only do people not speak that way anymore, they don’t think that way either. There is a fear of offending others that denies any notion an individual may have of exploring an original or subversive thought these days. Subversion and divisiveness are the very basis upon which this country was founded and when we abandon these we are not only turning our backs on our past, we are also denying any semblance of a future we could have. Our foundations need a little shaking sometimes, it keeps our leaders honest.
When a disc jockey or a pundit or a sarcastic blogger are chastised for displaying his or her own interpretation of a particular event, we should be outraged. As a community, the United States have become so ultrasensitive that it would not surprise me that an insult levied against your next-door neighbor would be felt by their grandchildren’s grandchildren, and that they would take the same offense to it as on the day it was hurled. Individual interpretations should be fine; they should be commended as a matter of fact but they should never be construed as a personal affront.
If something is wrong, then by all means attack that wrong with the very fabric of your being, but for god’s sake let’s stop with attacking every possible thing that can be interpreted as a wrong because in perspective, anything can be interpreted to suit an individual’s taste. Shock jocks are supposed to shock us, especially by their words, but sometimes even with their actions. Laugh it off kids. Life is too freakin’ short to spend it seeking retribution for something that was intended as a joke. And hey, by the very act of attacking a wrong publicly, you not only give the transgression more publicity, you give it more credibility.
Save your energy for the greater wrongs being levied against humanity; the war in Iraq, the gasoline crisis, and those wacky outfits that models wear in fashion shows. We need a return to those days when complacency meant that you didn’t care and before it meant that you were an acceptable and productive member of society; then and only then can we get back to more important matters than offensive or suggestive language on our airwaves. Because although we are all entitled to our opinion; we have a greater responsibility to accept the opinions of others.
Pizza Recipe:
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/lifestyles/382124,141LIF4.article
There was a wonderful scene in the film National Treasure, a goofy but fun movie, in which Nicholas Cage is clarifying a beautiful passage from the Declaration of Independence. The passage reads:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
He follows reading this section by observing that people don’t speak like that anymore and then clarifying its meaning by saying “If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action”. Not only do people not speak that way anymore, they don’t think that way either. There is a fear of offending others that denies any notion an individual may have of exploring an original or subversive thought these days. Subversion and divisiveness are the very basis upon which this country was founded and when we abandon these we are not only turning our backs on our past, we are also denying any semblance of a future we could have. Our foundations need a little shaking sometimes, it keeps our leaders honest.
When a disc jockey or a pundit or a sarcastic blogger are chastised for displaying his or her own interpretation of a particular event, we should be outraged. As a community, the United States have become so ultrasensitive that it would not surprise me that an insult levied against your next-door neighbor would be felt by their grandchildren’s grandchildren, and that they would take the same offense to it as on the day it was hurled. Individual interpretations should be fine; they should be commended as a matter of fact but they should never be construed as a personal affront.
If something is wrong, then by all means attack that wrong with the very fabric of your being, but for god’s sake let’s stop with attacking every possible thing that can be interpreted as a wrong because in perspective, anything can be interpreted to suit an individual’s taste. Shock jocks are supposed to shock us, especially by their words, but sometimes even with their actions. Laugh it off kids. Life is too freakin’ short to spend it seeking retribution for something that was intended as a joke. And hey, by the very act of attacking a wrong publicly, you not only give the transgression more publicity, you give it more credibility.
Save your energy for the greater wrongs being levied against humanity; the war in Iraq, the gasoline crisis, and those wacky outfits that models wear in fashion shows. We need a return to those days when complacency meant that you didn’t care and before it meant that you were an acceptable and productive member of society; then and only then can we get back to more important matters than offensive or suggestive language on our airwaves. Because although we are all entitled to our opinion; we have a greater responsibility to accept the opinions of others.
Pizza Recipe:
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/lifestyles/382124,141LIF4.article
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