I Am Mad as Hell....

This was originally published in the LaGrange Daily News on July 16, 2009


It seems like there is so much going on in Washington and right here in Lagrange that the world is spinning out of control. I am reminded of the classic line in the movie Network “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!" What that means is it is time for some therapy. Rather than screaming out the window, when I am frustrated, I write. Writing allows me to blow off some steam. Here are a few things that make me “mad as hell”:

Item 1 -Dog Fighting vs. Vehicular homicide. What is wrong with us when Michael Vick gets a three year jail sentence and public scorn for the despicable act of dog fighting; while another famous player, Donte’ Stallworth, gets 30 days in jail and 2 years of house arrest and virtually no public scorn for slaughtering a fellow human while he was intoxicated and driving a car. Of course dog fighting is horrific. Why any human being would want to watch dogs tear themselves to shreds is impossible to comprehend. However, running down a fellow human, a father, because you were drunk is a far more heinous crime. Unfortunately, after years of violence on TV and a culture of death, the taking of a human life just does not spark the same moral outrage as a dog fight.

Item 2 - Parents serving alcohol to high schoolers. I have never understood the logic of parents who willingly serve alcohol to teenagers. I am not talking about a glass of wine on a special holiday. I am talking about end of year school parties. By definition these kids are under-aged both legally and physically. It is not ok; in fact it is illegal, for parents serve alcohol to these children. I have heard it said “At least I know they are home and not out driving. That may be true for their child but is not true for the other children. These parents are delusional if they think that if you allow your child to drink supervised at home, their young angel won’t drink away from your home and their “supervision”. Good parenting is not the same as being your child’s “best friend”. We are one terrible car accident away from this hidden travesty from ripping our community’s collective heart out. To the local law enforcement community, do not continue to turn a blind eye to this behavior. How are you going to face yourself when you have to knock on some parent’s door and deliver that kind of news?

Item 3 - Thirty million Americans will take hours out of their day to watch the funeral of Michael Jackson, but won’t take ten minutes to engage in the healthcare debate that will forever change their lives. Other than the armed services what does the government do better than private enterprise? This afternoon President Obama said the plan would bring governmental quality and accountability to our healthcare system! Can you imagine that? We will soon get the same quality and accountability as the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Post Office. Is that the level of care you want from your surgeon? Congress is throwing together a plan to meet an arbitrary deadline so President Obama can claim a victory. In the end no one will even read the plan before they vote on it. Wake up people. Put down People magazine and engage in the process – pro or con. It is your future at stake.

Item 4 - Infrastructure or Weather Stripping – The debate on whether to have a stimulus package or not was a waste of time. It was a political certainty that Congress and the President were going to pass some kind of stimulus. When there is a crisis politicians have to look like they are doing something to fix it. The only real question was what were they going to spend the borrowed money on? President Obama outsourced this process to Nancy Pelosi and she dropped the ball. In a show of raw politics, the $800 billion package was a patchwork of pork. The purpose of the stimulus was to inject meaning money quickly in to the economy. Instead, the Democrats have borrowed every cent of it and created a laundry list of funding for their special interests. I especially love the millions allocated for weather stripping homes. The Chinese initiated their own stimulus package. They are building highways, railway systems, hydroelectric dams and airports. Which do you think will help their country be competitive in the long run – weather stripping some shack or a new transportation infrastructure? What kind of country are we going to leave the next generation?

Whew? I feel better now. Of course nothing has changed. But that is not important. The important thing is that America’s Got Talent is on in ten minutes and I can sink back into a state of denial until I reach the next boiling point.