Not Me

"Who broke the wine glass in the kitchen sink?"
"Not me."
"Who left the toilet seat up?"
"Not me."
"Who's responsible for the mess the economy is in?"
"Not me."

Are you like me and have tuned out the noise about the election? Fingers point everywhere but at the speaker's own chest. It's always someone else's fault. I will grow old waiting for a politician to take responsibility.

Who's fault is the economy? Everyone's, with no small help from many different administrations. Government overspends. And spends on the wrong thing too many times.

TARP, set up by Bush II, had to be administered by Obama. Some of it worked; some of it didn't. I don't hear a calm voice looking at each million dollars spent, reporting back to the voters where it went, how much we were paid back, etc. I hear one candidate saying "he did everything wrong." I hear another saying "not me."

If we hadn't bailed out GM and Chrysler, how many jobs would have been lost? One candidate says the managed bankruptcy should have been supported through private equity, but I don't think a Bain Capital would have been willing to write a check. The managed bankruptcy was bailed out by the taxpayers. One candidate, who didn't like the bailout, now takes responsibility. "I always said GM should go into bankruptcy and I was right." Sorta.

The list is endless. I grow depressed thinking about it.

Do you have children? Were you a child once? Do you remember when your mother realized for the first time that you were growing up? Do you? What was the turning point?

For my mother and me, it was the first time I said, "I broke it" rather than "it got broke.

Isn't it time for our government officials to take the high road and grow up?

Truth, Justice and the American Way

Given the silliness that is going on in our political sphere, I had to use this space for a brief rant. No, this is not going to be a political blog, but the stakes are so high that I can't keep silent. Blame it on my youth as a near-professional protester (I have the bailbond receipts to prove it!). Blame it on a cloudy day. Blame it on waking up on the pessimistic side of the bed at oh-dark-hundred.

I keep waiting for our political leaders to show some degree of maturity. If you've raised children -- your own, others, as a teacher, or in some other capacity -- you know that one sign of maturity is accepting responsibility. When a glass lies broken on the kitchen floor, the immature child says, "it got broke." The more mature child tries to blame someone else, "not me. Sissy did it." And the mature child says, "I broke it."

We have a broken economy, a broken national budget, and the worst international image in history. So, as I watch our elected leaders squabble over how to save our way of life through saving the economy (and grabbing pork all over the place), I see more of "it got broke" and "they broke it," rather than "we all broke it and it's time to work together to fix it."

Or maybe we just need Superman to swoop down, blast the greedy guys, shore up the economy and set us all on the right path. Instead of truth and justice, we have greed and finger pointing. I hate to think that this has become the American way.