Malice in Wonderland

Surely it hasn’t escaped your notice that we live in a dysfunctional society and are surrounded by the echoes of our forebearers, our consciences saying “this is all wrong, this Union is not being preserved, it is being hacked away inch by inch and we seem powerless to impact this fact.

Look what is the point of attributing blame; we are each all too ready to throw the first stone, to state unequivocably that the other person is a racist, a femnazi, an old white man, an alien…. we have mastered the 120 word vocabulary of OMG and have disposed of perfectly good, innocent words like “niggardly” because it sounds like something so pronouncedly perverse that you need to go to the radio to hear it.

Well, ok, that will pass but will we survive the particular armeggedon we face concerning the raw evil intention that flows from our office seekers and their staffs daily, the “stacked decks” presented by the cable news media who drive the response they want depending on what station or channel you happen to be tuned to.

Oh it happens in the blogosphere as well, but up to now, this bastion of too many people with mean, ugly attention is almost a legal artifact. Bringing America;s favorite pastime the lawsuit, is expressedly difficult. So slander and libel find little need to identify a rock to crawl under.

Of course that is not the case with those caught in the public headlights or those who think they have been “wronged”. Look at the daily count of lawsuits filed, the damages collected, the lack of common sense meaning of what used to be matters we could no and understand.

who suffers? We all do, but mostly those who have been subjected to sexual harassment, racism, failure to indent the glass ceiling. We go on and create new groups of disgruntled and “victimized folks”. I am one, but since it makes me happy to be associated as an unintended member of a legitimate minority group (if numbers mean anything), I am happy to rest my case, prod the vain, kiss my wife and pet my cat.

But I am not at all happy or content when it bleaches or leeches into the political process. You might say what does the affairs of what is happening in Washingto or Albany have to do with you in New Rochelle? The answer is plenty …. there is not a dime’s worth of difference.

I dont’ know where it takes us to see a Ryan look alike wheeling an old woman off a cliff, or someone accusing Romney of killing his wife because he was fired some years earlier.

Neither do I know what we get out of by this stupid initiative to attemtp to show that Barack Obama was not dorn in the USA or somehow Obamacare is setting up death panels.

What crap on both sides and you can largely blame the stupidity of the Supreme Court for fostering a climate of anonymity on political donations. No one is accountable any longer. Justice, fair play, honest stewardship is thrown to the wolves. It really sucks and you are really powerless. the inmates are running the asylum and while our President campaigns for 12 months to be re-elected and his opponent tries to keep his foot out of his mouth and his pocket full of money, you see the job prospects plummet, neighbor against neigbhor, and you live in one of the most taxed and most expensive parts of the world. And you worry about some guys cutting up at park?

Save your anger, no better, your commitment to make New Rochelle better, a participatory community where there are no favorites, no exclusions, and no elected officials who rationalize service as “meeting the demands of their district.”

Hogwash! The City Charter is not correctly adhered to as it is so step up your game. Look around you and see what is wheat and what is chaff. You want a balanced budget, revenue enhancement, real diversity, well, say it directly. You cannot move a mountain in Washington or even Albany, but 515 North Avenue should be a no brainer.

If the Mayor or council opt for Echo Bay using a residential model, just say NO. This is a misuse of scarce funds, a lack of critical thinking and worse, it is cynical. We need money, much dinero, a hell of a lot of euros….. we need internal equity and a willingness to let everyone who has something to offer, offer it.

The Armory? Why hasn’t the City embraced it and stop looking at it as if it is a horse race. It is a potential binding of the community and an add to our trembling resource base. Get a grip…. let the two competing groups come up with an agreement brokered by someone like Ivar Hyden or even a skilled member of the administration. It needs partnering and it is needed NOW.

So, Noam cannot be allowed to act as if he is Barack, the majority in the Council cannot be allowed to act as if they are Harry Reid or John Beohner and the minority cannot be allowed to mirror Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi. If we can do that much, we can bring the city closer to what our forebearers knew and expected to sustain for generations.

I don’t know what is worse; sophoristic bullshit language or the frequent facebook or tweet update. As we sit and see the drama play out, I cannot help but think that all of the aforementioned heads of state had the answer in their hands on December 2010. It is not necessary to argue that Bush created debt and Obama added to it. What is necessary is to see a bipartisan approach to solve our rock, our hard place. Simpson and Bowles, leaders of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, in a report called The Moment of Truth,” gave us an in-depth blueprint to begin the process of getting our government and society under control.

I cannot capture this in witing…. I likely have lost most of you at this point. But I can postulate why office holders are as they are and offer to share the report’s Guiding, Principle, Values, and Overview of major actions needed upon request.

But here is why I think we are where we are and the common vernacular kind of centers around our own sense of self, our “me first — I am worth it” society. It infests every level of our society and governance and always has although in uur beloved country, under some spectrum of control.

We are now out of control. When our elected officials in Washington or Albany talk about large versus small government, they literally are clueless about the conditional consequences of each. When a sitting president decides to campaign for a year and does not understand what this means to controlling the issues, he is clueless and anyone who throws it completely in the lap of hostile legislators is clueless…. that can be dealt with. Maybe Robert Cano can educate us on what Lyndon Johnson would do and what he did.

Now Echo Bay or Albanese become our Waterloos, not because they are unatractive, but because they are promulgated for all the wrong reasons including hubris, ego satisfacton and just plan wrong headedness. The parallels are clear and so are the remedies.

Dante, were he alive today, might want to revisit his levels of hell to place those who commit both direct and collateral damage, to the higher rings and that would be self interested, hubris driven people who do not do what is required to build a community. Echo Bay, yeah maybe tomorrow; the patient is still in IC needing stringent palliative care.

But, not to worry! I learned that current Mayan culture scholars are indicating that the winter solstice in 2012 will not, repeat not, end our world. They say it is a message designed to get people worldwide to build communities; places for the common good, where all can thrive and play a role. Selfishness will end its day.

Hope this is the case. Perhaps the road to Damascus for Noam and others of the democratic ilk or to Tampa for those of the republican persuasion, might lead to an insight larger than their self interest. Maybe we can help through a Code of Ethics or a more explcit mode of governance.