Why do we wonder how something just happened, right in front of our eyes, and wish we had the foresight instead of the hindsight to have done it differently?
Why do we usually react then wish we had become proactive? Why does an issue turn into a problem, then a crisis and the only way it seems to solve it is to declare some kind of war?
Why do we seem to live moment by moment since the beginning of the 2000 decade, and are startled to find out that the accumulation of these entire moments can and usually have dire consequences when the upcoming hour approaches?
“…I am mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore…”, said the character of Howard Beale a news anchor in the hit 1976 movie ‘Network’. His infamous quote resonated after a series of mishaps and misfortunes found him forlorn and floundering. The people of Arizona, in trying to understand the death of a rancher, decided they were not going to take it anymore either. They needed a scapegoat much like any lynch minded mob and decided that any and all illegal immigrants, (or anyone looking like they could be an illegal immigrant from south of the border), would pay the price for the lack of any initiatives of the past to curtail the current issue of immigration. Hurry, hurry rush, rush, incitement of fear, lack of fact and the power of politics to sooth the lemming like masses of the stupid Arizona stopped ‘taking it’ and now like Nazi Germany you need papers to pass through the streets and highway of the ‘Grand Canyon State’. Yesterdays inaction have cause today’s over-reaction.
“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.” “Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.” Pope John Paul II. And so the Vatican continues to find the bias of the press and the individual actions of its clergy from Priests to Bishops as the main reason the issue of pedophilia has even come to the fore. Not the inability to confront an ongoing agenda of abuse.
It's a big crisis. I think no one should try to diminish that," Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, said. He acknowledged that the Vatican was caught by surprise, even though it was well aware of the scope of the U.S. and Irish crises, and blamed "a certain media bias" for keeping the story alive.
Pope Benedict has expressed his sorrow and shame for the abuse, he has wept with victims and made promises for new measures to protect children and bring justice to pedophile priests added Levada. But he (the Pope) has admitted no personal or institutional responsibility, blaming instead the abusers themselves and their bishops for mishandling cases when they arose. Did I hear you speak your Holiness, but it sounded empty and full of exceptions?
An excuse according to the current Pope’s predecessor is ‘just a lie’. You can mask it in poetry, prose or empty promises and it falls to the earth with a resounding thud. Taking no personal blame for an action ignored is the pitter pats of patronization and Papal pilfering of the truth. So quickly the Pope can site verse and chapter as to why the LGBT community can not marry, or contraception is bad, or abortion is a mortal sin, but priests molesting girls and boys, the answer seems to be “I didn’t do it.” It is more of an underwhelming revelation to fight an overwhelming dilemma.
“He had it coming, he had it coming, he only had himself to blame. If you’d have been there, if you had seen it, I betcha you would have done the same.” Lyrics sung by six women who plead not guilty to crimes they admitted to have committed but take no responsibility for their actions as sung in the musical ‘Chicago’, by Kanter and Ebb.
As it defends its business practices before Congress, Goldman Sachs seems to be saying: This is all the result of a big misunderstanding. Goldman officials insisted they did nothing illegal, that customers knew what they were doing, and that they performed a valuable service by allowing their customers to manage business and investment risk.
We were bad but we couldn’t help being bad because we were bad for you, the customer, so say the Wall Street sages in a syncopated well rehearsed chorus. We only plotted and planned, maneuvered and mismanaged your money because in the end your bottom line bolsters our bonuses, except we got the bucks and you got the B.S.
How about the fact that you sold hundreds of millions of that deal after your people knew it was a shitty deal,” Levin demanded after repeating the expletive a half dozen times. “Does that bother you at all?”
The spokespeople from Goldman Sachs seemed to lose their voices as this question was asked but cam back with the ever lovely rendition of if we could we would have done it differently. They never apologized for their actions, but did the shuffle/ball change step of we are sorry if you misunderstood our intentions.
And so the saga continues, the hindsight hemorrhages and everyone who could have seen the writing on the wall (the SEC, the brilliant CEO’s, the Congress, does the redress dance, the none that goes blame, blame, blame but do not even look at me.
After the fact, after all, aftermath we raise to our feet rally the flag, and ring our hands and in unison shout “NEVER AGAIN”! We wreck havoc with no goal in mind, we overdo our outrage, we point fingers at everyone but ourselves. Never satisfies the issue but sooths the souls as we ignore the real reasons and ruminate about false fixes.
Makes you wonder why doesn’t it?
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