Welcome To The Bailout Ball

The Senate just passed a financial bailout plan by a vote of 75-24. I hope, very sincerely, that it does what it is meant to do and will bring financial peace to the citizens of our nation.

I am hopeful. And I am annoyed.

As I write, leaders of the Senate are taking turns patting one another on the back in press conferences for their great work on this. They are also extolling their own bipartisanship, proud of their ability to come to consensus within five weeks of an election.

Translation: It is accepted that they are usually willing to avoid doing what the country needs if doing so may result in electoral gain.

That is not leadership and that is not what we pay them for. ZiggyBackRiders, don't be so quick to join the party congratulating our lawmakers for this. Don't let them get away with trying to make us believe that that is how it should be.

I don't care if the election is fifty years away or thirty seconds away. Any lawmaker who would ever do anything other than what they think or know should be done for the good of the nation to gain something politically should be removed from office immediately, if not sooner.*

If we want more, we have to ask for it and keep asking, even demanding it, until we get it. And when we get it, we should, like any supervisor, show appreciation for a job well done, but we need not throw a party every time a senator does his or her job. Now, let's see if the Members of the House can do theirs.

* I would love, LOVE to see a list of every senator or representative whose vote had to be bought with the addition to this bill of some unrelated clause. Forget voting against them. We should consider trying them for treason.

Why Wait?

This morning, I heard a local radio personality say, in reference to remembering 9/11, that "the best thing about America is how we come together when something bad happens."

I could not agree more. And less.

Our ability to unite for a common purpose is one of the wonderful things about America. The fact that we fail to do so until tragedy strikes is one of our worst qualities. Why wait?

Why not recognize that we have common wants and needs and goals and values every day? Yes, there are ideas that divide us; there are opinions about how to satisfy our needs and reach our goals about which we disagree, sometimes vehemently. But if we know that those differences won't stand in our way when it really matters, why would we let them ever stand in our way? Or why won't we recognize that it always really matters?

I have written before about the difficult beauty of America - of our incredible gifts and possibilities, and how those very things can stand in our way. Here, again, we are faced with the surprisingly difficult challenge of choosing and cherishing what is good and right, and we are challenged to do so of our own accord, without inspiration from evil-doers or mishap like we have, in so many cases, required.

When we notice a gap, now - not when the next hurricane hits - is the time to bridge it. When we encounter a wall that divides us for no reason, now - not when terrorists strike - is the time to tear it down. When families are estranged, now - and not at the next loved one's funeral - is the time to understand one another and heal.

We can come together whenever we decide we're ready. Why wait?

Football Makes You Think

I'm watching the FedEx Orange Bowl right now and the 2nd half just started. (Louisville leads Wake Forrest 10-3, at the moment.) During the halftime show, Taylor Hicks, your American Idol and mine, sang alongside the legendary Gladys Knight. I did not see any Pips, but that doesn't mean they weren't there.

I didn't love the performance, but I heard every word of it and I noticed the microphone that Taylor Hicks was holding. It made me think of the referee who, throughout the game, has to explain penalties, video reviews, and clock issues to the crowd and to officials in the pressbox. Earlier in the game, he was explaining a penalty and his mic went in and out and he couldn't really be understood. That is not uncommon at all. There are probably more games in which it happens than games in which it does not.

Why can't the official - who is making sure the game that everyone is there to see is played fairly and legally - use the same microphone that Taylor Hicks uses? Why on earth would there be two separate and completely unequal sound systems being employed at the same venue during the same event? The bowl game is the reason for the gathering. "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" is an excellent song, but has very little impact on the outcome of the contest. It would be helpful if I didn't have to count on the grapevine to hear what the ref is singing.

The Most Disturbing Thing In My House

Those who know me will vouch for me when I assert that I am not a neat freak. I'm not unsanitary, mind you, but I'm not always quick about discarding items that I could never possibly have use for again. As a result, I have some pretty funny, and sometimes disturbing things in my possession. The most disturbing, ironically, is one of the housekeeping implements that I, and hopefully you, own. The absolute most disturbing item in my house is the toilet brush. In a society where almost everything is available in a disposable form, we still keep this cheap piece of plastic that is used to scrape old, well, toilet contents, off the walls of the toilet because they didn't go away the first time we tried to get rid of them. It astounds, dumbfounds, and, yes, I would go so far as to say, flabbergasts me, just thinking about the fact that, as a society, we make a habit of keeping these things in our homes.

So I invite my fellow Americans... No! I invite all of humanity to join me in taking our disposable culture just one logical step further. Sure, it goes against all the reuse-reduce-recycle conservationist ideas that we have tried to build within ourselves to combat our wastefulness, but you know what? It just makes sense. I don't know how we missed it until now, but it is not too late. Join me! Make your house less disturbing by throwing away that repository of filth, stimulate the economy by buying a new one when your toilets are ready for their next cleaning, and in your own very small way, change the world!