Friday, December 17, 2010

Letter to the Editor

Hipocrits in Power



Judith Arnold, LCSW •Reader Submitted •

December 13, 2010, 11:35 am


First, a thank you to the new editorial writers who have spoken up in compassion and pragmatism for those in our community and nation who are struggling economically. More of the electorate need to take a stand.


Contrary to the rebuttal to Prof. James Petras editorial, there is not a black and white answer to the financial quagmire we are in; it is not either this or I'll refuse that as Jonathan Stossel proclaims about collective sharing at Thanksgiving. These days everyone does not own property, in fact they are foreclosed. However, I would have the prisoners working at the CHOW garden.

The conservative political hypocrisy is particularly hard to take at this holiday season. We have a modern den of thieves in Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Karl Rove and their Wall Street pals. What is it that the tearful, daily Mass attender John Boehner does not get about 30 years of wages that are not livable, offshore bank accounts and the rising poverty level? His neighbors are not going to achieve that American Dream he cries about as long as there are 43,000 applicants for 1,000 KIA jobs in ultra-conservative West Point, Georgia and four more textile plants that closed there last year. The identified 6,000 Southern Tier unemployed know where their bread is not buttered. That is not soft social science Mr. Siwiec. The thieves' apologist Bill O'Reilly asks, “What does a moral society owe to the have-nots?” Jesus threw the moneychangers out.


As former columnist Molly Ivins stated in Dec 2005, “The nation's leaders sure don't act like Christians; some Christians seem to me inclined to lose track of love, compassion and mercy. I don't think I have any special brief to go around judging them, but when the stink of hypocrisy becomes so foul in the nostrils it makes you start to puke, it becomes necessary to point out there is one more good reason to observe the separation of church and state: If God keeps hanging out with politicians, it's gonna hurt His reputation.”


The thieves are so tight with the wealthy plutocracy they did not ask them to anti up any percentage of tax sharing for the common good in NY or Washington in the deficit reduction plan. Nicholas Kristof(NYTimes) reports that, “from 1980-2005 more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent and they are less likely to spend their tax cut or savings. Inequality leaves people on the lower rungs feeling like hamsters on a wheel spinning ever faster, without hope or escape.to me we've reached a banana republic point where our inequality has become both economically unhealthy and morally repugnant.” The American Friends Service Committee reminds us that 59% of the federal budget goes to the military.


I'm sorry Tiny Tim; as Bill Moyers states, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. But he's run off with all the toys.” (truthout, Nov 3)


Judith Arnold, LCSW

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