From Abramoff to Madoff to Popoff

Or How Did We Tinker our Way into Ever Taking This Huge a Chance

These are the saddest of possible words:

"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,

Tinker and Evers and Chance.

Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,

Making a Giant hit into a double --

Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:

"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

 

We are making an interesting and complicated set of choices in a very short a piece of time. Figuratively, in as long it takes for the second baseman to decide to go for the double play when he fields a fast ground ball. The rapid throwing into the winds of chance of trillions of dollars has become commonplace in both banking and government circles these days. Historians will ask how we got here. Right now the guys in charge are too busy whipping out their biggest pens to sign all of those huge checks drawn on the future.

 

It is a sad case of how we came to live in this world. It is a world where guys like Abramoff and Madoff became rich stealing from their friends and clients. People like you and I and Rick Santelli’s audience of traders in his “Tea Party” are now paying the bills. Rick popped off like a pressure valve in that bit of video and immediately became the butterfly’s wing in the maelstrom.

 

The thing is; Rick is right in this part at least. No one knows if spending all of this money will result in a new time at bat for our kids. We Boomers are already on the bench and headed for the cosmic showers. The one thing we definitely know is that the taxpayer is committed to this play regardless of its outcome. If one of our designated fielders makes a slight misstep we will lose this game and the whole season of our productivity will be wasted. A generation that accomplished so little cannot afford to see their legacy squandered.

 

The shower is hot and waiting for me so I guess I’ll end this piece here. I just want you all to remember that no matter how we pop off in public or private we are committed already. Talking to our leaders is too slow to get ahead of this game. We need something new like, oh yeah, the Internet and Television to inform them of our season of dissatisfaction.

 

We had better invent a prosperous future ourselves if we want one. It will need to be capable of paying the bills we are making trying to fix the last messed up plays in our box score. Bon Chance as they say where philosophy, not baseball, is the national sport.

 

Bon Chance indeed!!