Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Breaking All the Rules
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I have heard the expression, “playing by the rules” many times. Someone who plays by the rules is admired. But those who break the rules are disliked or out of favor. We robins play by our rules to live without too much rancor. Now, you upright worms walking easily break rules regularly. But from all my reading in libraries and viewing on your generally self-serving television news I can easily infer that your government has broken all the rules and the citizenry are either apathetic or in unison with their government.
Your government broke the rules on honesty about the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. In each case there was dishonesty going into war and your government so easily was able to ramshackle its way into war. The vast destruction of human lives and enormous suffering inflicted in each case was scrupulously avoided by your televisions news where most of your citizenry gets its news, nicely censored without the need of a propaganda ministry.
The corruption and incompetence of your government in contracts, military strategy and governance has been wiped clean on the television news, but documented very well by the print media. Television is king because that is where most of you get your filtered news. Television reporting and commentary on government is usually done by well-to-do, politically well-connected cliques and unelected talking heads who have little in common with the people and policies that are presumed to benefit-the American citizenry. For television’s public air waves the average American is like a mute mannequin hovering in the background to be seen, but seldom heard.
Your government broke all the rules by neglecting to supervise and regulate the banking and financial industries causing a massive financial collapse pledging $7.7 trillion dollars to save the economy. Your two main political parties provide the most minimum accountability for the government; hence the American people are under the illusion that their government is competently managed. The political parties have been very busy cushioning themselves from competition, a hallmark of capitalism which they deny to others in a political monopoly.
Ryan Grim and Joseph K. Vetter reveal in “You’ve Been Had” that “In the end, we found that the federal government wastes nearly a trillion dollars a year.” The waste, fraud and abuse are so overwhelming that your average citizen is numb to it, like someone standing senseless on the edge of a cliff. The politicians and the parties they represent appear to have no responsibility and accountability in their continuous failures in domestic and foreign policies often characterized by panic. Those who criticize them and their government are soon blacklisted and censored on television by a compliant media, always eager to please for political access.
Your government’s deficit spending adds to a monumental debt with soaring interest payments in the hundreds of billions dollars annually breaking all the rules applicable to the average citizen.
Breaking all the rules for government has become a national pastime. But the citizenry must beware, for if they break the rules it can involve the force of the law upon them. Luckily, the government and the two political parties decide for themselves that it is all right to break all the rules with obedient television news networks defending massive and chronic mismanagement of government.
Occasionally a member of Congress or a wayward politician or lobbyist whose behavior is so egregious and flagrant the law must be invoked against the offender. However, the mismanagement, incompetence and legalized corruption in government is so pervasive that the news media, especially television, dare not even comment on it for bringing the two party system in total disrepute, possibly causing their future to be clouded with uncertainty. Therefore, change is anathema and status quo is so preferable, for it is comfortable and profitable for those producing and reporting television news, a “public air wave.”
Impeachment and conviction are like lost cousins in the desert, forever abandoned by apathy and fear. Lying about wars and reckless with the public purse squandering monumental sums of money and mismanaging the national economy are not a reason for removal from office, for political jobs are not about the country but about politicians, their political party, their families and supporters. It is about their selfishness for private gain under the canopy of public service by breaking all the rules in war and peace.
We robins go after worms without panic as often as we can and live with a measure of integrity that I rarely see with your politicians and politically apathetic citizenry. I would say good luck, but it’s beyond all that now. The hard work of becoming honest imbuing the individual with integrity is a long journey without which the Constitution is but mere paper with no applicability.
I’ll be flying off now.
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I have heard the expression, “playing by the rules” many times. Someone who plays by the rules is admired. But those who break the rules are disliked or out of favor. We robins play by our rules to live without too much rancor. Now, you upright worms walking easily break rules regularly. But from all my reading in libraries and viewing on your generally self-serving television news I can easily infer that your government has broken all the rules and the citizenry are either apathetic or in unison with their government.
Your government broke the rules on honesty about the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. In each case there was dishonesty going into war and your government so easily was able to ramshackle its way into war. The vast destruction of human lives and enormous suffering inflicted in each case was scrupulously avoided by your televisions news where most of your citizenry gets its news, nicely censored without the need of a propaganda ministry.
The corruption and incompetence of your government in contracts, military strategy and governance has been wiped clean on the television news, but documented very well by the print media. Television is king because that is where most of you get your filtered news. Television reporting and commentary on government is usually done by well-to-do, politically well-connected cliques and unelected talking heads who have little in common with the people and policies that are presumed to benefit-the American citizenry. For television’s public air waves the average American is like a mute mannequin hovering in the background to be seen, but seldom heard.
Your government broke all the rules by neglecting to supervise and regulate the banking and financial industries causing a massive financial collapse pledging $7.7 trillion dollars to save the economy. Your two main political parties provide the most minimum accountability for the government; hence the American people are under the illusion that their government is competently managed. The political parties have been very busy cushioning themselves from competition, a hallmark of capitalism which they deny to others in a political monopoly.
Ryan Grim and Joseph K. Vetter reveal in “You’ve Been Had” that “In the end, we found that the federal government wastes nearly a trillion dollars a year.” The waste, fraud and abuse are so overwhelming that your average citizen is numb to it, like someone standing senseless on the edge of a cliff. The politicians and the parties they represent appear to have no responsibility and accountability in their continuous failures in domestic and foreign policies often characterized by panic. Those who criticize them and their government are soon blacklisted and censored on television by a compliant media, always eager to please for political access.
Your government’s deficit spending adds to a monumental debt with soaring interest payments in the hundreds of billions dollars annually breaking all the rules applicable to the average citizen.
Breaking all the rules for government has become a national pastime. But the citizenry must beware, for if they break the rules it can involve the force of the law upon them. Luckily, the government and the two political parties decide for themselves that it is all right to break all the rules with obedient television news networks defending massive and chronic mismanagement of government.
Occasionally a member of Congress or a wayward politician or lobbyist whose behavior is so egregious and flagrant the law must be invoked against the offender. However, the mismanagement, incompetence and legalized corruption in government is so pervasive that the news media, especially television, dare not even comment on it for bringing the two party system in total disrepute, possibly causing their future to be clouded with uncertainty. Therefore, change is anathema and status quo is so preferable, for it is comfortable and profitable for those producing and reporting television news, a “public air wave.”
Impeachment and conviction are like lost cousins in the desert, forever abandoned by apathy and fear. Lying about wars and reckless with the public purse squandering monumental sums of money and mismanaging the national economy are not a reason for removal from office, for political jobs are not about the country but about politicians, their political party, their families and supporters. It is about their selfishness for private gain under the canopy of public service by breaking all the rules in war and peace.
We robins go after worms without panic as often as we can and live with a measure of integrity that I rarely see with your politicians and politically apathetic citizenry. I would say good luck, but it’s beyond all that now. The hard work of becoming honest imbuing the individual with integrity is a long journey without which the Constitution is but mere paper with no applicability.
I’ll be flying off now.
