Here's Hoping Our Leaders Will Be Dogged In August

So, here we are, in both NJ and the country, in debt up to our eyeballs, with repeated reminders that our infrastructure is, in some regards, falling or ready to, fall apart. Bridges, roadways, power grids, water/sewer systems.

We are reminded daily of the drain of our strength, both human and financial, in Iraq. Add to these reminders our dependence on foreign oil and it’s fluctuating price at the pump and our dependence on foreign money to finance our self imposed debt.

A glut in the housing market and fewer starts, credit/mortgage problems that threaten hundreds of thousands of families with the loss of their newly acquired homes, A Wall St. that is both Jekell and Hyde – new plateaus reached and then quickly abandoned as fears suddenly set-in.

Horrific displays of the underbelly of human behavior – both domestic and foreign – splash across our media everyday.

An immigration policy that is broken, the export of good paying jobs to cheaper markets, the importing of tainted goods from many of those same markets.

Corrupted politicians being caught and, in some instances, only being slapped on the wrists for their crimes or in the case of the former druggy D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, being enshrined in wax.

So what do our leaders do for all of this?

They give tax breaks to those who don’t need them, give out tax rebates checks just in time for the elections (the monies from which were gotten from taxes to begin with), worry about whether we need a front license plate on our car or not, beat the dead horse path of what you cannot do while driving – talk/text on a cell phone, smoke with a child in a car (when does childhood begin anyway?) – to the point that in five years, you better not be seen picking your nose.

With August here, our Congress, our President, our Supreme Court, our State legislature have taken a cue from the Iraqi government and have gone on a formal vacation, one that is traceable on a calendar versus that of a vacation from their senses or, mind you, any type of display of their convictions.

Hmm, here in NJ, it may take a different descriptor that the use of the word “convictions”. What a shame.