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HMMM . . .

Rot in the State of N.Y. – “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark,” wrote Shakespeare in “Hamlet.” A similar stench seems to be emanating from the state of New York. I know nothing of the world of finance. Nonetheless, these institutions are controlled by human beings, and I have a pretty good notion about the ways of human nature. What is behind the sudden, surgical outing of “Client No. 9”--the bane of Wall Street--and the soon-thereafter U.S. government complicity (my term) in the bargain sell-off of the investment bank Bear Stearns? Which insiders got the heads-up? What/who determined who the buyer would be? What, precisely, was the role of the U.S. government? Where are all of the Conservatives who always decry federal largess going to those on the lower end of the economic scale? Was this not a welfare bailout to beat all welfare bailouts?

Analyzing the Shocking Rhetoric – I have no delusions that a reasoned treatment of this explosive situation will have any effect, at all, upon the emotional angst that has been engendered. At first blush, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s ranting is shocking. Let us examine it. The Constitution of the U.S. exhorts us constantly to be on the alert for the workings of our government. and freely to air our grievances against that government. It does not restrict the terms we use in so doing. Pastor Wright’s assertions are in no way disloyal or seditious. He never refers to an alien entity, rather, he rails against his own government. His anger is justified. The country in which he was born had marginalized him in every aspect of its national life. His great error was in allowing himself to become fixated in a certain point in time, and failing to recognize the fact that the country had continued to evolve. Apparently, the fearful, post-9/11 cry of, “Why do they hate us,” begins to fade in memory. (Personally, I felt a certain sense of Black-obsession relief during that period.) It is notable that the pastor’s church is not a den for the manufacture of IEDs and suicide-bomber vests. In reality, the only violence involved in this matter is strictly semantic—fully allowable under constitutional prerogative.