but .....Fuck Enron!!

I was raised with what I thought were common American virtues. Honesty. Integrity. Hard work. All were supposed to bring rewards. Enron’s managers inflated profits by as much as 1 Billion dollars and then cashed in their stock before it tumbled. What happened to simply earning profits?

When I was in college many of my friends got 4.0’s by admittedly obtaining copies of the tests. I guess I just wasn’t smart enough to cheat.

In my twenties I realized the world doesn’t work the way I thought it did. Hard work alone wasn’t enough to advance in my company and the words “Quality and Integrity” on our business cards were just that- words. Production was all that mattered. Screw the customer before they can screw you. Overcharging was affectionately called “Stabbing.”

Today a respected “lobbyist” for Washington State taxpayers admitted he lied. He pocketed $45,000 of money intended for his initiative drives. It looks like he was thinking of taking another $157,000. Nobody works for free but why couldn’t he just ask for the fees upfront? Now people want to be easy on him because he came “clean”-Just like Bill Clinton. There can’t be a single American (other than native) who wasn’t embarrassed by him.

To paraphrase a speaker addressing a recent graduating class “Never let them take away your idealism for that is what this country was built on.” I still have just enough left to believe him.

RobVG

(PS If my writing is too personal for the Habitable zone, would someone please let me know.)