Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is . . .
Deborah Venable
01/10/09
I
haven’t commented about the mess that is Illinois politics since the latest
scandal came to light, so why don’t we start there. If it were not so pathetic, it would be comical to watch. Governor Blagojevich is little more than a
comic book character after all. He even
has an appropriate comic nickname, Blago!
There
can be no doubt that the political machine that produced characters such as
Blago and we certainly cannot forget, Obama, has been well oiled for a very
long time now. The power one can
receive through such a machine is intoxicating I’m sure, so, in fairness, we
should look upon these characters with pity for their obvious affliction. They are addicts, and we all know that
addiction is only a symptom of a disease.
Right?
Do
you think that any other place on earth could have groomed a virtual unknown
for a successful run at the most powerful office in the world in so little
time, and defeated such a confident opponent as Madam Clinton? (I don’t count his ability to beat the
opposition party candidate as a miracle because he was not the appropriate
choice of that party – but to beat a Clinton at their own game? Miraculous!)
The
machine does produce some unbelievable characters, and Blago and Obama are just
the latest two examples. There is a
single thread that connects all such characters, though, and that is the
restless desire for more and more power and influence. It drives their every action. That is why I am certainly not surprised
that Blago grew weary of being just a governor – one out of 49 others – and
that is why Obama will aspire to take his “most powerful” office to new
heights.
It
is safe to say that neither of these men is stupid. They each know which side of their bread contains the butter, and
that may prove their eventual undoing.
Since they are dependent upon the liberal philosophy of the modern
Democrat Party, they must continue to draw their power from a source wrought with
hypocrisy. Believe it or not, most average
people can still recognize hypocrisy when they see it.
Blago’s
brilliant move to stay in office, deny his guilt, and appoint a well qualified,
and so far genuine, black man to the Senate has upstaged both Senate Dems’ and
Obama’s call to disqualify the appointment, (at all costs evidently.) It certainly makes life interesting for
conservatives these days, as we wait with bated breath to see how hypocrisy
plays all this out!
This
seems like an appropriate time to insert a little personal background that
illustrates the kind of hypocrisy that both the liberal philosophy and the
polluted governance of Illinois has been enabling for decades:
Forty
years ago I was a resident of the state of Illinois. My husband and I spent the better part of four years living about
fifty miles north of Chicago. We bought
our first house there in a little town called, Zion. The house had previously been owned and vacated by a military
couple that had purchased it, as we did, with a VA backed home loan. Not very long after we moved into the home,
we were introduced to the nightmare that would plague us all the rest of our
time there.
The
house was off the beaten path, down a dirt road and was surrounded by vacant
land on three sides. There was no city
water or sewer hooked up to it, so we had a well and septic system. To make a long story short, we had to pull
and replace the well pump almost immediately, and the septic system failed
within our first month of residence there.
When I say, “failed” I mean big time failed! When the septic tank was full, our yard and much of the nearest
neighbor’s property was, shall we say, well fertilized!
We
would get temporary relief by having the tank pumped out, but since the septic
field itself was faulty, that would not solve the problem. The house had been built, (and approved by
all the building inspections) with a totally bogus representation of the septic
system that actually existed. I will not
bore you with all the details, but this knowledge was slow in coming our way. We kept thinking that the problem could be
fixed!
For
those who have not experienced life in that area of the country, let me tell
you it is wet – glorious farmland, rich soil, and a lot of rain and snow. At that time, the ground was totally
saturated by an unusually wet winter and summer. A usually wet winter and summer would have been enough to make
our problem miserable, but as we all know, God can have a sense of humor.
We spent a fortune in pumping services. We even tried bringing suit against the
large real estate managing company that sold us the house because we learned
that they had to be aware of the problem, but no lawyer would touch the
case. We were, you see, in violation of
the health code, and we were not very popular with our neighbors either. It didn’t matter that we wanted the problem
fixed more than anyone. We were told
that there was no way to bring the property “up to code” by way of fixing the
septic system, so we attempted to have the property hooked up to the city sewer
system. This was a very expensive
option because we needed to have the sewer extended down our little dirt
road. We were more than willing to do
this, though, if it would permanently fix the problem!
Okay,
here comes the hypocrisy. The Federal
government had already begun its surge to control more and more private
property rights even that long ago.
There was the relatively new entity called, the Environmental Protection
Agency, which decided that no one else would be allowed to hook up to the city
sewage system because the processing plant was at maximum capacity. That was when our real nightmare began!
Our
property was condemned by the county Health Department, (at OUR request, I
might add), local building codes would not sign off on any kind of septic field
fix, and the feds were preventing our only solution to the problem. We were the bad guys, lawyers would not take
our case, EPA wouldn’t budge, and we were going broke pumping the septic tank
on a regular basis!
This
went on for months. Finally, we took
our case directly to the Federal office building in Chicago and literally
danced on the desk of the head honcho of EPA.
When he became convinced that we had no intention of vacating the
property, (like the previous owners obviously did), or leaving any of the main
players in our little drama alone for the duration of their lives, he finally
granted us an easement, which allowed us to spend thousands of dollars to hook
up to the city sewer system. At last! Our environment would be protected!!!
I
tell you all this to make my point. I
have had first hand experience with the state, local, and federal agencies that
make up an Illinois community. I found
such corruption in all levels of those agencies that it truly sickened me. These things only exist in a machine oiled
with intoxicating power, as it was back then and it still is today. I am not surprised by anything or anyone
spawned from such corruption.
The
point is that to fight such power takes individual effort and commitment. Hypocrisy is a byproduct of apathy and
ignorance, and I’m sorry to say that both have enabled Illinois politics for a
long, long time. Hypocrisy, thy name is
the continuing drama resulting from Illinois politics. It should be an interesting year.
Here’s
to Mr. Burris, the only black man with legal claim to represent the great state
of Illinois in the United States Senate!
Oh, make that the ONLY black man that would be allowed in that esteemed
club.
Hypocrisy,
thy name is also, Democrat!