I See the Light

It came home to me loud and clear by mid-day yesterday why so many members of Congress simply could not vote in favor of the rescue bill before them now. The responses to my blog yesterday on CNBC.com “Why You Should Write Your Congressman” (Main Street, Wake Up… on my website) were easily ten to one in opposition of my support of passage of the bill. The language in some of the emails was simply unrepeatable and the vitriol and anger brought me back in time to my study of history. I had an image of Robespierre at the onset of the French Revolution with hordes of angry French citizens railing against the Crown.I truly wished I could respond to many of the hate-mailers, but I realized it would have no impact on their point of view. Their anger was understandable and most of them cannot be blamed in any way for the crisis. However, their voices cannot justify allowing the entire financial system to collapse and as punishment for past mismanagement.Unfortunately, despite dire warnings from sage and respected investors such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gross, Middle America is not convinced that the bill before Congress is not simply another bailout of the rich at the expense of the rest of the population. Nothing will disavow them of that. Hopefully enough members of the House and the Senate will have the fortitude and integrity to risk the possible political repercussions and vote to pass the bill before them. Sometimes the patient really does not know what is best for him or her.I encourage people to go online and read Thomas L. Friedman’s op-ed article “Rescue the Rescue” in the New York Times today. It is lucid and totally on the mark.