Pointing Fingers

While checking in on a patient in the ICU today, I noticed that on his TV was playing the interrogation of the recently appointed AIG CEO on CNN. It was interesting to hear the congressmen berate him and chastise him for the sins of his company. It felt good to hear him get yelled at, to hear the speakers talk of their suffering constituents, and get angry at the audacity of the contract writers to ensure that regardless of whether the company succeeded or failed, the executives would receive their promised retention bonuses.

When I got home and turned on CNN, I continued to watch as everyone was trying to figure out who to point the finger at for this tragedy. Eventually, after watching enough news, I became acutely aware of certain things
1. If anyone dare say that we are not all born with a sinful nature, that everyone is born good, then I beg them to tell me how come we don't need to teach kids how to lie, but have to spend their whole upbringing instilling them with the strength of character to tell the truth

2. We are outraged at the avarice of these AIG perpetrators, but do we ever look at ourselves, and the actions of our daily lives?

So many times in the hospitals I see people, from Administrators, Doctors, nurses to foodservers and housekeepers who make it their goal to do the least amount of work for their pay, who do not look at the big picture which is the patients' well being and satisfaction, but who choose to cut corners in their work, whether to save the hospital money or because they can't be bothered with the leg work. All to make their lives easier because after all no one is watching.

Just today I had to yell at the secretary at a hospital I did a Trauma Surgery rotation at way back in November, because she'd known for months that my evaluation was not done because of the fact that they did not have a picture of me, and not only did she choose not to notify me of this, but she never returned any of my calls since November. I had to get my school to contact her, and when we finally spoke today, she tried to skirt the issue when I pointed out her negligence, saying that it was all beside the point, that I'd better submit my picture if I want my eval to be done.

3. We are so enraged but if these same shady business dealings were making us money, we wouldn't have cared, which is how we got in this mess in the first place. Why is it that we as a society only seem to care if something is being done wrong when it affects us?


I pray for the US government officials right now who are trying to bring a change to the way that business is being done in this country, because I know that theirs is an almost impossible battle. I say this because there is simply no amount of legislation that can erase the fact that we are sinful creatures, prone to selfishness and greed and without the Holy Spirit strong within our hearts, guiding our paths, we will always chose that which is easy over that which is hard; that which is profitable over that which is right.

While we point a finger at ex-president Bush or the current administration, or AIG, I encourage all of us to look at ourselves and see if there is anything in the way that we go about our lives that may need some serious reform as well.

My two cents

This morning on Good Morning America, they were talking about the wave of "good, upstanding" Americans taking to a path of crime due to the economic crisis. They spoke of three white bank robbers. A deacon of a church who attempted to rob a bank after his real estate company was threatening to collapse. He ended up taking hostages and being arrested. Another recently unemployed man was convicted of robbing 12 banks (how does one get away with one, further more 12???) He said that he did it to ensure that his twin daughters would continue to have all the "nice things, that they'd become accustomed to". The best story was of the granny who had robbed a few banks. They said that she was simply trying to support her son (who, by the way, is a grown man and should be taking care of himself).

The reporter was presenting these happenings as a phenomenon. As though all of a sudden for the first time in the history of man, good people who have lost their resources are turning to crime. Upon hearing this, I turned to my husband baffled.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. So, if these are good people, then are we saying that most of those people in jail for robbing banks, etc are bad people? What makes these three so different from the rest of the criminal population??

While there are a percentage of criminals who participate in deviant behavior due to ant-social personality disorders, the lack of proper guidance growing up, the need for God in their lives, or just for the hell of it, I would argue that there are more people who find themselves on some point along the continuum of: 1.insufficient education or socioeconomic standing→2.limited earning power→ 3.desperation→4.criminal behavior being more profitable. Some of us may not start out at a low socioeconomic standing. We might be fine until things like this recession takes place and we find ourselves at the second pt.The fact is that we are the Human Animal, not all together immune from resorting to brute and downright monstrous behavior once we are pushed into a corner.

I am not advocating robbing banks or doing anything illegal when money gets tight. I am just saying that we need to be careful how we label people good or bad. We must enforce the laws of the land, but we must also continue to strive for the eradication of the slums and the ghettos, which serve as literally a petri dish, harboring the perfect environment in which generations of bank robbers are developed. Neither the guy on the poor side of town, or the soccer mom who lost her nest egg, are justified in breaking the law. To excuse one, we must excuse the other.

It should not take middle class America to lose a home or the means to pay for their Lexus SUV before we are able to look at ourselves and realize that none of us are better than those people in Jail, or any less capable of doing what some of them have done to get there.