OUR VALUE SYSTEM

Do you get as concerned as I about some of the misplaced values in this current world of ours? I'm sure you do.

Here is a prime example. I read in the Huffington Post a column by Dan Solin, which really touched a nerve.

He mentions a guy in Shreveport LA named Roy Brown, who faked a stick-up in a bank (he pretended he had a gun), took $100.00 and told the teller he was homeless and needed food. He turned himself in the next day, stating he was not raised to be a criminal, and was later sentenced to fifteen years.

Then Solin mentions the one I was so hot about in my last blog, "The New Alice in Wonderland", where Citigroup was fined 385 mill and made to reimburse investors whose subprime mortgages Citigroup bet against by selling short. No jail, just a fine, which is like a slap on the wrist to these big firms who plead nolo contendere and walk away.

Then he mentions the countless real estate scams involving billions of dollars where the criminal sentences range from three months to eight years.

Is something wrong here? Is this the result of money and influence prostituting justice? It makes one appreciate the sentiments of The Occupy Wall Street protesters still making noises and gaining converts.

Another example to me of misplaced power and values are these new so-called "Super-Pacs", the latest legal way to get around the ban on large individual and corporate gifts. What really changes except the name? I also note both parties have 'em!

When money means power and power means influence---it's as old as time---you run this risk. I don't like what it means today in this lightning world of instant communication where everything happens quicker.

The value system becomes invalid.