2008 Woodie Awards
A case of mistaken priorities: Why America is in big trouble
Feature Editorial
Basileo Odukoya
Issue date: 6/16/08 Section: Opinions
Question: Have you ever heard of "Spygate?" I know many of you are thinking this is a typo and should have read "Watergate," but it is not. "Spygate" is just another name conjured up by our good folks at ESPN for a sports scandal, tagged this way to intrigue viewers.
I have another question for you: If I told you what "Spygate" was, would you care? Would you care about a football "spying" scandal? I'm pretty sure the answer is no. You're probably thinking about what sacrifices you have to make in order to compensate for the rising cost of food, or thinking about the unemployment rate, or rising energy costs, or maybe all of these problems and more. Our world is literally falling apart as global warming eats our planet alive, our deficits are deepening, the unemployment rate is shooting up, and the average national gas price is well over $4. But unlike you, some government officials do care about "Spygate." Some officials, such as Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, would rather use their position to waste your hard-earned money in conducting an independent probe into the NFL to determine if the New England Patriots had an unfair advantage by video taping their opponents' hand signals. Now, you may wonder why I'm angry about the actions of a Pennsylvania Senator. "It isn't our tax dollars he will be using to conduct this probe nor did we elect him," you must figure. Well, the reason you should be aware of this continuing misuse of power and money by government officials is that our country is going through a terrible economic cycle and there are Senators wasting their time and money on such nonsense. He is not alone, as recent investigations into steroids by the Congress show.
I have a suggestion for our government: Stop trying to use your position to gain notoriety by uncovering hidden elements of sports scandals. Nobody cares, and you should use your position to aid the U.S. in decreasing its dependence on oil. You should try to stimulate economic growth by heading initiatives to create new jobs in the U.S. If you don't have any ideas on how to do this, I do. All state-funded transportation systems should be converted to run on electricity. schoolbuses, police cars, and other forms of public transport should be running on battery power and solar power. That would be a serious turning point for our country. This would not only decrease our carbon footprint in the world, but it would reduce our dependence on oil, catapult the U.S. ahead of every other nation in the race to beat global warming, leave greater quantities of oil for the individual consumer, and encourage private developers to make the jump, too. The other part of this is that all aspects of design and implementation should only be given to American companies who would manufacture these products in the U.S. This plan would create new jobs which would increase the strength of the dollar and raise our economy from its current state of decline. Why can't Senators and Congressman work to be heralded, instead of notorious, with real change and not sports scandals?
If we allow our representatives to get away with not representing us, with wasting our time on useless investigations, we might as well not vote. We need to demand more from our elected officials, who must pass legislation and use our tax dollars for the greater good of the people. Being a government official is about being a warrior of the people, not of conducting your own personal vendetta. We must hold our officials accountable or our "democracy" will swallow us all.
I have another question for you: If I told you what "Spygate" was, would you care? Would you care about a football "spying" scandal? I'm pretty sure the answer is no. You're probably thinking about what sacrifices you have to make in order to compensate for the rising cost of food, or thinking about the unemployment rate, or rising energy costs, or maybe all of these problems and more. Our world is literally falling apart as global warming eats our planet alive, our deficits are deepening, the unemployment rate is shooting up, and the average national gas price is well over $4. But unlike you, some government officials do care about "Spygate." Some officials, such as Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, would rather use their position to waste your hard-earned money in conducting an independent probe into the NFL to determine if the New England Patriots had an unfair advantage by video taping their opponents' hand signals. Now, you may wonder why I'm angry about the actions of a Pennsylvania Senator. "It isn't our tax dollars he will be using to conduct this probe nor did we elect him," you must figure. Well, the reason you should be aware of this continuing misuse of power and money by government officials is that our country is going through a terrible economic cycle and there are Senators wasting their time and money on such nonsense. He is not alone, as recent investigations into steroids by the Congress show.
I have a suggestion for our government: Stop trying to use your position to gain notoriety by uncovering hidden elements of sports scandals. Nobody cares, and you should use your position to aid the U.S. in decreasing its dependence on oil. You should try to stimulate economic growth by heading initiatives to create new jobs in the U.S. If you don't have any ideas on how to do this, I do. All state-funded transportation systems should be converted to run on electricity. schoolbuses, police cars, and other forms of public transport should be running on battery power and solar power. That would be a serious turning point for our country. This would not only decrease our carbon footprint in the world, but it would reduce our dependence on oil, catapult the U.S. ahead of every other nation in the race to beat global warming, leave greater quantities of oil for the individual consumer, and encourage private developers to make the jump, too. The other part of this is that all aspects of design and implementation should only be given to American companies who would manufacture these products in the U.S. This plan would create new jobs which would increase the strength of the dollar and raise our economy from its current state of decline. Why can't Senators and Congressman work to be heralded, instead of notorious, with real change and not sports scandals?
If we allow our representatives to get away with not representing us, with wasting our time on useless investigations, we might as well not vote. We need to demand more from our elected officials, who must pass legislation and use our tax dollars for the greater good of the people. Being a government official is about being a warrior of the people, not of conducting your own personal vendetta. We must hold our officials accountable or our "democracy" will swallow us all.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Mike
posted 6/16/08 @ 9:49 PM CST
Good thoughts but bad ideas. Where are electronics made? When was the last time you bought an American made electronic? I agree electric cars are the way to go, but I do not think they would help our economy. (Continued…)
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