In 590 AD, the archangel Michael decided to sheath his sword and stop killing Romans with plague.
The expression on this statue by Raffaello da Montelupo (1504–1566) says so much. Immortal Michael can’t really understand why puny humans care so much about whether their lives end with plague or with some other horror.
I would like to see a new kind of Peace Corps created, even a short one, for politicians whose decisions shape people’s lives. Just for a week or two, I’d like these powerful guys to be assigned randomly to some not-prosperous neighborhood and given not quite enough money to meet all their needs.
Let them cope with public transportation and busted-up second-hand cars instead of a limousine, chauffeur, and police escort. Let them argue with tired emergency room personnel on behalf of a sick kid whose parents don’t have good insurance. Heck, let them stand in line to buy macaroni with food stamps.
I wish Democrats would move a little bit faster to shore up the American infrastructure of schools, streets, bridges, buses, and decent jobs that pay a decent wage to people who work hard–all things our parents took for granted but that the rich “archangels” of Team Bush have heartlessly plundered because none of these things mattered to their own lives and families.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Montauk Rider // Mar 17, 2008 at 12:13 am
They’re trying Betsy, but the Bush machine vetoes everything good that they enact. Now we bail out corrupt investment houses, but try to raise the minimum wage, forget it says Bush!
2 Learning The Lessons of Nixon » Cultural Exchange between HaveNation and HaveNotNation // Apr 13, 2008 at 4:24 am
[…] Betsy: I would like to see a new kind of Peace Corps created, even a short one, for politicians whose decisions shape people’s lives. Just for a week or two, I’d like these powerful guys to be assigned randomly to some not-prosperous neighborhood and given not quite enough money to meet all their needs. […]