Between Us Girls

Pointing the Finger of Blame

Right now, the majority of Americans are worried.  Will I still have a job next month?  Will I be able to afford health care next year?  How will I ever be able to send my kids to college?  What chances do I have of ever retiring?  Can I make my mortgage payment?

These are the questions most of us are asking ourselves, when we're not busy pointing the finger of blame, that is.    While it's fair to say that blaming won't fix anything, there is something about the ability to lay blame on someone, someone other than ourselves of course, that is comforting.

You will probably agree that our time would be better spent on more important things, like keeping our resume's up-to-date or cutting coupons.  But if the compulsion to blame cannot be denied, we at least need to make sure we are pointing the finger in the correct direction.

It's so easy to find fault.  The Republicans blame the Democrats, the Democrats blame the Republicans, we all blame George W. Bush.  CEO's blame government regulations, legislators blame greedy CEO's.  Banks blame borrowers, the borrowers blame the lenders.  When all else fails, we look to our neighbors and co-workers and we turn on each other.  Our anger and our feelings of helplessness can lead us to assign blame pretty randomly when it comes right down to it.

A recent example of this comes to mind.  My husband works for a company that has been attempting to squeeze blood form a stone for years when it comes to their employees.  Every year, there is more work, longer hours and

Michael Phelps: Crime and Punishment

When we put people way up high on a pedestal, the only thing we can know for certain is that they will eventually fall.  Here in America, we tend to have expectations for our public figures that we ourselves cannot even begin to live up to, essentially setting them up for certain failure.  We tend to forget that no one is perfect, not even a record setting, Olympic gold-medalist.  But oh, how we want them to be.

Michael Phelps, darling of the swimming pool, winner of eight gold medals, hero and role-model for children everywhere was photographed smoking pot at a party in South Carolina and, under South Carolina law that constitutes a misdemeanor charge carrying a fine of up to $200 and up to 30 days in jail.  Phelps has admitted to his crime and it is now up to the law enforcement officials to decide what will be his fate . . . or is it?  It seems that the court of public opinion is already in full swing.

We all have our ideas of how this situation should be handled, don't we?  What do you think?  Should we stone