Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is . . .

Deborah Venable

01/10/09

 

I haven’t commented about the mess that is Illinois politics since the latest scandal came to light, so why don’t we start there.  If it were not so pathetic, it would be comical to watch.  Governor Blagojevich is little more than a comic book character after all.  He even has an appropriate comic nickname, Blago!

 

There can be no doubt that the political machine that produced characters such as Blago and we certainly cannot forget, Obama, has been well oiled for a very long time now.  The power one can receive through such a machine is intoxicating I’m sure, so, in fairness, we should look upon these characters with pity for their obvious affliction.  They are addicts, and we all know that addiction is only a symptom of a disease.  Right?

 

Do you think that any other place on earth could have groomed a virtual unknown for a successful run at the most powerful office in the world in so little time, and defeated such a confident opponent as Madam Clinton?  (I don’t count his ability to beat the opposition party candidate as a miracle because he was not the appropriate choice of that party – but to beat a Clinton at their own game?  Miraculous!)

 

The machine does produce some unbelievable characters, and Blago and Obama are just the latest two examples.  There is a single thread that connects all such characters, though, and that is the restless desire for more and more power and influence.  It drives their every action.  That is why I am certainly not surprised that Blago grew weary of being just a governor – one out of 49 others – and that is why Obama will aspire to take his “most powerful” office to new heights. 

 

It is safe to say that neither of these men is stupid.  They each know which side of their bread contains the butter, and that may prove their eventual undoing.  Since they are dependent upon the liberal philosophy of the modern Democrat Party, they must continue to draw their power from a source wrought with hypocrisy.  Believe it or not, most average people can still recognize hypocrisy when they see it.

 

Blago’s brilliant move to stay in office, deny his guilt, and appoint a well qualified, and so far genuine, black man to the Senate has upstaged both Senate Dems’ and Obama’s call to disqualify the appointment, (at all costs evidently.)  It certainly makes life interesting for conservatives these days, as we wait with bated breath to see how hypocrisy plays all this out!

 

This seems like an appropriate time to insert a little personal background that illustrates the kind of hypocrisy that both the liberal philosophy and the polluted governance of Illinois has been enabling for decades:

 

Forty years ago I was a resident of the state of Illinois.  My husband and I spent the better part of four years living about fifty miles north of Chicago.  We bought our first house there in a little town called, Zion.  The house had previously been owned and vacated by a military couple that had purchased it, as we did, with a VA backed home loan.  Not very long after we moved into the home, we were introduced to the nightmare that would plague us all the rest of our time there. 

 

The house was off the beaten path, down a dirt road and was surrounded by vacant land on three sides.  There was no city water or sewer hooked up to it, so we had a well and septic system.  To make a long story short, we had to pull and replace the well pump almost immediately, and the septic system failed within our first month of residence there.  When I say, “failed” I mean big time failed!  When the septic tank was full, our yard and much of the nearest neighbor’s property was, shall we say, well fertilized!

 

We would get temporary relief by having the tank pumped out, but since the septic field itself was faulty, that would not solve the problem.  The house had been built, (and approved by all the building inspections) with a totally bogus representation of the septic system that actually existed.  I will not bore you with all the details, but this knowledge was slow in coming our way.  We kept thinking that the problem could be fixed!

 

For those who have not experienced life in that area of the country, let me tell you it is wet – glorious farmland, rich soil, and a lot of rain and snow.  At that time, the ground was totally saturated by an unusually wet winter and summer.  A usually wet winter and summer would have been enough to make our problem miserable, but as we all know, God can have a sense of humor.

 

 We spent a fortune in pumping services.  We even tried bringing suit against the large real estate managing company that sold us the house because we learned that they had to be aware of the problem, but no lawyer would touch the case.  We were, you see, in violation of the health code, and we were not very popular with our neighbors either.  It didn’t matter that we wanted the problem fixed more than anyone.  We were told that there was no way to bring the property “up to code” by way of fixing the septic system, so we attempted to have the property hooked up to the city sewer system.  This was a very expensive option because we needed to have the sewer extended down our little dirt road.  We were more than willing to do this, though, if it would permanently fix the problem!

 

Okay, here comes the hypocrisy.  The Federal government had already begun its surge to control more and more private property rights even that long ago.  There was the relatively new entity called, the Environmental Protection Agency, which decided that no one else would be allowed to hook up to the city sewage system because the processing plant was at maximum capacity.  That was when our real nightmare began!

 

Our property was condemned by the county Health Department, (at OUR request, I might add), local building codes would not sign off on any kind of septic field fix, and the feds were preventing our only solution to the problem.  We were the bad guys, lawyers would not take our case, EPA wouldn’t budge, and we were going broke pumping the septic tank on a regular basis!

 

This went on for months.  Finally, we took our case directly to the Federal office building in Chicago and literally danced on the desk of the head honcho of EPA.  When he became convinced that we had no intention of vacating the property, (like the previous owners obviously did), or leaving any of the main players in our little drama alone for the duration of their lives, he finally granted us an easement, which allowed us to spend thousands of dollars to hook up to the city sewer system.  At last!  Our environment would be protected!!!

 

I tell you all this to make my point.  I have had first hand experience with the state, local, and federal agencies that make up an Illinois community.  I found such corruption in all levels of those agencies that it truly sickened me.  These things only exist in a machine oiled with intoxicating power, as it was back then and it still is today.  I am not surprised by anything or anyone spawned from such corruption.

 

The point is that to fight such power takes individual effort and commitment.  Hypocrisy is a byproduct of apathy and ignorance, and I’m sorry to say that both have enabled Illinois politics for a long, long time.  Hypocrisy, thy name is the continuing drama resulting from Illinois politics.  It should be an interesting year. 

 

Here’s to Mr. Burris, the only black man with legal claim to represent the great state of Illinois in the United States Senate!  Oh, make that the ONLY black man that would be allowed in that esteemed club.

 

Hypocrisy, thy name is also, Democrat!

 

 

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