SEND THE GOV HOME
Our society doesn't need to squander a single additional dollar incarcerating former Gov. George Ryan for public corruption. And bravo to Senator Dick Durbin for championing commutation of his six year sentence to the single year served.
Crooked politicians engage in corruption because its hard wired into their brains and their character, and being put in charge of the cookie jar becomes an irresistible temptation. They watch as dozens, hundreds of their colleagues destroy their lives and go to jail and they still do it. No sensible politician tempted to such shenanigans could look at seventy-four year old Ryan getting out of jail to die at home in disgrace and say to themselves, "Gee, his personal destruction and year in the joint is not a bad punishment for the risk I take".
Our now bankrupt country wastes billions of dollars a year incarcerating aging and harmless folks like Ryan while adequate police and rehabilitation resources go unfunded, allowing crime to escalate. America is mired in make believe wars in the Middle East that have killed over a million and our economy is collapsing before our very eyes. Yet the hard-hearted haters are coming out of the woodwork en mass to rant about a truly insignificant issue to the public good.
If they are so obsessed in having Ryan rot in jail till he's almost eighty they should take up a collection to pay for it and let our precious and disappearing tax dollars go for more urgent needs.
Originally published in Naperville Sun, December 11, 2008
Also published in Glen Ellyn News, December 17, 2008 and
Daily Herald, January 3, 2009
Crooked politicians engage in corruption because its hard wired into their brains and their character, and being put in charge of the cookie jar becomes an irresistible temptation. They watch as dozens, hundreds of their colleagues destroy their lives and go to jail and they still do it. No sensible politician tempted to such shenanigans could look at seventy-four year old Ryan getting out of jail to die at home in disgrace and say to themselves, "Gee, his personal destruction and year in the joint is not a bad punishment for the risk I take".
Our now bankrupt country wastes billions of dollars a year incarcerating aging and harmless folks like Ryan while adequate police and rehabilitation resources go unfunded, allowing crime to escalate. America is mired in make believe wars in the Middle East that have killed over a million and our economy is collapsing before our very eyes. Yet the hard-hearted haters are coming out of the woodwork en mass to rant about a truly insignificant issue to the public good.
If they are so obsessed in having Ryan rot in jail till he's almost eighty they should take up a collection to pay for it and let our precious and disappearing tax dollars go for more urgent needs.
Originally published in Naperville Sun, December 11, 2008
Also published in Glen Ellyn News, December 17, 2008 and
Daily Herald, January 3, 2009
posted by Walt Zlotow at 3:36 PM
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