Bush's Final Days, Foreclosures and America Today

Posted by Chris Campbell at Thursday, November 20, 2008

As the Dow dropped another 400-plus points today and the state of our economy continues to plummet, the ills of this country seemed to cascade upon me today. As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent an hour or so today with Mike, the owner of my local coffee shop. We chatted about the need for Obama now, the auto bailouts and his sagging business. But at the end of our conversation I turned to Mike and said, "C'est la vie", an adage that Mike uses often and I've found myself copying, to get a laugh out of him. Once again, Mike found it hysterical, and given how critical things are in this country, the irony of it was pretty comical.

I then walked to the mailbox to drop off my first payment of $350 to COBRA. As I walked home, I was a bit overwhelmed with uncertainty about too many things. Yes, Barack Obama is just around the corner and we can only hope that his administration can help guide us to brighter times, but things right now just appear to be getting worse, much worse.

As I opened my front door and opened the mailbox, there sat this week's issue of the New Yorker. As I sipped my coffee and turned on some music, I jumped into the first story, a horrifying predictor of what Bush will do in his final days in office. See, we may think that his time is up, but he still plans to quickly institute potentially irreversible rulings against the environment, endangered species and safe working conditions. I then moved on to the story of Addie Polk, a ninety year-old woman in Akron, Ohio facing foreclosure despite having paid off her home thirteen years ago. These stories were both horrifying and deeply saddening. There's little question that November 4th provided a jolt of inspiration that this country so desperately needed, but each day reminds us of the reality of today, and that reality's incredibly worrisome.

Failed leadership, corporate greed and unfettered consumerism brought us here. We must now hold organizations and leaders accountable, and then work together to dig our way out. The fear is that there's still plenty of time to continue sinking.