A Small Victory

the blame game

I'm trying to put myself in the place of John Walker's parents. I imagine myself, standing before the press, facing hundreds of questions about my son's life and motives. And while I don't think I would stand up there and villify him, I can say with certainity that I would not be deflecting responsibility or making him out to be a good guy who just made a mistake. I cringe every time I hear his parents speak. They call him a patriot. They call him a good kid. They evade direct questions by bringing up the issue of Walker's treatment while he was detained.

I'm not coming out either way on what should be done with him, or what he should be tried for. Whether or not his civil rights were violated while he was being held is not really what concerns me. What does is the total lack of acknowldegement on the part of the parents that their son was a member of a terrorist organization. Even if it was not his intention to kill Americans, he still belonged to a group of people that terrorized women, children and other countries. They held mass executions for live audiences. This would not be ok with me as a parent. I would not be looking into a television camera calling my son misguided. Am I the only one who thinks these parents have to accept a certain amount of responsibility for their child's behavior? Or is it just easier for them to pass the blame? They will blame society and the United States government. Years from now Walker will blame his parents as he goes for jailhouse therapy.

The whole issue of passing the buck and not accepting blame could not have been clearer as when I was watching the Enron hearings on C-Span last night. Is it me or is this guy David Duncan being railroaded? He cannot possibly be the only person in all of Arthur Anderson to know that these documents were being shredded. His bosses sat on their fat asses, telling the panel over and over that it was all David Duncan's fault and they knew nothing. This guy is being hung out to dry. There is no way you could ever convince me that none of the in-house attorneys at Arthur Anderson knew of the shredding. Hell, they probably ordered it. And then they picked this one auditor who could be their fall guy. So while Duncan is sitting in the hot seat, pleading the fifth on every questions, all the other Arthur Anderson employees better be sweating under their white collars, because I'm rooting for Duncan to get tired of holding the bag. I'm waiting for him to name names and bring everyone down with him. I'm not saying the guy was right in what he did. He just should not have to have all the blame passed on to him. And for the big guns in that company to think that the panel and the public would believe that only one person shredded these documents, well they either think we are very stupid or they are just monumentally stupid themselves. Then again, if they were smart, they wouldn't be in this mess, would they? Smart people don't leave trails of evidence.

I hate when I get so irate at 5am. It sets a tone for the whole day.

Do me a favor while I'm at work? Go check out D's new digs. The bulletproof punk has risen from the ashes and is currently residing in Acerbia. The new place looks fresh and exciting, which bodes well for me, as D will be doing a redesign of this site. And speaking of redesigns, the bizarre and lovely mecawilson has fixed his place up. Same sick humor, new things to look at. And I am switching to Moveable Type this weekend. I don't know what happened. One minute I'm talking to Shel, the next he's installing MT. I think he brainwashed me. I have this sudden desire to dance to Robbie Willilams. Or with Robbie Williams.

I keep feeling like there was something else I was supposed to say....eh, it's Friday. I have all weekend to bug you.