Maybe you didn't hear about it but last week twelve cruiseline American venturers were taking a bus tour while docked in Chile. The bus crashed and all were killed. Apparently these ill fated vacationers were of a prominent Jewish community in New Jersey. In other words wealthy and influential. There was a CNN article on how this community is struggling to come to terms with their loss. The article brushed over how the precinct's Federal House Representative has publicly promised a full investigation into the cause of the crash. He was quoted "It is important that when people are dealing with a loss that they be able to deal with the facts and not just rumors and suspicions"
In and of itself this statement is true, but does that importance fall on the responsibility of the federal government's pocketbook? Is finding out why a bus in Chile crashed that killed twelve Americans a worthy cause to take our nation even a little bit further into debt? Obviously if this was my or your extended family that was taken away by fateful circumstances there would not be a Federal investigation over it. And righfully so. Does everyone else who looses a loved one tragically in a foreign country get this nicety or do you think the Representative might be pandering to his electorate just a bit?
It's this kind of political posturing that sickens me. More proof we need the Line Item Veto back, folks.
But a really nice quote came out of this article that I want to pass along. One of the effected family members said wisely "We have no right to ask 'Why did this travesty happen to me?' unless every time that a blessing has come our way we ask just as passionately 'Why did this blessing happen to me?' ". What an awesome and insighful quote! *to be sung to the tune Twelve Dead in Ohio by C,S,N&Y
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