What a week.
New York Congressman Charlie Rangel stepped down from his powerful position as chair of the Ways and Means Committee. He's accused of taking corporate sponsored flights to the Caribbean. Ethics Violation.
Governor Paterson is accused of receiving Yankees tickets to the World Series (worth 100k) and not paying for them. Ethics Violation. That's on top of being accused of interceding in a domestic violence case in which his top aide was accused of beating a woman.
And, then area Congressman Eric Massa, just 18 months into his first term, announced he was stepping down for health reasons. We have also learned he's accused of harassing a male employee in his office. The House Ethics Committee is investigating.
What a week, indeed.
After mentioning all of this, a political commentator asked on television: "What's in the water in New York?"
Hey, we're not all bad, but it certainly looks bad and feels bad for all of us, especially when unemployment is at a 20-year high and the state's facing a record deficit in the billions. We need these guys to do the job we elected them to do -- serving in the most prestigious positions in our state, in the world.
The issue came up in a local classroom this week. When the teacher asked the students what should be done-- they replied, "Let's move." The teacher responded, "No, we need kids like you to grow up and fix our problems."
Better yet, how about we work on fixing them for the next generation so they don't want to move.
