I Am Stupid – and So Are You

KWENU! Our culture, our future

I Am Stupid – and So Are You

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo

Friday, September 26, 2008

I am fuming with anger – boiling anger.

I have long suspected that I am stupid. I just did not know that it is a fact that is clear to everyone.

The government of my country, the country I love, the country that I thought is looking out for me, is screwing me up in broad day light, with a straight face.

I am full of outrage.

The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, went before the Congress and as the camera rolled, the two handed over to members of the Finance Committee three paged paper and demanded $700 billion dollars.

And they want it by Friday. No questions asked. Clean.

Otherwise…

They want to use the money to bailout the financial institutions that got the country into this economic mess in the first instance.

Members of Congress asked that executives of these failed institutions have caps on how much they make. That is, instead of the usual $34 million dollars a year, let them make something like $10 million. Bernanke and Paulson said no.

Congress asked the duo what is in the $700 billion dollars for the five-million American homeowners who are at risk of losing their homes. Bernanke and Paulson said nothing.

They want $700 billions dollars by Friday. No questions asked. Clean.

Otherwise…

Congress demanded to put in place a system of oversight. They demanded to know who would be responsible for the money and how it would be accounted for. After all, the money in question is more than the budget of Africa, Europe, and South America put together.

Bernanke and Paulson said no oversight needed. Trust us.

Yeah. Like we trusted them and they stayed on the wheel until we got to the edge of the cliff.

The duo is now threatening Congress. They are suggesting that if the country goes into Depression because Congress refused to act by Friday, their hands are clean. The blood will be in the hands of Congress.

Well, I got news for them. Blood is already flowing on the street. People are shooting themselves in front of bank repossession men who came to kick homeowners out of their homes.

I am sitting here watching. I am thinking to myself, am I dreaming? Is this real or what?

Bernanke and Paulson have the audacity to make this kind of presentation in front of we, the people. And we are not outraged. Obviously, we must be stupid.

I am here pulling my hair out. Isn't this the same kind of audacity that George W. Bush used to force most of Congress and the American people to support the war in Iraq?

The lame duck tarnished president also came out of hiding and warned Congress that the world is watching.

When did Bush begin to care about the world?

I have always known that I am stupid but no one has ever stood before me and called me stupid.

Until now.