Punishment

This was written in 2005* when the GOP, Business Week, and the Wall Street Journal were telling us that Bush's jobless recovery was good for the nation. We listened to them then, and ignored the warning signs on Main Street. The same warning signs that later became Foreclosure Signs, Going Out of Business Signs, and Bank Failure Signs. We all dawned our red shirts and became the expendable extras on the Star Ship U.S. of A.

I am posting this one here for all of the expandable souls who were cut adrift last Friday, January 22, 2010 at 2:22 PM in Addison Texas by a client who turned a half billion in profits in two days from June 17, 2009 to June 19, 2009, and still felt that human beings are expendable. They kept 130 and deleted the rest.

Punishment*

What was his punishment?
What was his sin?
What brought the curse?
Where did it begin?

Did he do a bad job?
Did he steal time?
Did he cheat on the time log?
Did he not toe the line?

He did it all as he was told,
He cared for servers as if gold.
Users who waited at Technology’s gate,
Were deferred to without a wait.

He did his job as was fair,
He treated all with respectful care.
Yet here he is sitting this gate,
Night so long, day so late.

Beans and rice are now his diet,
Wife and children, lips thin and defiant.
What did he do, you might ask?
He worked the corporate Master of the task.

He committed no sin.
He committed no crime.
He earned his wages.
He put in his time.

Who will pay?
Jeffery Skilling? Kenny Lay?
The evils of the era past,
Known to the world at last.

Return him now to his rightful place,
Lest you come soon, and run his race.
Meet him, you will face to face,
When on life’s track you’ll find his pace.

There is no shame in being let go by a Corporate Master. It is only foolish to think that it will not happen again and again if the Social Contract is not repaired. As Einstein said, "insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." There will be no different results if the Social Contract remains broken. To think otherwise is insane.

*Potts, Clifford A. Well Past Midnight. 1th ed. Dallas: WordTechs Press, 2008. CD-ROM.