A PRAYER FOR AN OWL

My wife, Phyllis, recently told me that the skunk has been determined to be an endangered species down here.

This is because the local owls sort of see the skunk as "protein du jour". You see,the owls can't smell.

As my wife explained, the result is that people are now adopting skunks that have been desensitized, as they cannot exist in the outside world.

So, my question is "Who would like to adopt a Congressman?"

In case you may have forgotten, this is a collection of people who have retained their skunk status since comedian Will Rodgers was writing and talking about them in the early part of the last century.

As Will was once quoted, "There will never be a lack of humor resources as long as we have a Congress."

To the best of my knowledge there has never been a larger aggregation of the "genus Mephitis" in this country than those we choose to sit in our hallowed Halls of Congress.

Like the cute furry animal skunks, we seem to have this strange attraction for the human beast collectively known as politicians.

No matter how often, or to what degree, we have been sprayed with their toxic secretion - we continue to invite the incumbent back into public office.

And trust me, none of them are that cute little Pepe Le Pew with the delightful French accent.

I recently read a Thomas Jefferson reference wherein he expressed a hope that we would "crush in it's birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations."

Clearly, that ain't happening. If anything, our politicians have allowed corporate largess to consume them and in doing so, led us down the path of total economic chaos.

So, in our wisdom we decided in 2010 (two years after the most egregious disaster) to overwhelmingly allow the Republican party - the corporations largest ally - to increase their influence in the House of "Representatives" - a misnomer if ever there was one.

In fact, despite the Republican victories in the 2010 election we really haven't seen any sign of redemption on either side of the aisle. As a matter of fact, when it comes to the amount of money the skunks are willing to accept from corporations and lobbyists - it has increased.

I'm always amazed that the voters in this country really believe that a change of party representation in our national government is going to make a real difference. As long as there is greed and enough funds to support it, the face or the offending specie may be different, but the corruption will remain the same.

As long as we pursue this seesaw elective effort we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. So, why vote then - you well may ask.

We have often written how each party has it's traditional affiliation with a distinct group of special interests that cannot possibly favor the future of most of us honest hardworking human beings.So is it the liberal left or the conservative right we seek?

Part of our problem is an analogy that the overwhelming majority of us can see the neighborhood violence but are sure that our kid (skunk) is blameless or not contributing to what is going on.

But, in both of these examples more and more frequently nothing could be further from the truth.

How can we make things different, you ask? By becoming more information savvy and getting off our collective duff.

If we truly want to know which politician is gaining the most by corporate greed we need only research the source of their campaign monies and the decisions they make as committee heads.

Read! Read! Read! Also, listen to the talk shows and make up your own mind. Even when you disagree with the speaker there is a great chance you will walk away more informed.

Had we taken the time to make this determination we would have easily recognized why our economy was on the brink of failure due to faulty financial regulation and irresponsible political decisions.

If we were running a corporation like Congress is being run - and with this kind of results - we would have quickly fired the management and started at the top - (or at least the guy or gal right under us).

We on Social Security (or as I believe columnist Walter Lippman once called it, "social insecurity") continue to shed our "tears of concern" over the attempts by the skunks to misuse the contributions of our employers and ourselves and then claim the program is a failure.

So, if it's that meaningful in our lives - what is it that we are going to do about it? What independent group are we willing to support so that this financial information can be disseminated to a larger group of people?

Other than destroying the hearing of our spouses with our repetitive political opinion vomiting, what positive step are we going to take in the time leading up to the elections of 2012?

Will we keep approaching the skunk who sprayed us and be assured that they couldn't possibly have any of that toxic gas left?

Because if we do, we're fools - and 'damned fools' at that."

As a registered Republican, I remain amazed that we have had 4 years since the last Presidential election to uncover just one qualified and viable "owl" - and have failed to do it.

In the unlikely event that someone approached you to sign a petition favoring term limits for all politician not just Congressional skunks - what would your response be?

Would you support it - or only if you had a beer in your hand - and the beer hadn't been purchased by a local political crony?

If not - stop griping - and please pray for that Owl.

The last one we chose - isn't making it.

Skunks are skunks no matter whether they favor corporations or the so-called disadvantaged. They still smell just as bad.