A Journal of Humor and Verbal Anarchy

 
new york state electric and greed


Imagine, if you dare, what would happen if you combined Enron, the IRS, Philip Morris, Union Carbide (remember Bhopal). the Republican Party, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Gestapo, Al-Quadea, the SS. and the nuns of Immaculate Conception School in Red Hook. NJ under one umbrella organization.

Now give that organization a monopoly over the distribution of gas and electricity for a large swath of central New York.

Then call it NYSEG.

Incidentally, are they still looking for Osama bin Laden. The other day Ez thought he recongized someone who bore a distinct resemblance to the Bogey Man of Terror reading meters for NYSEG.

Ok. You might have guessed by now that Ez is not a fan of the electric and gas company. (Ez is not a fan of any corporation, let alone an arrogant, bullying, self-serving corporation that cuts the power on widows and infants. ) Ez only wonders why a mob of angry home owners who just received their NYSEG bill hasn't led a torch light parade out there and burned the place down by now.

Sheep. People upstate are sheep. Two letters complaining about the sob's in the Ithaca Urinal does not constitute a reaction. So what is it? Why do people tolerate having their pockets picked monthly? Are Ithacans happy about being overbilled for a basic necessity of life? Do folks up here like to give money away to monopolies. Holy Smokestack, Molly.

Ez just has to wonder. Why are liberals so incensed about the machinations of Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and the Enron kid? Why do they gather around their tvs while that stern Molly Hatchet of progressivism, Amy Goodman, excoriates the Texas energy banditos on Democracy Now --when, and get this, Enron's unholy incubus is metering away millions up here in upstate NY?

It's the old syndrome. The evil far away is more interesting than the monster in your backyard. Get yourself worked up by something happening thousands of miles away and then allow some propane baron to bully you around with total impunity.

Or, maybe Ithacans don't care that much about octegenarian widows struggling to make ends meet on a fixed income. Or kids in trailers with early signs of bronchitis are just below the empathy radar.

Or, maybe most progressives in Ithaca have wood stoves.



Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 7:50 AM