Blame the Innocent 8/12/02

We had the '80s pegged as the Decade of Greed, and the '90s defined as the Me Decade. This one is shaping up as the Decade of Blame.

Somebody's got to pay - who knew what and when did they know it?

Underneath all of this, of course, is the assumption that "It wasn't me!" Case study one: The Twin Towers collapse when fanatics ram jets into them. Effect: Did the building designers screw up? Did someone responsible fall asleep at a) The White House; b) The CIA; c) The FBI; d) The Pentagon; e) The NSA; or f) The INS? Find that guy, and ruin him utterly. Whip him like a teenager caught red-handed with a can of spray paint in one hand and a glue-soaked rag in the other.

It seems to be endless. A story in today's paper about the Naked Gardener in Philadelphia :http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/front.htm) seems related to the Blame Game in that after his neighbors brought a lawsuit against him and refused to talk to him socially about his au naturale behavior - which appears to have been a protest on his side against their outdoor lighting - he sends them a few letters to, as a judges ruled, "open a dialogue." Their response? They filed a harrassment charge.

We've been injured and somebody owes us money for it.

I see that as an AOL stockholder, a class action lawsuit has been filed on my behalf to sue corporate management for letting the price slide. Jesus H. Christ on a three-speed pogo stick! This is like losing money in Vegas and then suing the casino for damages.

Lawsuits are a manifestation of the sickness, as is the journalistic hunt for the story, but it all comes from us. I'm hoping that the beast slouching toward Bethlehem will herald the Decade of Unqualified Forgiveness but something suggests it's got a different agenda.