The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

THE GOOD: Her name is Theresa Smith. She works in Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown’s office and she is GOOD at her job. She helped get a wrongly accused man freed and cleared of horrible charges. Ara Muradyan, a teacher at Benjamin Cardozo High School, was accused by two female students of glaring at them and abusing himself in a parked car. Following the arrest of another man on similar charges a few months later and a vital change in the details of the heinous act by the accusers, Smith began her own investigation into the allegations. The results of her inquiry found that Muradyan’s arrest “was a case of mistaken identity.” Smith’s GOOD work ended the six-month-long nightmare for the 27-year-old English teacher and led to his exoneration and reinstatement at his school. Theresa Smith is a wonderful example of how much good one person who cares about her job can do. We say you have done a GOOD job!
THE BAD: The Spanish language version of the “Star-Spangled Banner” is a BAD idea, at a BAD time. Nuestro Himno (Our Anthem), created by British producer Adam Kidron, was released last week just ahead of the U.S. Senate resuming debate on the issue of immigration reform. A BAD idea timing-wise — giving on-the-fence senators another reason to swing their votes to more anti-alien immigration policy proposals — all in the name of national pride. By renaming the song so immigrants can rally around “Our Anthem” shows that they do not consider America to be their nation. Rather, they feel our nation is divided by language and culture — again a BAD idea. Changing the lyrics to the poem as written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 and adopted by Congress as the official national anthem in 1931, is just one straw too many for us. We cannot help but think of that musical number from the early ‘70s, written and recorded by Melanie Safka, namely “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma.”
THE UGLY: The crisis at the gas pumps is getting UGLY. As ExxonMobil Corp. reported over $8 billion in quarterly profits last week, we watched our elected leaders dance around the issue with words, promises and other vagaries. Promises to prosecute price gougers, give drivers $100 tax rebates, eliminate gas taxes, and end federal subsidies of energy companies that lease government land, filled the newspapers and airwaves last week as the price of gasoline pushed up well over $3.00 a gallon. We need to get UGLY too. Use your cars less, walk more, plan errands to eliminate the need to drive as often, do not fill up your tanks, and shop for the cheapest gas on the web. Supply and demand stills works in this country and the oil companies and the station owners need to see our resolve on this issue before it really gets UGLY. Soon innocent people will start losing their jobs as companies who are pinched themselves by the price of gasoline start closing their doors or cutting their overheads. When the economic bubble bursts, it will be UGLY.