A SIGH IN THE OINTMENT

I’m taking advantage of a little literary license in part with this posting. The ointment I’m referring to is more of a metaphor perhaps for the balm of social cures all we come up with in the form of social programs. They are the type of ointment intended to help heal the gaping wounds of injustice. Um, hey that isn’t bad if I say so myself.

Anyway, the problem is that no one ointment can ever heal all problems or wounds. Which definitely doesn’t work with problems involving the needs of people.

However, that doesn’t keep us from following the same “formula” in terms of preparing a suave deliverance. How could one, after all, ever come up with an ideal medicinal balm without first giving a speech? Not when there is a politician involved in any way. That you can be guaranteed will never happen.

So the first step is having at least one speech and then the compulsory commentaries by those who have a need to give a speech about speeches. It is another critical ingredient. You simply can’t have any decent social ointment that isn’t bantered to death by anyone who remotely had an opinion and expects to utter it before any balm is offered. Nobody can honestly serve any worthwhile aid to problems without enough words spoken to show we care. Caring without speeches is vulgar and rude. (Well it sounds good to say if you are a politician!)

After all the speeches then comes the balm process. This happens in a committee. Which always guarantees that whatever ointment is developed with lack any real potency while insuring the people on the committee are treated as concerned and loving members of society. (Have you got the idea yet that show is more important here than do? I certainly hope so!)

Once all the talking is done and enough publicity is afforded every leech of a publicity hog who expects credit for the process, then, THEN, somebody will actually offer up some version of social ointment. And before anyone figures out the stuff doesn’t work it is time to begin working on the next ointment.

This for me is called living life by exclusion in action. Which is my own title to express the sigh that I never utter publicly over the folly of ointments that never really do any good.

Is there an option to this pretense? Some way to honestly avoid the madness of words without substance?

Yes there is a way. But it would require MONEY and for people to truly care. That is a kind of taxation nobody seems to honestly want to enforce.

So instead we savor the illusion of using the suave of fabrication on wounds and pass around enough artificial and addictive stimulants to numb the pain from the failure of such ointments. Some might call it a failure. I call it job security for me as a politician.