Integrity matters?

This morning on the way to work all of the conversation on the radio was of Ted Kennedy and of his death from brain cancer at age 77. Now I know that we live in a world of cynicism and a world where people really feel like nothing is off limits to poke fun at. It made me wonder if someones death makes them off limits because in the half hour long drive I only heard one mention of Chappaquiddick.

It isn't that I feel like one incident from 40 some years ago transcends all the good that a person has done. It just highlights the double standard in America. Had there been any other driver, other then say a Rockefeller or another rich person, that driver would have spent some time in jail for manslaughter at least. But, in the case of Ted Kennedy he experienced none of that. This to me shows, much like what happened in the OJ trial,what being rich allows you to get away with in America.

Now, do not get me wrong I am not advocating punishing the rich. Though it does bother me when the children of the rich are allowed to live a life with out the consequences that the rest of us face on a dauly basis. I do not begrudge their parents wealth because often they worked hard by either stealing it, crime is hard work, or just by doing working like regular folks to gain their wealth.

I just realized that I am rambling a bit and I do not realize where I am going to go. I think I was intending to talk about term limits in Congress and how Kennedy had been in office since 1962. I know there are flaws with term limits and people say that we lose a lot of experience with the turnover that happens. But, I wonder if that is such a bad thing when some of these politicians are in office for so long.

I think that there are politicians on both sides of the aisle who are there to make themselves rich not there to do what is best for the country. I think that even limiting the terms to 10 years would make a big difference. But, until then it is going to be left to the voters to vote people out of office and people like Kennedy and Biden and some Republicans whose names escape me I do not see that happening anytime soon.

Well I guess it is time for me to ramble on. I apologize for the scattershot nature of todays writing.