Another trusted official seemingly walked down an unsavory path and is now paying the price today for their actions. Today, the HUD Secretary Jackson resigned because of his alleged participation in a scandal that involved money. I don’t pretend to know all of the details of the situation, or what is true and what is not. This story is not unlike many of the other stories that have surfaced in recent years with the same theme. It’s a story of people not being satisfied with what they have, and instead of working within the constraints of the law and moral ethics, make the decision to bypass those things in an attempt to gain or profit (at times, at someone else’s expense). A list containing the names of those people is too long to write down here. What I’d be more interested in learning about is where that whole mentality comes from, and why some folks think that it’s okay to circumvent the laws that the rest of us rely on to guide our behavior?
What message are we sending to our young people by participating in such activities? It’s the same thing as trying to tell your child not to smoke as you yourself are taking a puff of a cigarette. Is it really effective to in a sense tell your child “do as I say, not as I do”? According to Mr. Jackson’s biography on the HUD website, he and his wife have two grown daughters. It is my hope that the next generation of potential leaders that are the offspring of these fallen leaders will not do as they have seen done.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
It's Just a Game, Right?
Okay, so I saw an advertisement on television for a Monopoly game by Parker Brothers (an imprint of Hasbro). Let me just say from the start that it’s not a game that will I ever play, nor would I want my son to play it. Let me tell you why.
It’s the Electronic Banking edition apparently. Feel free to go to their website at and see it for http://www.hasbro.com/games/kid-games/monopoly/default.cfm?page=Products/Detail&product_id=19783 yourself. You can click on the game and get a virtual sample of what it will be like to play the game. Now I absolutely love Monopoly, and always have since I first played as a child. It is a game that I have played with my son many times. I would just never buy the electronic banking version. Apparently, each player starts the game with a debit card that is loaded with $15 million! Yes, I wrote 15 million, there is no error. There are so many things that I think are wrong with the messages that the game is putting out, that I don’t know if I can list them all here. How realistic is it to start with $15 million dollars? And who in their right mind would want it to be loaded and spend freely on a debit card? Is that all of the money that you have, or do you have a savings or investment account somewhere? OK, let me move on from the issue of the money… the tokens that you select from at the start. Your choices are a plasma tv, a box of Altoids, a space shuttle, a Segway, a purse with a dog in it (would my little girl be getting encouraged to be Paris Hilton for the duration of the game?), and thank goodness for those of us that were happy being the shoe or thimble in the old version… there is a baseball cap in this version.
Moving right along with the actual game: I can take my plasma tv, roll the dice and move down the lane… landing on Gateway Arch, St. Louis which will cost me $1 million dollars should I choose to buy it. OK, no problem, because I’ve got 14 more where that came from, and I’m feeling lucky. My opponent moves, and then it’s my turn again. A roll of the dice lands me on Community Chest where I am told that I am the runner-up on a reality tv show (and have therefore won $100,000). On my next turn, I land on Disney World Orlando, and have to pay rent of $200,000. 200K for what? Would that be for my resort timeshare there, and if so, how long does that get me? As the adult, I would assume it’s the rent for the entire place, but I’m not sure my child would know. A roll of the dice brings me to a Chance space, where I am ordered to donate $150,000 for disaster relief. Not bad I suppose since I have $14 million left… I suppose the message of being philanthropic is not lost here. I have a problem with cards that say “Win big at the casinos in Atlantic city… win $1 M”. I have no idea how much it will cost to get out of jail, can only image how much money could sit in “free parking” waiting to be won, and hate to guess how much those blue properties at the end of the board will cost that were always expensive (you know, Park Place and Boardwalk). What I do know is that each time the player passes “go”, they collect a whopping $2 million for successfully dodging all of the financial whoppers that are on the player’s path.
The game is said to be for ages 8 and up. Hmmm. It’s just a game though, right?
It’s the Electronic Banking edition apparently. Feel free to go to their website at and see it for http://www.hasbro.com/games/kid-games/monopoly/default.cfm?page=Products/Detail&product_id=19783 yourself. You can click on the game and get a virtual sample of what it will be like to play the game. Now I absolutely love Monopoly, and always have since I first played as a child. It is a game that I have played with my son many times. I would just never buy the electronic banking version. Apparently, each player starts the game with a debit card that is loaded with $15 million! Yes, I wrote 15 million, there is no error. There are so many things that I think are wrong with the messages that the game is putting out, that I don’t know if I can list them all here. How realistic is it to start with $15 million dollars? And who in their right mind would want it to be loaded and spend freely on a debit card? Is that all of the money that you have, or do you have a savings or investment account somewhere? OK, let me move on from the issue of the money… the tokens that you select from at the start. Your choices are a plasma tv, a box of Altoids, a space shuttle, a Segway, a purse with a dog in it (would my little girl be getting encouraged to be Paris Hilton for the duration of the game?), and thank goodness for those of us that were happy being the shoe or thimble in the old version… there is a baseball cap in this version.
Moving right along with the actual game: I can take my plasma tv, roll the dice and move down the lane… landing on Gateway Arch, St. Louis which will cost me $1 million dollars should I choose to buy it. OK, no problem, because I’ve got 14 more where that came from, and I’m feeling lucky. My opponent moves, and then it’s my turn again. A roll of the dice lands me on Community Chest where I am told that I am the runner-up on a reality tv show (and have therefore won $100,000). On my next turn, I land on Disney World Orlando, and have to pay rent of $200,000. 200K for what? Would that be for my resort timeshare there, and if so, how long does that get me? As the adult, I would assume it’s the rent for the entire place, but I’m not sure my child would know. A roll of the dice brings me to a Chance space, where I am ordered to donate $150,000 for disaster relief. Not bad I suppose since I have $14 million left… I suppose the message of being philanthropic is not lost here. I have a problem with cards that say “Win big at the casinos in Atlantic city… win $1 M”. I have no idea how much it will cost to get out of jail, can only image how much money could sit in “free parking” waiting to be won, and hate to guess how much those blue properties at the end of the board will cost that were always expensive (you know, Park Place and Boardwalk). What I do know is that each time the player passes “go”, they collect a whopping $2 million for successfully dodging all of the financial whoppers that are on the player’s path.
The game is said to be for ages 8 and up. Hmmm. It’s just a game though, right?
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