Inside the Beltway – A Bad Barrel Produces Bad Apples

Mr. President,

There was an exclusive news report on MSNBC tonight. The main point was that instead of reemphasizing what you have said in public about letting the Justice Department decide about prosecuting wrong doings of the previous administration, you instead said, in a private meeting today, that this issue is settled. You did not repeat that it’s up to your Attorney General. This, and other Bush leaning actions worry me and here’s why.

The Lucifer Effect documents how “bad barrels” produce “bad apples.” How one’s environment changes who you are. How good people come to do bad things. (Think Abu Ghraib and The Stanford Prison Experiment.)

I think that “inside the beltway” represents the bad barrel of the country and that the longer one is inside that beltway, the greater the chance that a good man will be adversely affected.

Please recognize the threat of the bad barrel and keep true to your heart and we the people. Keep empathy in the fore and help the country relearn that the government is here to protect and empower all of us – not just the mega rich.

By the way, it also sounds like we are losing the healthcare battle in the Senate to profit.

Thank you for taking on this tough job in these bad times!