Economic Crisis Excuse

The headline read "Vampire rumors spur alert at Boston Latin." I had to click. Vampires stalking a Boston campus?!! What I found was a story about bullying. Apparently student at the school who dressed more alternatively were being harassed by other students. Basically the rumor was being spread that the alternative students were vampires who cut peoples necks to suck their blood. This caused a mild panic at the school as did a supposedly unrelated police visit – leading school officials to publicly deny the vampire rumors assuring students that no one had been bitten.

Odd story, but what really struck me was this line from Chris Horan, a spokesperson for the Boston School System, who "said in reference to the rumors that when you've got 'an $800 million budget and 212 layoffs, this is not really a priority'." So basically the economic crisis has become an excuse to opt out of dealing with school bullying. When the adults are stressed and dealing with their own crap, they give up on the kids. What a great example to set for the future leaders of our country.

In truth I'm getting really sick of the "economic crisis" excuse. Of course we all need the wake-up call to be more responsible and all that, and there are a lot of people suffering because of the crisis, but I'm sick of hearing it as the excuse d'jour. Like when American Idol announced the cancellation of Idol Gives Back due to the economic crisis. It was obvious that was going to happen after last year's ratings and giving were down, but blaming the "crisis" makes them look slightly less than scum (I guess). Or the Vermont governor using the crisis as his reason for saying he'll veto the same-sex marriage bill. Come on, call a spade a spade and admit you don't like gay people – don't use the crisis as your excuse. Slightly more understandable, but still pretty low, are the efforts of world governments to use the economic crisis to renege on commitments to lowering emissions or worse to loosen environmental regulations. Choosing to do whatever you want and then using the economic crisis to justify yourself doesn't make your actions any less selfish, it just means you are passing the buck.

I wish the crisis would really be a wake-up call – showing us how we have failed to be responsible human beings. How we have turned a blind eye to violence and bullying in schools, how we do walk on the backs of the poor and then even skimp on charity, how we let our own prejudices strip others of their rights, or how we selfishly destroy the earth for our temporary gain. We have been living self-centered and unsustainable lives. But of course instead on owning up the the messes we created, we use the mess as an excuse to be more selfish and more unsustainable.

It makes me wish the vampire rumors were true – at least that would have pushed us beyond ourselves and our wallowing in self-pity. But alas, no such luck. So on to the next headline – is the economic crisis the reason for the upswing in vascestomies? Well, maybe at least that one makes sense…