Editor, OBSERVER:
In a country that is seeing the gap between the rich and the poor growing wider, we now see that the law gap is also growing wider.
Recently, Goldman Sachs was absolved of all legal liability during the financial meltdown. Although they did knowingly sell products that were destined to fail, and charged fees to their clients, they were still found not guilty. They knowingly acted immorally, secretive and sold products that they knew were going to fail, the law still said ... no crime.
This is because the lawmakers are owned by these monied interests and they write the laws that allow this type of behavior to go unpunished. This is not the American system I was taught to believe.
If a poorer defendant commits a ten thousand dollar crime he may be subject to years imprisonment. But Goldman Sachs committed acts that cost people hundreds of millions, if not billions and still thay are judged to have committed no crime.
The ethical standard for criminal behavior has been so hidden in the laws written by political hacks, bought and paid for by Wall Street, by oil companies, by pharmaceuticals - to name a few - that we no longer expect the same standard applies to corporations that apply to persons. The Supreme Court has declared that corporations have the same rights as persons. OK, but they must be held to the same standard and they are not. Goldman Sachs was not, British Petroleum was not, Halliburton was not and hundreds of others are not held liable. So they pay a fine of a few million dollars after committing acts that garner them billions. The joke is on us, the people. Put a few CEOs away in Attica, or any maximum security prison and watch how quickly law and ethics will go hand in hand.
This is all one man's opinion, and all I ask is that you think about it and the next time you see your congressman, be annoying and ask him why and wait for an answer, not a joke or a slogan, an answer.
Good luck.
WARREN BEYER,
Mayville
