"You've got to say, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it ..."
Fired newsman Howard Beale from the movie "Network" may have screamed today's battle cry 33 years ago in the story about television news. Beale, played by Peter Finch, lamented the loss of jobs, a depression, the banks going bust and crime on the rise.
Fast forward 33 years to the present. Wall Street financial institutions go belly up with supposedly the brightest minds at the helm.
General Motors has been in a tailspin on the economic highway for years, and its only road to salvation may be through bankruptcy.
A billion here, a billion there. A national debt nearing $13 trillion.
And every responsible, law-abiding person is screaming Beale's immortal words: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
Modern-day Paul Reveres who couldn't take it anymore protested the increasing government debt and taxation Wednesday " a very appropriate day because it was the deadline for sending our income tax forms. TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Parties were staged in cities across the nation, from the site of the original 1773 Tea Party protest in Boston to Carson City and San Francisco.
People have been venting their frustration since the global economy began its meltdown.
Citizens are angry watching the government spent billions and billions of dollars with no constraints in place, while they must juggle household budgets and income and wonder if they have a job the following day.
Most Nevadans say it is their civil duty to pay taxes for necessary services, but we also see billions of dollars of our hard-earned money pay the interest on government loans secured from China and Dubai to help bail out Wall Street or Detroit because of the greediness of CEOs and upper management. We have allowed the government to reward bad boys with monetary gifts.
Americans have had enough of this careless spending. As many citizens demonstrated this week, they're as mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
- This editorial first appeared in the Lahontan Valley News.