Does anybody care? I wonder. Does anybody really care?

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has completed its report. The FCIC spent more than a year examining the causes of the financial crisis. It held 19 days of public hearings, interviewed more than 700 witnesses and reviewed millions of pages of documents. It is a 545-page report of a powerful, fact-filled indictment of the financial system and the leading players and institutions that produced the natural catastrophe. But there is one glaring omission — the massive fraud that occurred on Wall Street.

It reeks of old-fashioned investor fraud. And the biggest players are Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and three leading European banks. Don’t waste your rage and blame on President Obama. He inherited this shipwrecked economy. Wall Street investment banks are the culprits and they’ve gotten away with crimes. Not one, not the first one of the CEOs has gone to jail, and none of them will ever be convicted and incarcerated.

We have the best justice system in the world if you have big money. We have the best health care system in the world if you can afford it. Even with all the flaws, our country is the envy of the world. Hundreds of foreign students come to be educated in our colleges and universities. But the recession shows our democracy (or rather our republic) has serious problems.

We elect representatives to  Congress to act for our best interests. But too many are corrupted by money and power. We believe our system of government is the best, but we have a responsibility. We are derelict when we become less vigilant about what Congress is doing. Instead of ranting about some issue, write a letter to the politician you elected and express you views about the matter. Presently, in the House of Representatives, the Republicans and Democrats are arguing, not debating or trying to compromise, on spending and cutting.

In order to reduce the deficit and balance the budget, the Republicans (the majority in the House) propose to make drastic cuts in domestic spending, cuts that will affect the jobless, homeless, aged and disabled.

As taxpayers, we bailed out Wall Street bankers who are thriving now. Why don’t we help those who, due to the recession, have lost their homes, jobs, retirement savings — everything, including their dignity, through no fault of their own.

In 1802, Thomas Jefferson said, “I believe the banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency — first by inflation, then by deflation — the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Patricia Gainey

Thomasville