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Connecticut Graft

There's one good thing about graft. When there's a lot of money getting doled out to political cronies, public college campuses suddenly start to look a lot like quaint New England schools with enormous endowments and even more enormous tuitions.

You name it, Three Rivers Community College, Central Connecticut State College, the University of Connecticut, Eastern State University...they're all starting to look, well, damn built up. Central even has live fish in the fountain in the middle of campus where before there was nothing but tar.

Inasmuch as Rowland's former staff is either under indictment or lobbying for big companies, this is no small feat. Our state is up to its gills in multi-national corporations, all with mailing addresses in the Cayman Islands. It would be so easy to just cowtow to them without proper attention to good old fashioned pork.

When it comes right down to it, it really doesn't matter how corrupt a goverment might be, so long as the people in charge remember to spread the wealth locally.

Graft and corruption might not be patriotism in the traditional sense, but given the right frame of mind, they could be the next best thing.

9-28-03