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Will the next President address the human cost of the financial crisis?
By Lauren | October 7, 2008
Yesterday, I reported the story of Addie Polk, a 90-year-old woman whose home loan had been foreclosed and who shot herself when the sheriff’s deputies came to evict her. Mrs. Polk’s story had a relatively happy ending; her loan was forgiven, her home was restored, and she’s expected to recover from her injuries.
The Rajaram family wasn’t so fortunate.
The Associated Press reports this morning that Karthik Rajaram, a man who once worked for a major accounting firm and was at least the part-owner of a financial holding company, shot himself, his wife, his three children and his mother-in-law sometime over the weekend. Rajaram had been unemployed for several months. He reportedly wrote in his suicide note that he thought it more honorable to take his family with him into death than to commit suicide alone and leave them to fend for themselves. His logic was unquestionably twisted, but Rajaram was clearly in utter despair and six people, three of them under the age of twenty, are dead as a result.
Tonight we’re going to hear from both Presidential candidates in a “town hall meeting” debate about the economy and foreign policy. I ordinarily save these election posts for Fridays, but the financial crisis is too urgent for delay. Will either or both of the Presidential candidates put forth workable plans not just to rescue Wall Street, but to address the very real pain and fear of ordinary Americans who have lost jobs, homes, and hope? How could it possibly be ethical to bail out the wealthiest Americans and leave the rest behind? Please, listen carefully tonight, and find out what your candidate thinks about the financial crisis and how to resolve it. Has your candidate set out a thoughtful proposal, and are you okay with it? You decide.
Topics: Presidential Campaign, Social Ethics, ethics |