I’ve been winding down on the weekends lately…and love it. The theme from the past weekend is “What is your moral compass?” Three stories troubled, captivated and amazed me over the weekend:
1. The 2009 Easter hit and run in Atlanta (related story). A 22-year old recent college graduate was on an errand for some cake and ice cream. She ended up pushing a Mercedes over a medium that ended up hitting a Volkswagen. The entire Carter family was incinerated and 6-year old little girl cut in half. Aimee Michael fled the scene with the view of the flames in her rear view mirror (from her on tape confession) and returned home. She waited two days before telling her mother and grandmother. What does the mother do? Pay a mechanic $1,500 to fix the bumper/paint in the middle of the night. Two days after that, Aimee applied for graduate school.
On Nov. 4, Aimee was sentenced to 36 years and her mother, Sheila, to 8 years in prison. The father is a Marine and works as a contractor in the Middle East, was out of the country when this terrible accident happened. If Aimee stayed and actually called the police and check on the damage that was done, she probably would have gotten 6-8 months. I can’t imagine driving away while seeing flames in the rear view mirror. If the story is not horrible enough, the mother attempting to cover up something that was an accident that resulted in the deaths of 5 people! A neighbor tipped the police off to the Michaels a week or ten days after the incident. They were not going to turn themselves in at all. I feel sorry for the dad. It is too bad that Aimee and her mother did not have a conscience. I am certain my mother would have turned my butt in, stat! She does not even let me drive her car.
2. Oscar Grant shooting. I really hate this story and the outcome. Oscar Grant was shot in cold blood on New Year’s in 2009. Johannes Mesherle, Bay Area Rapid Transit policeman, killed a defenseless young man. Oscar Grant, 21-year old, a father of a 6-year-old girl, was lined up against the wall and completely slaughtered. Beware the video is very hard to watch. Mesherle was sentenced for 2 years which is really 1 year for time already served for mistaking a gun for a taser. I cannot believe a jury bought a story that a cop can’t tell the difference between a firearm and a taser. I pray he will be forever out of law enforcement. Very disgusting.
3. Eliot Spitzer. I rented Client 9, the Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer, for a whopping $7.99. If you are a mutual fund investor or a victim of the bad economy, Sptitzer should be of interest to you. I remembered being very disappointed when he resigned over using prostitutes. I have supported his new show on CNN (Parker Spitzer). I do not condone prostitution, but he did predict the fall of the economy as we now know it. He took on Wall Street, AIG, CEO big payouts, the banks, etc…long before it was fashionable. I do not know if this docudrama will completely do for him like the “Inconvenient Truth” did for Al Gore or McNamara’s “The Fog of War,” but it is in the step in the right direction. His one-time call girl totally milked out the scandal for everything it is worth.
If you want to know what hate looks like, check out former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg, Kenneth Langone and Senate Majority leader Joseph Bruno appearances in the movie. They are so happy about Sptizer’s downfall…you can see it in their eyes and smirks. A cooky political consultant, Roger Stone, rounds out this motley, but powerful group. I was so angry that Greenbeg’s AIG stock is now worth according to him, “nothing, only a $100 million dollars.” I am mad that Spitzer gave his enemies something with to ruin him. I really enjoyed the film…it definitely makes you think. A great bookend to the docudrama is Spitzer’s Colbert nation appearance Feb of this year.
GI Jane
GI Jane Finances 