Friday, May 12, 2006

An Allegory For Congress

Today I helped scoop ice cream at lunch--the Sacramento River Cats (and their mascot, Dinger!) provided the ice cream to our students who had perfect attendance during our standardized testing.

One of my students, a rugby player, came through my line and I gave him a little extra. During class this afternoon, he thanked me for hooking him up.

It was then that I realized what I had done. And I was ashamed.

You see, it wasn't my ice cream to give away. It was just there, lots of it, and I gave some of it to a favorite. It didn't really hurt anyone, right? I mean, it was just one extra scoop out of thousands. It didn't put me out at all, and it bought me some personal goodwill.

It was the perfect allegory for how lawmakers spend our tax dollars.

No comments: