Brooksley Born Again

                                     Brooksley Born Again
                                      A Fictitious Parable- 2008

“Brooksley”, I thought, “what a strange name.”I put the paper down and thought, “How come I’ve never heard her name before?” My coffee was still hot and especially delicious as I swirled it over my tongue and down my screeching gullet. I felt  a sense of being reborn. I now understood why I’m out of a job while my bosses are scooping millions from the sinking ship. I could not see beyond the present tragic moment and could not decide when to call my wife and tell her that she and I and our three beautiful kids are bone poor.

The article was a review of last night’s Frontline which revealed the monstrous elimination of Brooksley Born from the  CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] by the combined efforts of Allen Greenspan, Robert Reuther, Timothy Geitner, Larry Summers, Arthur Leavitt and Bill Clinton, all members of Presidential Financial Advisory Group who took Mrs. Born’s correct analysis and warning of the coming financial disaster as a naïve and totally incorrect approach which would itself bring down the financial world.

Why was she so humiliated by these self-proclaimed “wise-men” of the banking and corporate world,when they have now been proven so mistaken. Allen Greenspan, late and reluctantly declared that his “failure” to recognize Mrs. Born’s correct assessment of the times, was the greatest mistake he had ever made. Then he retired. Arthur Leavitt has said that he wishes he had known Ms. Born better, and that he believes her to be one of the most courageous and intelligent public servants he has ever known.

Why did Summers, Geitner and Reuben not also “retire”and apologise to Ms. Born for their ganging up against her  instead of accepting  positions in the Obama administration whose goal is to correct what these very men allowed to happen. My coffee is so cold I can’t drink any more. I folded up the paper and said a quiet prayer of thanks to God for the Frontline editors who had the courage to reveal the truth.

As I walked out into the sunshine onto Park Avenue, I headed to my parish church, The Church of Our Savior, beginning to gather strength by thinking of how blessed I was with Mary, whose love was my beacon home each night. My kids, Sean, Eileen and Peggy are too good for this world, but we’ll keep ‘em.

So what will I do now? I enter into the old beautiful shrine and walk slowly down the Nave to the front pew. I looked up at Jesus on the cross, and found myself filled with my childhood belief. How sad it is that so few seem to have access to the lived faith of our youth anymore. After several minutes, I turned off my brain and let God come to me within. I found myself unconsciously praying for Brooksley Born because I realized how she would understand a crucified Savior. I made a mental note to write a letter of thanks to her.

An hour passed this way, then I blessed myself, and stood to walk out of the Nave into the sunshine, into the present moment and into the rest of my wonderful blessed life.
      
                                                                   Charlie Mc