As a kid, my parents told me that life is not fair. I never accepted that lesson.

I often think about Aesop’s fables such as the ‘Ant and the Grasshopper’. What that fable tells me is that humans have struggled with the idea of people getting what they deserve for as long as there have been humans.

Sure, nature isn’t fair. Storms and earthquakes are something we have to accept and endure. But, if “life” is not fair, that simply means that people are not fair. We decide whether life is fair and just or not.

So it is my childish and unwavering sense of fairness and justice that has me so freaking mad about the last 8 years and especially about the economic crisis we find ourselves in.

Two things: punishment and acceptance

We ought to punish those that can clearly be assigned blame, and possibly a few on the border.

Heavy, overbearing punishment was a favorite theme of the Bush administration. I see no reason to end it now. In fact, I might even be fine with 24-style Jack Baer torture as long as it confines itself to the right wealthy, Caucasian victims…

The people that created this crisis directly should be punished.

As we take over banks and investment companies, the first thing we should do is fire the top immediately. The executives, the board of directors, and any managers that were clearly involved. Escort them to the door and let them know criminal charges are pending. Appoint a board of trustees to hire new management and throw the bums we know out. Keeping them on is like hiring the town arsonist to run the fire department.

People accused of massive financial fraud should be treated the same way we treat inner city kids for drug possession and gang crimes. Hint: hold their ass in jail and not “house arrest” in their own mansions. If being accused caries the presumption of guilt for the poor, I see no reason why it should not extend to the members of the 38% tax bracket.

If I saw clear evidence that the guilty were getting punished, that they were suffering, it would make it easier for the second part of all this, acceptance.

The truth is, we are all in it together. What burns the hottest is that people who consciously stayed out of trouble have to suffer along with those that actively courted trouble. That is true for global warming, war, or economic problems.

At some level, we do need to accept that people are not fair and move on. If we don’t, we will end up like Israel and Palestine, in a perpetual cycle of blame and grief.

But I am not there yet. I am not ready to accept the people who brought this mess upon us as our saviors. And I don’t think I am alone.