The people who pulled the weeds at the Minden Gateway Center are not employed by the owner, who is in bankruptcy. Stimulus money went to pay them to clean up someone else's property.
An argument could be made that the site poses a public nuisance, and cleaning it up could prevent the weeds from catching on fire and then catching something else on fire.
The clean-up of the Minden Gateway Center is a metaphor for what has happened on the national stage.
There was a time in this country when the penalty for failure in business was that you had to pull your own weeds, but no more.
Last year we saw that no matter how reckless you are with other people's money, the bigger you are, the less responsible you have to be. If the stockholders can't come up with the money, let the taxpayers. Remind them that their pensions are tied up in Wall Street. If a tumbleweed catches fire, it might blow across the road and burn down your retirement.
Better get the gloves and garbage bags and start pulling weeds, or the things you care about might be taken away.
Why worry about paying the screwy mortgage you signed back in '05? Don't worry about those credit cards. Never take responsibility for anything.
It's not a pretty picture, looking through the chainlink fence at what was to be a lifestyle center. We all end up paying to keep the weeds down, because we all have a stake in the appearance of our community. So maybe it is a lifestyle center after all.
