The Perils of Procrastination

It just kills me that the legislators in Sacramento are crowing about their weekend sessions and late nights, trying to pass a budget which would would be bad news for the state anyway. Are they expecting our sympathy, gratitude, or both?

Throughout my years, I've worked as a dishwasher, busboy, waiter, bartender, electrical supply warehouse worker, haunted house actor, dog track vendor, hot dog stand vendor, and - mercifully - for the last decade or so as a television producer. The one common thread through all of those professions is this: I COULDN'T LEAVE UNTIL THE JOB WAS DONE! Or, at least if I did leave before the work was finished, my time working there would soon be finished as well.

There are some people savvy enough to hide their lack of work, but eventually it piles up and tips over. For years, California's politicians having been "leaving the office early", worried more about their future campaigns than their state's future. Now, the work has piled up on them. But, they are allowing it to tip over onto us, their constituents, in the form of the massive tax increases proposed in the new budget, which at the time of this writing is being pushed towards passage.

There is a lesson to be learned in this, but it is up to us, the constituents, to administer and define the lesson. If we allow taxes to be raised, excessive spending to continue, and the perpetrators to remain in office, then the lesson will be: Procrastination is good.

If, however, we call our representatives to voice our discontent, cut off their funding by boycotting the lottery (using the money we save for charitable endeavors as outlined by Can The Lottery), and vote the perpetrators out of office, then the lesson will be: Do your job and do it well, or you will face serious consequences.

Which lesson sounds right to you?