Under the Weather

The skies have cleared after weeks of rain, but Your Boulevardier remains under the weather. A rip-snortin' sore throat, stuffy head, ringing ears, and aching joints have been his burden for a few days now, and it has not been pleasant.

However, he dusted himself off today and walked to Castro Village to get his hair cut. The Village Barber Shop wasn't busy, and a seat with Limbo was procured immediately upon arrival. Eventually the place filled up, but Al (proprietor Al) did his best to share the wealth as he answered phones, checked the mail, and so on.

Eventually, as so many conversations do these days, talk turned to the economy. A fellow whom Your Boulevardier assumes to be a banker came in, and Al (bicyclist Al) asked him what he thought of the Bernie Madoff scandal. (Mr. Madoff had plead guilty to all counts earlier in the day.) An unpleasant but not unlikely scenario was suggested for how Mr. Madoff would spend his 150 years in prison. Then a suggestion was made: that Mr. Madoff should be executed during halftime at the Super Bowl.

Your Boulevardier was startled at the words, but did not speak up. It's not certain if the suggestion was made in jest, or was the true sentiment of a very angry person. But nonetheless, Your Boulevardier wishes he had found the words to say that a public execution would be beneath the dignity of the United States. For as difficult as the time we must go through in the future may be -- and it's believed by many, including Yours Truly, that the coming days, weeks, months, and perhaps years will be very difficult -- we cannot allow our society to be reduced to shows of violence. We cannot allow our baser instincts to take hold. We must punish wrongdoers, certainly, but we must not make doing so a public spectacle. We cannot become like the societies we look down upon -- those that glorify vengeance over justice, humiliation over punishment, emotion over reason.

Perhaps Your Boulevardier is overreacting to some barbershop trash talking. But he is embarrassed for himself that he did not speak up in this circumstance.