| By Bob Weaver
(L to R) Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom;
Coleen Rowley, FBI; and Sherron Watkins, Enron
Time magazine has named three women as their "Persons of the Year." Time said
"These were ordinary people who did not wait for higher authorities to do what
needed to be done...They took huge professional and personal risks."
In a time when dozens and dozens of government regulatory agencies have
oversight over everything from bank transactions to the amount of chocolate in
candy bars, we think the biggest story in 2002 is the multi-billion dollar assault
on the pocketbooks, the retirement programs, the jobs of working Americans and
the bank accounts of small businessman.
The problems with the FBI is quite a flap, equally distressing as J. Edgar Hoover
sitting in his cross dressed finery and making lists of innocent American citizens
who were "suspicious evildoers." FBI failure continues, and a whisteblower named
Coleen Rowley enlightened us.
It took two more women, Cynthia Cooper and Sherron Watkins, not Congress, not the
Executive Branch, not the myriad of agencies, to whistle blow and bring the Enron
and World.com madness to light.
It became evident the "re-writing" of the rules by elected officials, or their
head-turning, was much a part of the scandal.
It was the grandest of all white collar crimes - theft across the board - concocted
and acted upon by corporate America, their money handlers, accountants and
stockbrokers.
The nation has been shafted by other white collar thugs, who more often than not
stole from each other. This time the crooks preyed on lots of folks, mostly the
defenseless who lost everything
The liberal press, often accused of attacking big business, generally lost interest in
the story, or it was lost in the middle of the "War on Terrorism" and the evil doers in
the middle east.
There will be a few corporate fall guys for political cover. By the way, where are all
those billions, right now, really?
But now we honor these women for their heroism in 2002.
Read the Time article
Persons
of the Year
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