Dear Enron,

cc: Mr. Skilling

bcc: Douglas Rae

From Today's New York Times, on an Appeal by former Enron Chief:

In his brief asking the Supreme Court to hear his case, Mr. Skilling said that his conduct “even if wrongful in some way, was not the crime of honest-services fraud, because the government conceded that his acts were not intended to advance his own interests instead of Enron’s.”

Intent? INTENT? Can we honestly just look at the facts of who ran away with countless millions before the fall of Enron? Um, hmmm from an HBS case on Enron, the stat is that Skilling took $78 MILLION dollars from 2000 to 2001.

Come now. Everyone had vested interest in Enron's interests because Enron WAS them. Oh Skilling. If you can't be honest that you didn't want that $78 million for your own interests, then you are doing a dis-service to humanity right there. Crime of honest-services? Really? Are you STILL lying?

Check out some pop culture fun: Drop the S off of Skilling, a rap song about corporate america inspired by David Tonsall, a former Employee who was screwed by the scandal.

http://www.thirdcoastrap.com/nrun/play21830102.html

Yours Truly,

Danielle

p.s. Why am I so obsessed???

Dear Enron: Why am I writing to you about Cancer wards?

Dear Enron,

Your paper is due in one hour and seven minutes.

Yet I sit here after three hours of procedures for removing yet another cyst in an actual American hospital... and I still have no proofread you.

So about this American hospital. In July, I wrote about the excellent care in the "women's health center" at the American Hospital in Istanbul. Now I write to you about "Breast Cancer Center" at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Funny how I go from "Women's Health" to "Breast Cancer" Centers for treatment. Don't you think they could have been a little more optimistic here in New Haven about that care? (That dragged on quite some time....) Well, I guess I was the only under 50 year old woman in that ward.

Alas, though I'm okay, I'm tired and too high strung to settle into writing about you Enron, because quite frankly, "Breast cancer" is not the same as "women's health."

Why am I writing about this?

Sincerely,

Danielle

Dear Enron: Are we screwed?

Dear Enron--

I visit your tomb today to ask, how many more are like you out there? How many more clever systems are writing off debts that the public cannot see? How many more of you are hiding information and thus creating an unfair market? How many more are keeping our failing economy running on a lie?

If the system is defunct, then we are screwed. Ultimately, you failed because prices caught up to you. Even if you perfect your lies, are we safe from another major market failure? Lies in subprime markets.... lies in Enron.... Where are there more lies that will catch up when there is another change in global markets?

My question is, Enron, should I pack up and go live on a kibbutz? Should I go live on a self sustaining farm in Syria while learning Arabic--as is my dream?

Though dead, Enron, you teach me some scary things. You teach me that this is not unusual and that it is perfectly possible to cover up lies for a long time. If capitalism is suddenly based off of these lies, thus becoming a "failed capitalism," then are we screwed?

I don't like apocalyptic narratives, but this is starting to sound like one. Who needs the class on "Apocalyptic Narratives in American Culture" that American Studies puts out? This is the big daddy of Apocalypse.

Oh how I remember the days when I thought capitalism was so light and fluffy and fair, when we worshipped it at Christmas with the success of marketing triumphs at Brookstone and Toys R' Us. Communism sucks. Facism sucks. Socialism sucks. Mercantilism died. They are all imperfect eventually. What are we going to do?

God I should get some sleep. Oh Enron. I am making no sense because your class is sucking my brains out of meeeeeeeeeeee.

asldkfj ;lawueoir

Yours,

Danielle