Thread: NEW YEAR, NEW SCAPEGOATS

THE RIEHL WORLD
Clearing the coastal fog

New year, new scapegoats



By: RICHARD RIEHL - for the North County Times
JANUARY 4, 2008

It took a slow-talkin' presidential candidate to convince me that we need a new scapegoat for 2008. Campaigning in Iowa a few days before Christmas, Fred Thompson declared immigrants are partially to blame for the home-loan crisis, since "a lot of them couldn't communicate with the people they were getting the mortgage from."

In addition to ruining the housing market by allowing themselves to be ripped off by loan sharks, illegal immigrants have been faulted for poor schools, unaffordable health care, rampant crime, stealing jobs, molesting children and littering. It's only a matter of time before they'll be blamed for melting the polar ice caps.

History's first scapegoats were actual goats, driven off into the wilderness as part of Judaism's ceremonies for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. The banished goat symbolically carried away the sins of the people. In Christian theology the scapegoat prefigures the self-sacrifice of Jesus, suffering for the sins of humanity. Today's scapegoats are persons, groups or things we blame for a multitude of problems.


Politicians are famous for drumming up scapegoats to help them win popular support. In the aftermath of 9/11, illegal immigrants have become one of their favorite targets. Here in North County we have no shortage of goats to pile our problems on. For starters, throw in San Diego Association of Governments' traffic planners, the California Coastal Commission, smart growth advocates, city planners, and "overpaid" public employees.

With so many to choose from, and with the popularity of each waxing and waning with the breaking news, it seems to me we need to name a scapegoat of the year each January, much as the way Time magazine names its person of the year. We'll need to identify our North County Scapegoat of the Year in advance, however, so that we can hold it accountable for whatever we believe to be our most serious shortcomings as they pop up during the year. We may not be able to banish our scapegoat, although the Minutemen are doing their best to do so. But just agreeing on a target might bring us all closer together.

Picking a scapegoat based on nationality, skin color, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religion would only divide us. The Minutemen can attest to that. So my nomination for 2008's Scapegoat of the Year would be the October wildfires. They've been blamed not only for substantial property loss and air pollution, but for government incompetence for overpaying firefighters who don't have enough to do, the threat of a consolidated county fire department that would drive up taxes and more federal government mandates.

Since the Minutemen seem to have time on their hands, maybe they could haul out their lawn chairs and binoculars and head for the hills during Santa Anas. They could serve as the first alerts to mobilize firefighters, maybe even lend a hand in digging firebreaks.

Any other nominations for our Scapegoat of the Year?

Carlsbad resident Richard J. Riehl is a freelance columnist for the North County Times. Contact him at RiehlWorld2@yahoo.com.

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Carlsbad resident Richard J. Riehl is a freelance columnist for the North County Times.

How in the world has this man supported himself as a columnist? He must get food stamps and live in subsidized housing or inherited a bunch of money.

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