Accountable Blogging

I'm beginning to believe that blogging might not be my cup of tea. My understanding of blogging is that it ought to be frequent or at the very least regular. My sporadic submissions to The First Draught usually leave me feeling guilty. It's hard to tell who's really reading it but the idea that whoever might be reading it is disappointed when there's a large gap between entries. How vain, right?

The last several weeks tested my ability to schedule all the projects and responsibilities that are priorities. That meant that all the stuff I like to do, writing, the Letterman's Club, working in the yard – all of it took a back seat. The troubling part about it is I don't foresee anything slowing down anytime soon.

But that's all right. I've made choices and the results of the sum of those choices are mine. I own 'em. If I want to have time to do other stuff, it's my job to figure it out.
I read a news story about Connecticut Light and Power, the electricity provider coming under fire in CT for the slow restoration of power to its customers. The writer mentioned that President and CEO of CL&P Jeffrey Butler needed to be held accountable for his company's poor response. It didn't help his image when a news channel reported that an out-of-state company only sent a token number of crews to assist power line repair because CL&P hadn't paid them for their work during the August hurricane, Irene.

Butler's response came across as clumsy. Even though only a couple months had passed, people lined up to take shots at Butler and CL&P. I found that part comical. The number of citizens in this country who are late paying bills or don't pay them at all is staggering. There are thousands of collection and credit recovery agencies in the United States for a reason.

Let's be straight here. I'm not defending CL&P. But how many people who can't or don't pay their mortgage agreed with how poorly run CL&P is because they didn't pay a bill in 60 days? It was a $600,000 bill so I won't compare it to a $1,500 mortgage payment. But I'm guessing CL&P's monthly receivables are sizable when compared to a single residence. Or even a couple hundred households.

Accountable. The word continues to gain popularity over the past few years. It comes in all manner of flavors. Add these prefixes to accountability: personal, corporate, employee, political, parental. The line that is drawn that makes it all clear lies between responsibility and accountability. I read that responsibility is what you're supposed to do. Accountability is the manner in which you do it.

We're all responsible to pay our bills. Do you pay on time? Pay late? Don't pay? You're held accountable.

Businesses provide goods and services. Are they quality goods and services? Does it take a long time to get them? What happens if they break and need fixing? Replacing? Aren't as advertised? Answer "No" and you're held accountable.

Politicians run for office and make any number of promises. I stand for this. I stand for that. I'll never do this or that. What happens when they vote opposite to their promise? What happens when they never deliver on any of their promises? What happens when they don't even show up to vote because their attending a PAC event or went on vacation or are secretly meeting with their mistress? They need to be held accountable.

What happens when the blogger doesn't write regularly? Or produces crap just to publish something? The blogger should be held accountable.

Lastly, there are some towns or parts of towns that didn't have power on November 5^th and 6^th. Really? I spoke to a woman in her shop. She had had it. Her days of staying optimistic were over. She said you can only hold out for so long and then bitterness and anger set in. I couldn't argue with her. I was lucky I had somewhere to go where a generator was available.

I ran into a neighbor who was using a shelter regularly. He was grateful for the warm building, food and some TV to distract him from the fact power restoration was like a half-remembered dream. And how about people who can see power halfway down their street or the next street over? It's enough to make you want to rebel. Or even occupy something.
Occupy Torrington? Occupy CL&P? Sound fun?