We wuz robbed!

Warning: I'm about to sound like a very, very bad person. I know this and, while I'm not apologizing for it, I hope you'll understand.

This morning, I woke up to the news that Ken Lay had died. I can't help but feel cheated about this--as a former Enron employee I was looking forward to the day when he and Jeff Skilling (boo! hiss!) would be moving to a new retirement home with bars on the windows and anklets for every, um, resident.

Honestly, I'm not even sure that I believe it. I mean, wouldn't it be a great way for this guy to not only escape the big house but keep all the billions he stole from his employees if he faked a death? Okay, I'm not saying that he faked--I'm just saying that, well, the possibility is there. And, it isn't it convenient timing? Two months before his sentencing and on Indepence Day--Independence from the consequences from his actions.

Okay, consipiracy theories aside now (thanks for letting me indulge in that, by the way). I guess this would be less discouraging if I were an atheist, or even a Catholic--at least being a Catholic I could take comfort knowing that he had a least a millenia or so to do in Purgatory before his trip to the Pearly Gates. For me, the death for someone is sad for those left behind, but it isn't the last chapter in the book. I guess it's also for this reason that I don't believe in the Death Penalty--death is just an easy way out for those who have done some very, very bad things. I think that the punishment is far greater and, frankly, we do a better job of "taking their life" if we let them live out the remainder of their years in confinement, separate from the rest of the world.

To be honest, I barely suffered compared to other Enron employees and it only took 2 or 3 years for me to regain the money I had lost in my 401(k). But nearly everyone I work with is an Enron survivor--either from working for Enron directly or spending their lives in one of it's business units--the only business unit that made it out alive. We have 70 and 75 year old people still at work because the money that they had saved for 30 or 40 years ended up in the pockets of Skilling, Fastow and, of course, Lay.

So, Ken Lay slithered past us again. At least we still have Skilling...unless he "has a stroke," or something like that.