"BLAGO"

The media plays a funny game. The media actually plays a lot of funny games, but the one I'm referring to is the habit of deciding when stories end. We don't question it, we just assume the story must be over because the news is no longer covering it. But most stories don't ever really end. They just become uninteresting, or too much work to keep up with. So at that point, the media decides to wrap the story up somehow in a neat little box, with a perfect bow. And we accept this.

The only reason I mention this is because I was thinking about Rod Blagojevich, and essentially wondering, what happens to him now? Similarly with Madoff as well, once convicted and shipped off to prison, the story creates a neat little ending for everyone, as though prison is simply the be all end all. And granted, prison is very final, in the sense that it will be more than a decade before Blago is released back into the general public. But prison has always kind of fascinated me. I watched "Oz". It was awesome. I don't think that's what prison is really like, but short of going there i've always been curious about the experience people have, and the society behind those walls. 

The former governor of Illinois is sentenced to 14 years in prison for trying to sell his seat. How does a guy like that get treated in the joint? A guy who helped shape a city, state, and country, now confined to a 9x9 cell (or whatever it is). Do the other inmates respect him? Or do they hate him, as he was an elected official to the government which put them in their own cage? Blago is in a minimum security prison, which must change the dynamics quite drastically. He wont be running into murderers and violent criminals. No, he gets stuck with more white collar, high society fuck-ups. 

And I wonder what tax money pays for this guy to do all day. He probably has nicer amenities in that prison, than most of us do in our own buildings. Doorman, Maid service, kitchen staff, laundry, cable, activity. Christ, it almost sounds like a country club in there as many Minimum Security Prisons are compared to just that. So, I want to know more. I want to know what this guys doing now that he's living on the country's dime, supposedly being "reformed." 

I would guess that he most certainly hasn't learned his "lesson" (if there even is one). He's still proclaiming innocence, and in the back of his mind, he's probably just downright pissed he got caught. Everyone on the hill and beyond in politics is scheming. Bending rules, perhaps breaking them, rewriting them, adjusting them, all for their own ends. This is nothing new. Blago was literally trying to sell a government seat to the highest bidder. He almost got away with it too. I wonder what others have gotten away with.

Nonetheless, I guess what I'm saying is the story isn't over for me. It's just a new chapter, though I doubt anyone will be recording it. If Bernie Madoff isn't even mentioned anymore except through current stories about Fred Wilpon and the Mets, do you think anyones going to talk about Blago now? Nobody cares. Out of sight, out of mind. He's being punished for his sins, and its easy for us to just accept that and move on. But I can't help but wonder if he really is. 

I don't know why I started thinking about this, but I did. How many other odd stories end with the slam of the prison door? It's almost as if the story is obligated to end there, because nobody really wants to go beyond that. It's just easier to close it up there, and take comfort in the fact that they "got what they deserve." Because it would really be too hard and consuming to see if they really did get what they deserve. Because I dont know. I dont think anyone really does, because nobody goes in there and finds out how the guys eating, sleeping, and shitting. The harsher side of me hopes not well, not much, and in fear.