The Wastebroker Blog

Madeline Neumann - RIP

Sometimes you hear something that sounds so ridiculous that you think it must be made up, that it just couldn't be real.  And then you're proven wrong. 

The latest one of these to hit my sensibilities in the face is the tragic death of an 11 year old girl named Madeline Neumann from Weston, WI.  In case you haven't heard, Madeline died last week due to untreated complications related to her diabetes.  Ordinarily, while Madeline's death would be sad, it would be nothing shocking in and of itself I suppose.  After all, sometimes kids get sick and, despite the very best efforts of their parents and their doctors, they die. 

In Madeline's case, though, there is a twist.  Her parents, Dale and Leilana, didn't know she had diabetes.  Neither did Madeline or anyone else for that matter.  She hadn't been to see a doctor since she was three years old and, when she began to exhibit signs of being sick several weeks ago (nausea, weakness, etc.), her parents made no effort to get Madeline any medical attention.  In fact they repeatedly rejected efforts from their family to get Madeline to a doctor.

What they did do is read the Bible and pray. Really hard, they claim.  The Neumann's, you see, subscribe to the belief that all healing comes from God and that, if God doesn't deliver the healing (like for instance in the case of their daughter) than it must be His will that she die. 

I have no issue with the Neumann's faith although I clearly take issue with the way they define it to make what they did somehow seem spiritual. And I dismiss their attempt to rationalize their own idiocy by masking it in a cloak of faith.  And, further, how dare they put their daughter's death on God's shoulders.  They, Dale and Leilana, own that responsibility.  Faith is not a one way street, we have to have some faith in ourselves as intelligent beings, able to make intelligent decisions, don't we?  The fact that their daughter is now dead, dead from "complications" that only became complications due to their inaction and, has nothing to do with their faith.  It has only to do with their selfishness. 

Madeline's death is getting a lot of attention throughout the world because of the faith card her parents are playing.  Only, there shouldn't be a story.  She should be alive! Things should be very ordinary for her;  an 11 year old girl looking forward to Spring and her twelfth birthday party.  Regardless of faith, as parents, the Neumann's, like all parents, have the responsibility to make decisions that protect, not endanger, their children.  After all, if God has created us in his likeness, shouldn't He have that faith in us?  The Neumann's chose not to accept that responsibility.  That was a dumb choice.  I have complete faith in that.

Spitzer's the Emperor With No Clothes

Just to put any speculation to rest, I can assure you that I am not Client # 10.  As you are no doubt aware, Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York (at least at the time of this writing) is, allegedly, Client # 9 caught on a phone line being tapped by the IRS making $4300 payment arrangements with a certain lady of the night from the escort service, Emperor’s Club VIP, while his bride and the mother of his children was busy buying the story of the important meeting that would preclude Mr. Spitzer from sharing his Valentine with her.  Wasn’t it the IRS whose investigation put the squeeze on Brian McNamee and now Roger Clemens as well (those tax return audits must not excite like they once did)?  There is a # 10 out there though and I’m sure he’s (I’m making an assumption here but are there any male prostitution rings?) quite worried that he’ll be the next chap doing the “I need to earn back my family’s trust” mea culpa.   

The press says that Wall Streeters are popping the Dom Perignon and pulling out the really dusty bottles from their wine cellars to celebrate Eliot’s fall from grace.  And why not.  As they say, what comes around goes around and Mr. Spitzer was / has been (and might be again) a first-class pr**k to a lot of people, aggressively bullying people not accustom to being bullied, people who surrounded themselves with people who would never think to make them answer for things that most people might call, oh I don’t know … stealing.  Spitzer was born smart enough to match wits with the big boys and rich enough not to care about anything but “what was right.”  But, it turns out, that like most pontificators of truth, justice and, well, you get the point, Mr. Spitzer may have just been shouting loud enough to drown out his own demons, those annoying indiscretions that he knows better than to engage in but that he just can’t help himself avoid. 

Mr. Spitzer’s lawyers are doing cartwheels and triple sow cows to convince the justice department that he should not be charged with a crime.  It’s only fair, they’re saying, since the government has never made a habit out of trying “johns” in prostitution matters.  Amazing how the arguments on his behalf seem so strikingly similar to those of Dick Strong, Dick Grasso, Maurice Greenberg and the other corporate executive prey Mr. Spitzer hunted.  “This isn’t fair, we did nothing wrong and, even if we did, it’s never been considered a crime before.”  Mr. Spitzer flatly rejected their “wimpy” fairness arguments and threw them back in their face.  Now that he may find himself in the defendant’s chair, he, like they, instinctively resorts to relying on what’s “fair.”  We’ll see how that works for him. 

Mr. Spitzer’s placed himself in a situation that examples just how dangerous it is to put yourself on a pedestal that’s supported by your own fragile limitations.