Kenneth Shulklapper
Media Risk Management
Enron Media Services
(713) 853-7009 (phone)
(713) 646-8436 (fax)
----- Forwarded by Ken Shulklapper/Enron Communications on 06/05/01 08:12 PM -----


	Erik Simpson 06/05/01 10:19 AM 	   To: Edward Ondarza/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Michael Horning/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Kelly Heuertz/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Dusty Warren Paez/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Ben Freeman/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Eric Anderson/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Ken Shulklapper/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, David Pruner/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Rebecca Skupin/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Anthony Moon/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, Matt Goering/Enron Communications@Enron Communications, David Pruner/Enron Communications@Enron Communications  cc:   Subject: interesting article-thought you guys would like to see your value add	








Erik Simpson
Media Risk Management
Enron Media Services
Phone: +1 713-853-0600
Mobile: +1 713-569-3757
Facsimile: +1 713-646-8436
----- Forwarded by Erik Simpson/Enron Communications on 06/05/01 10:23 AM -----


	Erik.Simpson@enron.com 06/05/01 06:10 AM 	   To: Erik Simpson/Enron Communications@Enron Communications  cc:   Subject: interesting article	





---------------------- Forwarded by Erik Simpson/HOU/ECT on 06/05/2001
06:11 AM ---------------------------

From: Yvette Simpson/ENRON@enronXgate on 06/04/2001 08:32 AM

To:   Erik Simpson/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc:
Subject:  interesting article

DAILY DATEBOOK
JON CARROLL
Enron is my spiritual teacher
Jon Carroll

06/04/2001
The San Francisco Chronicle
FINAL
E.10
(Copyright 2001)



THE BUDDHA SAYS that we take wisdom where we find it. Perhaps the Buddha
does not say that, but it's not a bad idea anyway. The Buddha would have
said it, maybe, had he not been saying the other things.


Our enemies can teach us lessons. Our adversaries can make us stronger.
They can be consumed with greed and contempt, their very breath can be
toxic, and yet their actions can open upward-flowing paths.


Take Enron, the energy company, or Chevron, another energy company, or El
Paso Natural Gas, yet another energy company. These organizations are the
minions of Satan. They pillage and they profit. They are in the ascendant.
Their enemies fall before them like cordwood. Ordinary citizens cower and
meekly hand over tribute.


And yet we thank them. We send our investigators after them and we pray
that their executives land in jail, but we thank them. They have shown us
the nature of our enslavement. They have defined the nature of our sloth.


We have believed the Big Lie. We have believed in the free lunch. We have
trusted those who would pander to us. We have eaten energy in great
dripping gobs. Did we know it was not infinitely renewable? Oh yes. Did we
understand that energy companies could create "shortages" whenever they
wanted merely by closing plants for "maintenance"? You bet we did. And did
we confuse the energy companies with charitable organizations and/or
alchemists able to repeal the laws of nature? We did not.


But it was more convenient to forget those things, and so we did. We have
busy lives. We must do the things we must do. The infrastructure is
everywhere crumbling, and we are patching it up ourselves. We are paying
bureaucrats with taxes, but the bureaucrats are inadequate, so now the
spirit of volunteerism is much praised.


Volunteers are people who do jobs that other people are being paid to do
but don't.


AND SOMEHOW, EVEN in a society as relentlessly materialistic as this one,
we forgot about our own checking accounts. Already seduced by the idea that
credit card debt is good clean fun, we decided to waste a lot of money
using energy we didn't need.


I'm not talking about using a washing machine instead of going down to the
river and beating your clothes with small stones -- I'm talking about
washing machines with quarter-full loads and settings far too powerful for
the task at hand. Right? Lights burning in unoccupied rooms. Appliances
plugged in but never used.


We pay for it. We send our wonderful money straight to the largest villains
in American commerce because we are too stupid to do anything else. You
wonder why they have contempt for us. You wonder why Dick Cheney believes
he can fool all of the people all of the time. Because he has.


Look: Last week the secretary of commerce suggested means-testing Social
Security -- that is, means-testing a pension plan. You gave us the money,
we kept it for 40 years, now -- prove that you need it!


Why did he suggest that? Because he can! Why did PG&E demand additional
compensation for its executives, who are moral dimbulbs and social
criminals under any fair definition? Because they can get away with it!
They will get away with it! You watch!


I AM NOT saying that we have no one to blame but ourselves. There are
active villains, and there are people who allow villainy to occur. Everyone
in a corrupt system is corrupt. The fools are the ones who don't end up
with any extra money.


We are the fools. If we understand our foolishness, we begin to be wise. We
send lovely bread-and-butter notes to Enron -- once we were blind, but now
we see. And we await developments, or create them.


--------------------------------------------------------


It would be foolish to mention SUVs. When the brain is ready, the ear will
hear.



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