Leaders Under Glass Come Up Wanting
Re “Lay’s Silence Draws Wrath From Senators,” Business, Feb. 13: As I watched the Senate and House hearings in which former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay and his sleazy subordinates at Enron scurried away from their responsibilities to their employees and stockholders, I found myself thinking about the police and firefighters who on Sept. 11 charged up the stairwells of the World Trade Center to rescue people they did not know, with no promise of enormous wealth and no lawyers at their sides to hold their hands.
I also thought of Enron’s intimate friends in the Bush administration cowering behind claims of executive privilege while trying to wrap themselves in the stolen heroism of those police and firefighters. It’s too bad we cannot respect and admire those who control the nation’s wealth and run the nation’s government the way we respect and admire the men and women who bravely did their duty on Sept. 11.
Marvin A. Gluck
Topanga
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Since everyone at Enron seems to suffer from amnesia and claims to have no knowledge of any wrongdoing, maybe the government needs to freeze their assets until it is proven that nothing illegal occurred. Maybe this will help jar their memories.
Lillian Brock
Chino Hills
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So Enron lobbyist Edward Gillespie suggested “Carterizing” the Democrats by making them “the ‘eat your peas’ party” (Business, Feb. 11). If that characterization is correct, then we can all sigh a breath of relief, because now, instead of being made to eat boring peas, the Republicans and their friends just might let us eat cake!
Scott Mayoral
Los Angeles
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Why has The Times exiled the Enron story to the Business section? Doesn’t the biggest bankruptcy in American history warrant a front-page story, or has the newspaper bought the Republican Party line that this is a business--not a political--scandal?
Laurie Levin
Pacific Palisades
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I have seen enough to know that the time for appointing a special counsel to oversee the Enron investigation has come. If the American people are to have any guarantee that these white-collar criminals are going to be brought to justice, we cannot have Larry Thompson at the Justice Department and Harvey Pitt at the SEC in charge of the investigations. Their ties to Enron and Arthur Andersen are now well known to all and will make any resolution of this massive corporate fraud highly suspect. They must step aside immediately. If not, we may have to wait a very long time until our confidence in our corporate practices and our government is restored.
It is also high time for the Enron-appointed chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to resign.
Robert Anderson
Studio City
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In the 1860s, Karl Marx wrote “Das Kapital.” At one point, he discussed the capitalistic system “with emphasis on its self-destructive tendencies.” Most fair-minded people would agree that in the last century and a half, American capitalism--tempered by the necessary restraints--has been a resounding success, particularly for Americans. Enron’s Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and their co-conspirators (beneficiaries) in this colossal scam have accomplished an incredible feat. They’ve made Marx look good.
Jimmy Price
Vacaville, Calif.
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Axis of Oil--Bush/Cheney/Enron. Now, there’s something America should be worried about. This axis cries for moral clarity.
Garth Bishop
Los Angeles
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I urge all Americans who are in favor of campaign finance reform--and after Enron, that should be everyone--to make a note of who is opposing reform and vote accordingly in November.
Forrest G. Wood
Bakersfield
