One of the background themes I used in the novel “The Swamps of Jersey” was to refer to actual current events that also, because they are the type of things that happens so often, they take on a fictional quality.
In this scene Reporter Jimmy Dawson takes on the state of New Jersey. Sound familiar?
“And the Trenton crowd is making its usual mess of things and the towns and cities are going to get a big bill from the state because the annual budget is a few million short and they think that’s just fine. They’ll be more layoffs and more people out of work, and the Trenton boys will say, it can’t be helped. The governor is auditioning for some federal job and like the other governors is beating up on his state workers and firing teachers and cops while trying to tell the voters that everything is just fine. Don’t teachers and cops and secretaries vote, too? Are you really going to vote for the guy who fired you? And then – and I love this — the governor is hanging around with his rich buddies who want to build the world’s greatest shopping center on that swamp in the Meadowlands.” He slapped the bar. “Jesus, Frank. What is it about politicians, shopping centers and swamps? But you know what, the whole state’s a swamp, sucking all that is good down into the mire. We’re hip deep in black, slimy water and we applaud the idiots who drove us off the highway ramp at hundred miles an hour and planted us in the muck like they did us a favor. The politicians, the bankers, the industrialists, the investors, the regulators. They all have their hands in our pockets and they could care less if we fail because, Barnum was right, there’s a sucker born every minute.”
Published by Imzadi Publishing, Tulsa, OK. www.imzadipublishing.com
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