by Wendy Darling
Hiya Wendy-
Listen, sister, I’ve been doing some thinking. All this stuff you’re trying to do with your “social change” and all is swell. But there comes a time when you gotta quit just talking about problems, and go out and get your hands dirty. If you want to make some changes, then maybe it’s time to put the sherry bottle down, get off your keister, and go out and get a job that will help some people. 50 years ago I was telling America “We Can Do It.” Now we have a new fella in the White House saying “We can Do It.” But it’s not going to happen without a little elbow grease. So pick yourself up, kid, and let’s see a little “can do attitude.”
Rosie The Riveter
P.S. If you talk to your pal Wonder Woman, tell her she still has my red wedgies that I loaned her for that date with Tyrone Power back in ’42. That girl had the worst wardrobe.
Dear Rosie,
It’s terrific to hear from you, Rosie, since you are one of the American icons that it is possible, even for a cranky European like myself, to admire. You really do represent much of the best in American womanhood. And while I am not usually keen on unsolicited advice (you will notice that Ask Wendy confines herself to answering those who actually ask), yours will always be judgment I’ll respect.
However. Let me just ask where exactly this Can Do/Act Now/Think Later/Short Term Goals attitude has gotten the great American experiment. Global warming. A disastrous budget-busting war to which there is no end in sight. The largest pyramid scheme in history. And a bailout of astronomical proportions to people who don’t need it, with no oversight, and no getting the taxpayers’ money back.
Alas, if only dear Secretary Paulson had listened to our own Scrooge, who strongly recommended he slow down, think about what he was doing, and not just shovel the cash on hand into JP Morgan’s vaults. Scrooge said, I believe, “Don’t let ‘em have the cash till they’re willing to put their kids up for collateral,” a business principle he apparently found useful in the Industrial Revolution. But I digress.
Rosie, it seems to me, even before I get into the cooking sherry of an evening, that before we take action, it’s best to a.) know the ground, b.) figure out what’s best to be done, and THEN c.) do it.
However, we are all open to suggestions at the Fictional Characters Working Group. So, please, dear Rosie – suggest away.
Yours in sisterhood,
Ask Wendy
P.S.: In the interests of a cordial working relationship, may I respectfully request that we leave my ‘keister’, as well as Wonder Woman’s fashion sense, out of it? Thank you.
(are you a real person or fictional character who needs advice? just ASK WENDY. and if you, or someone you know wants to join her Fictional Characters for Real Life Social Change Working Group , email her, please…)