Zen and the Art of /.*/

I am the licensed charitable gambling manager for the Osseo Fire Department Relief Association.

I write to you today to express my bitter disappointment and profound concern over the state of charitable gambling in Minnesota.

The event that precipitated my correspondence to you today is the fact that myself and two of my fellow paid-on-call / volunteer firefighters spent seven hours this past New Year’s Day holiday performing the newly-required Annual Physical Inventory and Cash Count, instead of enjoying the much-needed holiday with family and friends.

(Salutations and closing omitted)

I just received a 2010 calendar in the mail from you. What in God’s name are you doing sending calendars to constituents?!

Apparently the bitter irony of the US Constitution superimposed on the cover was completely lost on you.

How was this calendar (and the surely countless others that were sent out) paid for? I can think of only three possibilities:

(Salutations and closing omitted)

I would like to take the opportunity during this (relative) lull before the next session to share with you a few of my thoughts and concerns.

As I’m sure you’re aware–and as more and more people are becoming increasingly aware–we, as a state and as a republic, are in dire straits. One could go on endlessly listing all of the seemingly-intractable problems we are facing. The combination and synchronization of these endless problems would appear to be catastrophic.