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Question for you: Were we being so eager to punish the fat cats on Wall Street that we were willing to jeopardize the economy by initially urging congressman to reject the $700 billion bailout?

Apparently, that "cut off the nose to spite the face" sentiiment is turning. Congressional staff report that anti-bailout calls from constituents have given way to calls to "DO SOMETHING!" The public decided Congress needed to get over the partisan intransigence and come up with a solution to the nation's financial crisis. It looks like that got some congressmen off the dime with a renewed purpose to try to hammer out something and get it to Bush by the end of the week. We're all flying blind here. I haven't spoken with one person who is happy about the bailout; all fear the unknown of what will happen with it---and without it.

David Leonhardt of The New York Times wrote a wonderful contextual piece about the similarities of today's financial meltdown and the Great Depression.

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A recent transplant from Northern Virginia, Ralph Owen showed up one day last fall at Roanoke's Local Office on Aging with a few cans of soup and $100.

He left and came back a few hours later with $200 more. The retired Ashburn postmaster's wife had chided him that they could do better.

The same day, Bethany Price posted a flier on the communal mailboxes of her small north Roanoke County community.

Price's note rallied some Meadowbrook Village residents to contribute to the LOA's Soup for Seniors drive to feed elderly strangers who weren't as fortunate in their retirements as she and her neighbors. Price collected and delivered more than 100 cans of soup to the LOA office on Melrose Avenue.

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Here we are on Day Nine of Mousegate, and still there are more questions than answers.

When does all the Roanoke City Market Building drama end?

When do vendors realize the issue is bigger than them?

When does the city fully grasp that it owns the prime piece of real estate in a downtown that is the center of this region, and yet the building looks like it belongs to a slumlord who does just enough to get by?

When does city council summon the guts to scrap the idea of an amphitheater that is nothing more than a campaign promise and focus on the renovation of a building that has the potential to become the gem of the region?

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I won't waste time discussing Friday night's presidential debate, because I have a strong inkling it didn't change anybody's mind.

Let's talk about Sarah Sweetheart (as in America's newest sweetheart). She was conspicuous in her absence from the debate. Everyone, including Average Joe Biden, put in an appearance. Of course, GOP'ers immediately smelled conspiracy and contacted CNN to ask why Palin wasn't interviewed. Wolf Blitzer noted that CNN asked but was rebuffed.

The McCain campaign pretty much keeps its veep nominee in a bubble. When she ventures out, she's scripted to the gills, which doesn't inspire confidence in her ability to have an original thought about the pressing matters facing the country. The campaign's protective shield is understandable because, to put it delicately, their candidate is not exactly hitting it out of the ballpark when she has to speak off-the-cuff. I don't like speaking publicly, either---which is why I didn't select a career and job that depends on my (in)ability to speak for my supper.

The ability to handle Katie Couric in an interview doesn't equate with whether McCain's running mate can run a country, if called on to do so. But it does give insight into whether she has a clue, even if she can't articulate it. Candidly, my fellow Americans, the newest Sweetheart isn't looking good on either front.

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Last year, bargain hunters from Harrisonburg to Wytheville shelled out more than $22 million in Goodwill stores.

Although selling donated goods accounted for nearly 62 percent of Goodwill's income, the agency always has been more than a place to pick up a $4 dress or an $11 suit.

The mission of Goodwill is to change lives.

Now, as the organization expands its purpose, it sits poised to change a neighborhood in Northwest Roanoke.

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President Bush told us Wednesday night that "our entire economy is in danger." Apparently, John McCain thinks he is the man to save it.

Gimme a break. More likely, Johnny Mac just isn't ready for prime time. I'm referring to the Friday night debate with Barack Obama. Or maybe he wanted to slow Obama's roll. Polls show that voters trust Obama more than McCain to fix the economy. Whatever the reason, McCain came up with the ultimate "dog-ate-my-homework" excuse: It's the economy, stupid.

The Maverick Man has thrown this 2008 soap opera, er, I mean presidential campaign for a loop again by suspending his campaign and heading back to D.C. to tackle the financial crisis. Sure, this country is in a financial mess. Should McCain and Barack Obama stay in the loop and up to date on the developments? No doubt. But please, don't exploit the economy as an excuse for taking a powder from a crucial and pivotal presidential race. Take your case to the people.

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A "fall cleanup" at the market building?

Do City Manager Darlene Burcham and her communications crew at Roanoke city hall think we have "stupid" plastered on our foreheads?

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The Bush administration wants Congress to cough up $700 billion for the mother of all bailouts. In typical fashion, there's seems to be a "give us the money and go away" attitude. Hmmm...I think the last time we fell for that ruse without stipulations, we ended up in an unnecessary war in Iraq.

If Congress goes down this road, it should definitely tread lightly....demand accountability and oversight on how Treasury divvies up such a golden egg. There's something about this whole thing that leaves me queasy.

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I'm not an MLB fan. But everyone is paying tribute to the House that Ruth built, and I felt we here at In the Flow should put in our two cents.

Have you ever been to Yankee Stadium? What are your memories? If you never had the opportunity to go there, do you have a favorite Yankee/Yankee Stadium story via catching a game on the tube?

About the closest I can come is standing in my living room SCREAMING with delight the night the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Yankees in the 2001 World Series. To understand why, read on:

GOD BLESS AMERICA - BUT CAN HE HOLD OFF ON THE YANKEES?
PULLING FOR THE UNDERDOG OVER THE SENTIMENTAL FAVORITE

Date: Monday, October 29, 2001

Byline: SHANNA FLOWERS EDITORIAL WRITER

Damn Yankees!

You know, the Bronx Bombers. The Boys in Pinstripes.

If baseball's New York Yankees weren't in the World Series this week, I wouldn't be in the position of defending my patriotism, trying to show that I, too, love America - even as I root against the Yankees.

Certainly, after the collapse of Manhattan's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, it's no surprise that the Yankees are the sentimental favorite to win the Fall Classic against those battling Arizona Diamondbacks.

Who?

Anyway, as I endure snipes from Yankees fans - and nonfans viewing the Series through a prism of pure emotionalism - I'm compelled as a sports fan to say: It's OK to pull for the citizens of New York but not for their baseball team.

Look, I'm no ogre. I feel human suffering. I wept in my living room as I watched the televised memorial service, at Yankee Stadium nonetheless, for nearly 5,000 of my compatriots killed several days earlier when two hijacked airliners crashed into the twin towers.

I can't shake the jarring image in USA Today of a young boy, clutching his stoic mother's side and crying uncontrollably at the funeral of his dad, a Port Authority police officer killed in the attacks.

Doomed airplane passengers mutinying against their fanatical captors, New York firefighters covered with dust and grime - collectively, they have become my lasting mental collage of a hero. What happened six weeks ago was not a rip at New York but at all Americans, and everything our nation stands for. So, yes, my heart is with New York.

But not its baseball team.

Rallying against sentiment, with a backdrop of national tragedy, is not a popular position to publicly embrace, I've learned. My colleague, feisty by nature, has reminded me on more than one occasion during the past week that "New York needs this."

Even my doctor's nurse, during my office visit last week, gave me good-natured guff about pulling for the Diamondbacks over the Yankees.

What people don't understand is that I don't necessarily dislike the Yankees. I'm just tired of them. They've won four of the last five World Series, the last three in a row. Enough already. How many rings does Derek Jeter need, at least at this point in his young career?

My sentiment, and that of those sports fans still in the closet on this thorny issue, is much the way it was with Michael Jordan in his glory days with the Chicago Bulls. At first, the team's ascension as a basketball dynasty was way cool. But after the Bulls' first few championships, sports fans grew weary of them and wanted to cheer a new champion.

Admittedly, the Yankees reflect the strengths of America: power, excellence, cool confidence, precision and skill.

As Americans, we relish the ideal of a level, competitive playing field, where anyone - with adequate preparation - has a shot at victory, a chance at success. Right now, though, the playing field seems tilted in favor of the Yankees.

But another side of the American psyche likes to pull for the underdog because it gives us hope that one day, we, too, can overcome the Goliaths in our lives. In the case of the World Series, the Arizona Diamondbacks are the underdogs, the upstarts, only four years in existence.

My colleague had never heard of them. "The Arizona who?" she queried. My friend, Gene, a baseball purist and a student of the game, only vaguely remembered that the Diamondbacks were in the National League. Arizona plays out West, in a different time zone, so Easterners don't follow them.

No, we don't know much about the D'backs. But they, too, represent what's good about America: Tenacity, scrappiness.

And hope.

In these uncertain times, those are pretty good traits to cheer for.

So for those who question my allegiance, I am buoyed by the humanitarian spirit shown New York. And I want God to smile on America.

But can he hold off on the Yankees until after the Series?

I'm from Michigan, and I'm looking at the latest proposed multibillion intervention from the government--- a $25 billion loan guarantee to the auto industry---and I'm thinking: When do the bailouts stop?

(Of course, John McCain and Barack Obama have given the idea their blessing. As you know, Michigan and Ohio are battleground states.) I'm mindful of the bailout Lee Iacocca secured for Chrysler in '79, and he turned that company around.

But I'm conflicted. I am a product of GM's largesse that helped create this country's middle-class. As a former employee, I also can say that GM for one hasn't been the most efficient company. And when I broached the idea of SUVs with 6-cylinder engines with my brother, a 32-year employee, he told me to get real. When I talked with my cousin, formerly an engineer with Ford and now a design manager with Nissan, he laughed me out of the room. Fuel efficiency, he noted, meant smaller vehicles with tighter spaces. Americans, he said, wouldn't give up their built-in cup holder space for better gas mileage.

So here we are. Heard an economist on the radio the other morning say that the newspaper industry was in trouble. He asked, tongue firmly in cheek, if my industry was next for a bailout. (Brothers, can you spare a dime?)

Seriously, Wall Street and now Detroit? When does it end---or does it?

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