"I Can't Understand"

by: Bill Orr

Fri Jul 22, 2011 at 12:01:00 PM EDT

Hot summer streets and the pavements are burning.
I sit around trying to smile but the air is so heavy and dry.
Strange voices are saying things I can't understand.
It's too close for comfort. This heat has got right out of hand. - Bananarama: Cruel Summer

Our governor just took a two-week vacation, interspersed with wonderful YouTube moments, but left New Jerseyans frazzled by a State Budget in which he not only vetoed critical items but reduced the budget further. I can't understand.

Jason Francis, 32, has been living for the past six years at Cheshire Home, a Florham Park non-profit serving young physically disabled adults. Francis suffered a crippling spinal cord injury in 2003. Budget cuts are affecting nursing homes and specialty care facilities. I can't understand.

At a hearing on Tuesday, a 5-year-old blind youth and his mother testified that he had not received Braille instruction in more than a month. The budget included cuts to the blind. I can't understand.

The off-again, on-again Medical Marijuana Program appears to be restarted. After numerous, needless delays, one can only hope the governor will not come up with yet another reason to press the pause button.  I can't understand.  

Allegations of computer hacking by News Corp. were raised by the NJ FLOORGraphics Company in 2004 and later referred to then Prosecutor Chris Christie. According to POLITICO, Senator Lautenberg believes Christie's office launched an investigation but after several queries was unable to get a response, and a criminal case was never launched. I can't understand.

In our urban cities "where the pavements are burning," we had to listen to a lecture from our governor on "statutory oversight," before he mentioned he was willing to restore funding. I can't understand.  

And then there is this nasty, seemingly interminable, and ever-changing debate over the terms for carrying out the essential step of raising the national debt limit. I can't understand.

I suspect there are perfectly obvious answers to these conundrums, but I'm too frazzled by the heat.