Just call me lucky

Welcome to this week's Reno News & Review.

I don't know what got me thinking along this tangent recently, but I've been thinking how lucky I am. It might have had something to do with the bombing at the Boston Marathon. I always feel appreciative of the things we have as Americans when I see the exception that proves the rule.

I mean, we've got a population of 314 million. As awful as that act of terrorism was, there are places in the world where an act like that happens almost every day. I don't feel safe, don't get me wrong, because safety in this country is primarily illusion. I mean, we live in houses where glass windows are supposed to keep bad people out. But I'm not afraid to be in crowds, and I hardly ever hesitate to write what I'm thinking, particularly when there's a national debate about gun-violence control.

I'll also admit, I've got it pretty good. I live in a great house. A couple of years ago, I managed to keep it from foreclosure by never getting behind on my payments while I spent tens of hours every week for about four months trying to make the government's bailout of the banking and mortgage industry work for me as an American citizen. But if you looked at that house—OK, admittedly, I still haven't done my spring cleanup—you'd be jealous.

I guess I do have a little fear of the future, since those same people who fraudulently caused the banking and mortgage crisis also got my retirement. People who had a lot of money in the markets or a more diversified portfolio, though, made out all right. I was lucky. If you count all of my retirement and the bubblicious equity in my home, they only got me for about $300,000. Maybe $340,000 if you include the fact that I'm still a bit underwater.

So when I see those representatives in Washington, D.C., calling for a terrorist to be tried under laws that deprive an accused murderer but for-sure American citizen of constitutional rights, I know we'll see justice. Those electeds have my back, just like they had yours over the past few years. We're just lucky that way.