Truth and Reconciliation

Minutes of Truth & Reconciliation Meeting No. 4 - March 15, 2012
Transcript of illegal tape from early noughts made legal retrospectively by the terms of the new Patriot Act of 2012

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Okay folks, listen up. We've gotta lotta business to cover in this meeting. So stay with me. But first: What are we here for?

MANY VOICES: Money!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: When do we want it?

MANY VOICES: Now! (chuckles heard in the bg and fg)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Okay. And don't you forget it. And boy, do we have grist for your mill today. Or something like that; whatever the expression is. Because I'm here to tell you of a great new deal - hey. FDR had nothing on us.

(Sound of nervous titters; or something like that. Dutiful??)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: This great new deal is courtesy of our federal government, too. I don't know if any of you have been keeping up with what's been going on of a political nature lately - and how could you have, you've been so busy out there on the road...

(Sound of chuckles; more positive than the previous Response)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: But to sum it up: The federal government wants us to put as many people as possible into homes. Their own homes. Not retirement homes. We haven't taken them for all they're worth yet, for that.

(Sound of chuckles; more like the first Response)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: So boy, are we gonna do it. Right?

RESPONSE FROM THE AUDIENCE: Right!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Because that's what we're here for. Right?

RESPONSE: Right!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: I couldn't hear that.

RESPONSE (louder): RIGHT! (chuckles)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Okay, I heard that. And now, you hear this. (False voice-like, as over a loudspeaker:) NOW HEAR THIS.

(Dutiful-like chuckles from audience, and a couple clearly nearer the mike)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: I want you to go out there and do that. Put as many people as possible into their own homes. All kindsa people. The lame, the halt, the blind...

(Dutiful-like chuckles, even louder in the fg)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: And don't worry about nothin'. You got that? Are we on the same page here?

RESPONSE (a little more hesitantly than previously); Right!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Just do it. Get their signatures where you know to get'em. And walk away. Because our brothers and sisters in the fraternity - the fraternity of making money...

(RESPONSE: ditto)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: ...have come up with some fancy new doodads, some gizmos - sorry, Blanche; some 'financial instruments', called...something or other. What was that, Blanche? Oh, I remember: 'credit default swaps', and something else called 'collaterized debt obligations' - I think it is. And they are gonna make us all a lotta money. Because what they do, is - what's it called? They 'diffuse the signal', or some such. What is gonna happen here, is our brothers and sisters in the fraternity are gonna package these mortgages we're gonna give'em - these tons and tons of mortgages we're gonna give'em - right?

RESPONSE: Right!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: - and bundle'em all up, and slice 'n dice them, and have some of the weaker ones all tied up with the better - the more solid ones, and the signal disappears from the, you know, weaker ones, and they are great potential money earners. Are gonna be great money spinners. Because, as you are all aware, anything that looks like it's gonna be guaranteed by the guvmint is gonna be a mint for us. Got it?

RESPONSE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: I said: Got it?

RESPONSE (louder): RIGHT!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: A place from where we can mint our own money. Lotsa money. And that's what this business is all about; right?

RESPONSE (a little hesitantly): Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: This business of making money. What we're in the business OF. Right?

RESPONSE: (a little weaker): Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: What we're in business FOR. Right?

RESPONSE (weaker...): Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: I didn't get that.

RESPONSE (stronger): Right!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Absolutely. Now before I go into some details, of bonuses and quotas and the like: Any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 2: Excuse me, sir. With all due respect: Isn't this a little like a Ponzi scheme? New money to cover the other, and all that?

(Silence. Long silence.)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Excuse me, sir. With all due respect: What is your name?

(Silence. Growing.)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 2: I think I got it, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE 1: Good. We are all on the same page, here. Right? And I wanna believe that.

RESPONSE (thunderous): RIGHT!


(With a nod of debt to Rob Long)


We need - the system needs - 'gimmicks' to stimulate business. Buying and selling; it's the name of the game. If you don't have a gimmick - something to entice buyers with; something of perceived value - you don't have a sale, and therefore you don't have business. And therefore you don't have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Right?

Wrong.

Correction: It's all relative. In your system of socio-economic structure, yes. But - puh-leez...

In all the long march of history, where are we. It appears to be: still on a primitive level.

We can do better than this.

Let's be about it.

Time, and its circumstances, are forcing us to, anyway.

So let's all get on the same page. And sing a song of -

not sixpence. But of incandescent harmony. As One united Being. Living in alignment with our highest potential, as 'spiritual beings having a human experience'.

And making the most of it.