On the List
There’s something about a list that quickens the pulse—especially when it’s a list of names people would rather not see published. The recent resurgence of interest in Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged client roster has me thinking less about the lurid headlines and more about proximity. How close does this list come to our own high-end neighborhoods and groves, our own professional circles?
It’s like the Ashley Madison leak from a few years back. That, too, was a list—just names and dates—but it had a way of making more than a few men gulp.
These lists—whether compiled by hackers or whistleblowers—don’t just expose individuals; they remind that the rot is rarely far away. Sometimes it lives next door.
These lists offer an invitation to examine our culture of complicity, the quiet corners where people look the other way because power makes things murky, and money makes things disappear.
We might ask, not just who’s on the list, but why we’re always so surprised to find familiar names there.
Micah D. Mercer
North Bay
The Wish
A man rubs a magic lamp, and a Genie appears.
“You get one wish,” says the Genie.
The man thinks and says, “I’m scared of flying and boats. I wish for a bridge from California to Hawaii so I can drive there.”
The Genie rolls his eyes and says, “Do you have any idea what you’re asking? That’s thousands of miles of ocean, structural engineering beyond belief, billions of tons of concrete and steel… Come on, man. Wish for something else.”
The man nods and says, “All right, then I wish to see the Epstein client list.”
The Genie pauses, swallows hard and asks, “OK, four lanes or six on that bridge?”
Craig Corsini
San Rafael
