Fortunately and unfortunately, little is said these days that has the potential to make waves. Real and lasting change seems to be even harder to inspire than just allowing things to continue to muddle along. Not that we have forgotten what is at stake, perhaps we have not yet realized our contributions to or level of complicity in the bigger picture. For that we can be forgiven. One would like to think that we have progressed beyond the 1984 mentality that the three major superpowers will continue to do the endless dance, pairing up two at a time to defeat the third, then trading alliances when victory is nigh. Have we forgotten that we are only one tribe, only one family of human beings on the planet? The outlandish claims made by many nationalists, the "family values" crowd and those preoccupied with law and order are enough to dull the senses and obscure many basic facts. The greatest proof we have that we are one people, sharing a finite planet came from the photos of Earth from space that are barely two generations old. We have yet to come to a full understanding of just what those images mean for the future of our species. The boundaries that we place on the globe are both capricious and arbitrary. The rhetoric that flooded the airwaves about the "moral majority" were as parochial and provincial as bedtime stories. Designed to give power to a marginalized faction, they did their mischievous work while many of us were asleep, hoping it was all a bad dream. finally, we find ourselves in the lowest crime period in over thirty years, but yet we are deathly afraid of crimes against the small amount of property we have left. The fleecing we have endured at the hands of the ultra wealthy is nearly unfathomable but nowhere do you hear of class action suits against the banks, white collar criminality or the wholesale propping up of sectors of the economy that have outlived their economic and social import.
Assuming we have the right to freedoms delineated in our Constitution, they must be squarely supported by responsibilities as inalienable as the rights themselves. There is nothing patriotic about greed, deception, tax avoidance schemes or receiving corporate welfare. Wielding the title "too big to fail" only assures that the public will come to the aid financially whenever stupid ideas go awry. How about the vast middle class that has lost the majority of their assets over the past five years or so? Were they not too big to fail? Who will buy anything when the lion's share of the wealth is locked up in only a few people's hands? I'm sure that many are tired of hearing these doleful laments, but the tribe of humans that need to take heed occasionally need to be led to these issues in spite of their reluctance to face the facts. big freedoms demand big responsibility, as a parent, i try to teach my own children this important fact almost daily. Who will help uys to face these truths as a nation?
Next time we look to the "market" to solve a pressing problem, investigate the track record of commercialism ion solving individual woes. If you think we could live without a "safety net", remember how ugly the dust bowl days were on the plains. Remember the fortunes lost to corporations with the subsidization of railroads, steel mills, electricity production and distribution and through interstate commerce courtesy of the interstate highway system. Rather than enhancing freedom, each of these great undertakings served to funnel more money into fewer and fewer hands. whoever the government climbs into bed with produces the same offspring. Greed, neglect, disenfranchisement and woe are the cost of ignoring one another. Through the distorting lens of our current media circus, "all sides" of the issues are never represented, just the polar opposites. If no angry professionals exist who are competent to speak on any matter, the media can still find "experts" on any subject to take the most outlandish positions, not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of the argument. When lies are necessary, fabricating them has become as easy as a few mouse clicks.
Getting a grip in this day and age is nearly harder than survival was to our ancestors. I for one am interested in fact, not fiction, love, not hate and I want everyone to have enough, even if it means threatening the unbridled positions of the ultra wealthy. Just sayin'.
Assuming we have the right to freedoms delineated in our Constitution, they must be squarely supported by responsibilities as inalienable as the rights themselves. There is nothing patriotic about greed, deception, tax avoidance schemes or receiving corporate welfare. Wielding the title "too big to fail" only assures that the public will come to the aid financially whenever stupid ideas go awry. How about the vast middle class that has lost the majority of their assets over the past five years or so? Were they not too big to fail? Who will buy anything when the lion's share of the wealth is locked up in only a few people's hands? I'm sure that many are tired of hearing these doleful laments, but the tribe of humans that need to take heed occasionally need to be led to these issues in spite of their reluctance to face the facts. big freedoms demand big responsibility, as a parent, i try to teach my own children this important fact almost daily. Who will help uys to face these truths as a nation?
Next time we look to the "market" to solve a pressing problem, investigate the track record of commercialism ion solving individual woes. If you think we could live without a "safety net", remember how ugly the dust bowl days were on the plains. Remember the fortunes lost to corporations with the subsidization of railroads, steel mills, electricity production and distribution and through interstate commerce courtesy of the interstate highway system. Rather than enhancing freedom, each of these great undertakings served to funnel more money into fewer and fewer hands. whoever the government climbs into bed with produces the same offspring. Greed, neglect, disenfranchisement and woe are the cost of ignoring one another. Through the distorting lens of our current media circus, "all sides" of the issues are never represented, just the polar opposites. If no angry professionals exist who are competent to speak on any matter, the media can still find "experts" on any subject to take the most outlandish positions, not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of the argument. When lies are necessary, fabricating them has become as easy as a few mouse clicks.
Getting a grip in this day and age is nearly harder than survival was to our ancestors. I for one am interested in fact, not fiction, love, not hate and I want everyone to have enough, even if it means threatening the unbridled positions of the ultra wealthy. Just sayin'.
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