My America?

We had just under 2,200 new covid-19 cases in my county last week. Brown County, Wisconsin has less than 265,000 people, so nearly two in a hundred got a completely controlable illness last week. Some of them will die. Even at only 1% death rate, 22 people will lose their lives to covid-19 simply because they got infected in the past week. Remember, the case fatality rate is closer to two percent across the entire U.S. I have so much shame and heartache about how stupid we are acting, but that will need to be worked out elsewhere. This blog is supposed to focus on positive steps we can take to chage things for the better. I know that after more than a year, we should be past this point. I'll go over it again just in case you have forgotten.DO NOT SHARE AIR! JUST DON'T DO IT! When you must be near others, mask, wash your hands frequently, do not touch your face, maintain social distance. Also, use your brain. All of our lives we have been taught that uncovered coughs and sneezes can jettison sputum up to thirty feet or more. Increase social distance around those who cough and/or sneeze that choose to remain unmasked. I would love to go into more detail about how to re-allocate the money we wasted in Afghanistan...

As we change our focus... The fact that millions of Americans love to shoot off their ignorant pie holes about how we need to love this country or leave it, one would expect them to be true patriots and work conscientiously to make our nation a place worthy of living in. There is nothing patriotic about claiming that your "freedom" is worthy of trampling on the health and safety of others. From a foundation that thinks liberty extends to hurting others, what can you build on a foundation that horrid? We can bear witness to the fact tha tthese same people claim to be victims themselves, justifying running stoplights and spewing toxic chemicals, even into our shared drinking water. This is not the nation I was taught to love. No one has the American Dream of buying a farm in the country only to turn the spigot and get shit out of the faucet, but in millions of american homes, that is what you get. How can degrading my property values by tainting my water source be allowed? Why is it not criminal to do business in ways that kill people? My America, the one I was taught to love and respect has three primary tenets, Justice, based on legislation and rights handed down from our legal cases; freedom to choose our leaders, based on the vote and as so many love to repeat, life, liberty and persuit of happiness. (falsely called "property" by some who fight to retain their greedy self-interest in an environment that requires cooperation and mutualism.) My right to make a living never absolves me of responsibility if I negatively impact my neighbor's ability and right to health, happiness or their ability to thrive. As we look outside our own niche, we need to accept and defend the rights of everyone to find the things we all claim have value. Living life requires us to be healthy. To have ultimate freedom, we must also carry the burden of absolute responsibility. To ultimately seek and have the hope of finiding happiness, we need to know that the basic needs we all have are going to be met. The dwindling but very loud minority who claim that they have the "right" to re-define reality to suit their claims rather than accepting facts and reality doomks all of us to meeting an untimely end. How will we react in the face of lies? We the people must speak truth to these power-hungry people who claim undue influence through the media, use of capital and who cling to their outlandish claims. We have the power to change, too often what we lack is the will.

Jingoism: Whom Do You Serve?

I have lived through several periods of flag waving during my lifetime. First, there was the Kennedy inspired Space Race. Perhaps I was the only one who thought that the whole thing was ill-conceived, too expensive and pointless, but it got the whole of the USA behind a single purpose. Even though some conspiracy theorists thought it was just a hoax, acted out in the desert, perpetrated on the American people. Sadly, the massive waste of resources and the legacy of looking elsewhere for meaning continues to limit our collective imagination. We clamored to "space travel" as if sending people to the moon would do more than "prove something" to those "Godless Russians". I guess we at least proved that the Moon was not made of cheese! Billions were spent, and billions more continue to be spent trying to escape this planet, even if only with rovers and robotic labs to test the waters (or for water) elsewhere in the solar system. Would someone please tell our scientists that there are far more important jobs to do here at home?

When Kennedy was assassinated, there was another period of flag waving. We rightly mourned a hero who had passed. One of JFK's bravest acts was to speak truth to power. Some still believe that is why he was killed. When enemies of the people were in charge, positive change was not possible. Wealth and paranoia ruled the day, not intellect or compassion. When the President came out in favor of a more humane future for our country, he challenged the very fabric of life in these United States. Later, the hippies tried valiantly, to use the flag as a symbol of resistance, and were condemned for it. Many forget that Thomas Jefferson said: "God help us if this country should go another twenty years without another Revolution of this kind." The "America, Love It Or Leave It." crowd forgot that we have a right to reform the government if it is not meeting our needs. Fighting for change is American, even if you get killed for it! Heroes never just go along with the crowd. They stand out from it. In our country we admire those who stick to their beliefs in spite of what the majority have decided. Even the Revolution was fought by a strong willed minority. The majority were willing to stick their heads in the sand. Bet you never learned that in school!

The Bi-centennial was probably the most Red, White and Blue period that I had lived through until 9-11. (that's a noun now.) In spite of double digit inflation and growing awareness that we still had racism, class warfare, unequal distribution of wealth, educational and drug problems, serious social issues, crumbling infrastructure and that the military industrial complex had more to say about our government than the voters, Americans stood in line at thousands of parades, dressed in flag-adorned jump suits, wearing our flag emblazoned hats, with flag key fobs, listening to music played on guitars painted to look like Old Glory, drinking lemonade out of Red, White and Blue cups. It was truly amazing. We still thought that we could do anything. After all, in spite of the escalating Cold War, the only righteous superpower was us! We had tamed virtually every corner of the land, if not the hearts of the people.

As the Century came to a close, we got fired up once again, when people (from Saudi Arabia) attacked The World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and tried to attack some other US target. We know that World Trade has many victims. Far more than the three thousand who lost their lives that day. Look into the eyes of Chinese factory workers, or the children there who "recycle" computer parts. We have all seen the suffering of child laborers, sex-trade workers, indentured servants and sweat shop slaves. This turmoil and abuse is only possible when posh consumers turn their attention to something glorious, something glamorous, something pure and idyllic, like our flag or their own sparkling image. Most Americans feel that we have a right to our way of life. I stand for the fact that there is no pride (or there should not be) in abusing people around the world so that we can remain insulated from the reality of their suffering. Terrorism is wrong of course, but so is the terrorism of economics. The family who feels the need to sell a child into slavery is as much a victim of terror as someone who is afraid to go to the mall, or ride a bus, or go to a sporting event. I would go further and say that the terror perpetrated through economic means is more insidious.
I personally live every day knowing that my home is worth less than I owe on it. When it gets paid off I will have paid over twice what it is worth. I have lost virtually all of my hope of ever retiring. I am just one illness away from having to declare bankruptcy, My children are coming into a world of rapidly diminishing prospects, and even though some are saying the worst is behind us, we have not yet had the crash of the commercial real estate market which will dwarf the recent housing crash. Living under constant threat from terrorism (which by definition can only hurt a tiny fraction of the population) pales in light of the fact that we all suffer daily with business as usual in the land of the Red White and Blue.

Copyright Tony C. Saladino 1984 used with permission by The Otherfish Wrap 2009

 This is during a brief trip to Italy. Although I have lived many decades more, this curiosity and creativity has not weakened in my personality. I have more gray now, but have learned nearly three times the lessons I had  before then. My buttons were: Bread Not Bombs, Teach Peace, 1984 and No Bozos! I still wear the self-made belt buckle created when my fist love bloomed.

"Take America Back" has been my rallying cry since 9-11. We can't shop, or travel our way out of this one. We have to recreate an America that is worthy of respect. Not because we threaten or cajole others to respect us, but because we have earned it. We need to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves to us, not connive and engineer ways to dehumanize and exploit our neighbors. Love truly means letting go of fear. Remember though, it is our duty to make sure our government is doing what needs to be done, not just providing a crutch for the wealthiest among us, not just candy-coating statistics to show us an America we can be proud of and certainly not painting Red, White and Blue the corporations and entities that hold power, money and greed up as their Gods! Get involved! Try going to see what goes on at school board meetings, city or town halls, attend a rally, heck go meet your neighbors. In these times, slowing down enough to meet your neighbors can be a political act! We have the power, if we are willing to take it, to change this country into something we can all be proud of. When we get that done, we can wave the flag with true pride, not manufactured patriotism.