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Edited on Sun Sep-27-09 10:12 PM by NanceGreggs
I don’t care if you’re an (R) or a (D), an Indy or a Green, a Liberal or a Conservative, a left-to-center, right of the aisle, progressive-regressive, Area 51-9/11 conspiracy theorist, astrology-driven Christian, reluctant Zen-Buddhist, Feng Shui adherent with Rococo overtones – or just a regular guy livin’ a regular life – it’s time to get a fuckin’ grip.
I think we’ve got some common ground, regardless of who we are or where we see ourselves on the colour-coded, media-created pie chart of inane categorization – whether we’re Gen-X or Boomers, low class, poor class, lower middle class, middle-middle class, upper middle class, unemployed, under-employed, over-employed, retired or expired, we’re all pretty much sick to death of the whole damned thing.
Right here, right now, we’ve got over-zealous cops armed with tasers, torturers armed with legal off-the-hook technicalities, citizens dyin’ for lack of healthcare insurance, insurance companies cryin’ about dyin’ profits, food banks running dry, real banks running amok, Wall Street v Main Street, Main Street USA in the business of hangin’ Out of Business signs, and a mainstream media saying suck it up, it’s a sign of the times – and listen to us, we know it ALL, ‘cause we have access to reliable sources like Twitter.
We’ve got so-called “news journalists” talking about whether the POTUS is under-exposed or over-exposed – as though he has a new movie/book/TV series to sell and we – not citizens, but consumers – should judge his accomplishments on the same basis as Survivor, deciding whether he should be voted off that flat-screen island that sits in front of the couch and broadcasts nonsense 24-7.
You want God involved in your government? Well, I don’t; got this separation of Church and State thing in my head – don’t know where that came from, but there you have it. Thing is I’d gladly accept the teachings of one Jesus Christ into the political discourse if, just once in a while, so-called Christian politicians (and their so-called Christian constituents) actually acted like the Late, Great JC and did unto their fellow citizens as they would have done unto their own selfish asses.
I don’t hold myself out as a Biblical scholar, but I don’t remember Jesus ever asking what’s-in-it-for-me before feeding the hungry or curing the afflicted – and, according to the official record so many feel free to fold, staple, spindle and/or mutilate when it fits their personal agenda, he never once asked to see someone’s insurance policy or Green Card before workin’ a God-damned miracle – nor did he refuse to heal a single leper on the basis that they had a pre-existing condition which, according to Saviour Rule No. 606.9(b). 03, disqualified them not only from assistance, but even a modicum of human compassion.
You want less government interference in your life? Hey, guess what – so do I. I don’t want the government pokin’ its nose into my bedroom, my internet communications, my emails, my right to protest, my right to ask where the fuck were all of the people who now want to know where their tax dollars are being spent – the same people whose jaws were apparently wired shut when the Bush administration was wire-tapping without warrants, and sending people who disagreed with them to designated “free-speech zones” while running up the national debt with all the fiscal responsibility of a drunken sailor with a stolen credit card – and while shovelling taxpayers’ money into the pockets of war-profiteering companies who just happened – oh, so coincidently – to be owned and/or operated to the financial benefit of family members and friends.
You believe we should Support the Troops? Yeah, me, too. I also believe that supporting our troops should be more than a bumpersticker – “I love a vet being treated for PTSD in June, how about you? I love a vet who, after all he’s been through and all he’s sacrificed, is still able to enjoy a Gershwin tune – how about you?” Holding hands in the movie show when all the lights are low – yeah, it may not be new, but for some of our returning soldiers it’s impossible to sit in the dark without reliving the horrors they’ve seen – and shouldn’t they be able to get the treatment necessary to make that simple a joy not just a possibility, but a reality?
There are people out there trying to divide us – and I gotta tell ya, so far they’re doing a damned fine job of it. They’re playing to the stoopid, and the stoopid are responding.
We know that because we’ve seen them – and if it’s on TV, it must be true.
They’re telling the stoopid that healthcare reform will ruin those good folks over to the multi-billion-dollar-a-year profit centers, that lobbyists lookin’ to make a buck for the bidness what hired them are good-‘n’-honest Americans, that Barack Obama is a Muslin fascist-communist-Nazi-all-too-uppity-person-of-color who is looking to ruin our nation by being articulate, intelligent, popular and respected.
And the stoopid are listening – they’re listening to the drug-addled Limbaughs, the Sarah “I Can See Russia from My Front Porch!” Palins, the cry-on-a-dime-give-ya-nine-cents-change Beck – who can prove his insane theories with a piece of chalk and a blackboard (or an Etch-a-Sketch, if he gets his sponsors back and can afford state-of-the-art technology once again.)
You want your country back? Well, count me in. I want it back from the lobbyists, the hypocrites, the electronic voting machines, the special interest groups, the birthers, the Teabaggers, the blissfully ignorant, the CEOs, the CFOs, the accountants who find the loopholes, the lawyers who find the technicalities that shield torturers from justice, the corporations that outsource, the companies that downsize for the sole purpose of upsizing their bottom-line – and everyone else who has turned putting you and me out of work and out of luck into a profession that pays well, all benefits included, soul and/or conscience not required.
I want it all back: the mom-and-pop operations that sell a cup of coffee that doesn’t cost twelve bucks, the local retailers who own their own businesses downtown instead of being greeters at the local WalMart in the mall, jobs where people benefit from their labor and retire with a pension instead of a one-way ticket to the poorhouse, schools that provide an education that doesn’t include teaching that the Earth is 6,000 years old despite all evidence to the contrary, doctors that spend their working hours treating patients instead of negotiating with insurance company death panels, corporations run by executives who don’t earn a multi-million dollar bonus for driving a company out of business, and a news media that delivers the fuckin’ news – being reportage of events that actually matter rather than who’s wearing who on the red carpet – nor their opinion of same.
Less government? I hear ya. But I want it minimized where it benefits the few, and maximized where it benefits the nation as a whole. I want my food inspected before I eat it, my drinking water free of contaminants, and my air fit to breathe.
And while I'm on the topic of what I want in this ever-popular atmosphere of it's-MY-world-and-it's-all-about-ME, I want my neighbors being judged on their character and not their accent, and my church/synagogue/temple/mosque being a place where people gather to pray and NOT a pulpit-of-convenience for those who choose to encourage hate and violence towards those who believe differently.
I want freedom of religion, not religion gussied-up as a barely reasonable facsimile of “moral values” and a desire to get right with God (who, in too many instances nowadays, doesn’t even get an honorable mention due to having been supplanted by politically-inspired sermons about voting for the guy who was just caught with his hand in the till, or up the skirt of his secretary, or down the pants of a choirboy – all deemed “forgiven” if he cries sufficiently on TV and promises to be a good boy from here on in, at least when somebody’s watching.
There is a great divide in this nation right now. But it is no longer a division between Democrats and Republicans (or what’s left of the latter); it is a division between the sane and the lunatic fringe, the truth-tellers and the out-and-out liars, the informed and those who refuse to be informed, the bigots and the tolerant, the insightful into what’s wrong and how to right it and the blind who are content to merely complain about the problems we face, without a clue as to what those problems even are.
It’s time to get a fuckin’ grip and pick a side. If you honestly believe that people like Orly Taitz are making a valuable contribution to your country, so be it. Take your place with the minority; carry your mis-spelled protest signs, proudly demonstrate your stupidity in the public square, declare that you want the gov’mint out of government-run programs like Medicaid, fight for the right of insurance conglomerates to make a buck off your pain and suffering, tune-in to Fox-News and swallow whatever foul-tasting, devoid-of-facts pablum they and the rest of the mainstream media is willing to spoon-feed you because you’re too lazy to care where your next meal is coming from if it requires moving your lazy lard-ass off the couch to actually do something pro-active - like voting once in a while.
But if you want your country back – back from the bought-and-paid-for politicians who have no qualms about buttering their own bread at your expense, back from the wingnuts who think murdering abortion-providers is the best way to preserve the sanctity of life, back from the newscasters who think you are unable to think and are therefore charged with doing your thinking for you, back from the school boards who determine that a well-rounded education includes not allowing students to hear the President extol the virtues of working hard in school, back from the so-called Christians who insist they’re being persecuted out of existence by people who wish them “Happy Holidays” in December, back from the brink of INSANITY – you might want to look at your fellow citizens who, despite their “Obama 2008” bumperstickers, despite the (D) after their names, despite their support of gay rights or the right to an abortion, despite the differences between their philosophies and yours, just MIGHT have more in common with you than you want to admit, or that you’re being led to believe.
Think about it. That’s all I’m asking. And I’m somehow confident that those of you still capable of thinking for yourselves have already figured this out.
Now let’s stop merely thinking alike and start acting alike – it’s our country. So let’s take it back – together.
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