Lost in a Sea of What If, How To, and Not Enough

[RollWithIt]

I'm driving down 41 in Ft Myers Florida two days ago. Soon to be boarded up small businesses dot the landscape. Dying outdoor shopping centers look like a bad dream unfolding. Most of the parking lots are 75% to 90% empty. Even the customers that are there seem either sad or angry.

Despondent.

I'm 33 years old. So much for the unlimited potential of America. The great multiplying force of success has grinded down around me.

The condo someone purchased in 2006 for $205,000? It's worth $125,00 today. Maybe. Call me back in February, maybe it goes lower.

The city governments that depended on the sales and the real estate taxes? Poof. It's all over but the crying. It will take three to five years until anything resembling "good times" returns. It smells like burnt bacon out here. At least the sun is out.

Today I'm driving down the streets of my hometown, Akron Ohio. All those old factories are gone. The roads are falling apart. It's just cold enough to numb out the pain of what I'm seeing. So much angst and fear.

At least there are good hospitals. Too bad no one can afford them.

Almost all of the people I know or have ever known are struggling in a sea of bad economic news. Their savings are busted, their homes are undervalued, their rentals are in forclosure, their cars are too expensive, their healthcare is horrible, and their children's schools aren't teaching them any differently than they taught us.

It's fucking bleak out there.



Yet we complain about some guy who is going to say a prayer before a historic event.

We complain about not enough women.

Not enough latinos.

Not enough gays.

What if so and so got picked.

Ignore the longterm problems.

Focus on yesterday.

How to fix this mess?

I don't personally know.



What I do know is that I voted for Obama because I believe he thinks longterm. He thinks about what he wants to see next month. Next Year. At the end. For his children. For me. For you.



I will let him be President for at least a year before I say one single bad thing about his Presidency. Heck, I'll at least give him ONE DAY.

[glowing]

1. Dude, I can multi-task. I can know and see the problems. Shit, I can even

give really practical sollutions that would help fix some of these problems.. But denying equality in America is just wrong.. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. Its not that big of a deal to change the idea of bigotry, intolerance, and division in this country once and for all. This is causing DIVISION. Not unity that he wished.

[RollWithIt]

3. Obama is denying equal opportunity for all Americans?

Sorry, some guy giving a prayer before a speech doesn't equal that to me.

[glowing]

6. Perhaps he should also invite a speaker who denounces Israel.

Pehaps he should invite a speaker who equates women with dogs and believes they should be treated thus. Perhaps he should invite a pedophile. Perhaps he should invite Hitler... Do you get what it means to people who care about equality. I'm not gay. I got to marry my husband. But my brother's and sister's GLBT are worthy of protecting. I stand with them and understand what Rick Warren means to them. I also understand where we are and the depression we are in.. One doesn't excuse the other.

[RollWithIt]

8. I'm kind of taken back with how angry you are...

And I'm sorry that you feel that way. I can understand how I would feel if I was gay. But I think you're equating a pastor giving a prayer on day 1 equals you not getting what you want. Equality. I understand that. But, I think you're overreacting. In the end, Obama will decide your future not through a prayer giver but through judicial appointments. In the end, the issue that most concerns you will be decided through the state and federal courts. I would suggest placing a LOT more importance on the judicial appointments than some guy who is saying a prayer.

[glowing]

9. No, I'm not. I'm tired of pathetic excuses of time healing and moving forward.

Sorry, doesn't fly. We have instant technology at our finger tips. To defend bigotry in this day in age and on a day of historic importance is just wrong. It says to me that Obama doesn't believe GLBT community is really important; that they are second class citizens. That doesn't mean I don't think Obama should talk to Warren. Try to bridge divides. Its just that bigotry shouldn't be highlighted at the first inauguration of a minority.

[hay rick]

2. But we're liberals.

You expect us to be tolerant too?

[nevergiveup]

4. Me too!

I am a 60 yr old who is on the verge of loosing a 35 yr old small business. I have poured everything I have into this business over the years. There are 3 families dependent on this old gay man's ability to keep this business afloat and two of the families have small children. I am under extreme stress and pressure and the hope of Obama redirecting the priorities of our government is really all I have for the moment. Believe me I totally understand the frustration of gays with Obama's selection but surely at this moment, in this economic meltdown, there are things just a tiny bit more important.

[boomerbust]

5. Good Stuff

:kick:

[bobbolink]

7. There's another group of people who are IGNORED everyday, and told to sit down and shut up.

It's funny that poor and homeless people NEVER get this much attention.

Any call for action, no matter how easy and how little time it takes, is met with a yawn.

Yes, we know what it's like to be denied.

[glowing]

10. Yes, poor and homeless are ignored way too much. AND I would object

to a pastor giving a prayer that says homelessness is a sin too Bobo. How you doin, Love?

[bobbolink]

12. You sure can use words well... that is SO WELL said! Quotable, even!

"How you doin, Love? "

Yanno, when I read responses like yours, I feel instantly better! :hug:

Really, your words have me in tears.

Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice is prejudice... the issue is not ALL of the point... it's the PROCESS OF PREJUDICE, and we ALL NEED TO STAND TOGETHER!!

We keep focusing on the content... it's the PROCESS we need to whittle away at!

Damn, you're good! :toast:

[glowing]

13. Glad to oblige and your right.. Standing together means being stronger

and it means the rest of us get a fair shake. Its hard enough in this life. I remember from back in the day when my mom said share and play nice in the sandbox with all the kids. Its amazing how many adults forget to share and play nice.

[bobbolink]

14. "share and play nice in the sandbox with all the kids" How easily we forget, eh?

*I* remember back in my dirtyhippiecommiepinkobum days when we were interested and ACTIVE in ALL the issues! We didn't just tout our own... we supported each others.

THAT'S why we were so strong, and made so many advances.

"MY issue is more important", "No, MY issue is more important". Gets us isolated and slapped down.

Could we pleeeez go back to caring about each other as much as we care about ourselves?

PLEEEEEZ?

In the spirit of Martin Luther King, whose birthday celebration is coming up, could we pleeez do this?

Thank you, glowing... you remind us of what we shouldn't have to be reminded of. It should be second nature to Democrats!!

:hug:

[HughBeaumont]

11. Get rid of the cancer called Friedman economics. That's how you fix this mess.

I've been reading The Shock Doctrine and it's really an eye-opener. Every place that this callous and cruel brand of capitalism has been attempted always resulted in widespread poverty, unemployment, wealth inequality, infrastructural deterioration and societal depression.

In just 3 decades and some change, we've managed to go from a nation that had little debt, a somewhat gainfully employed citizenry and the status as the most powerful nation on earth to a bitter, paranoid, unemployed, scared, bullying, money wasting, over-borrowing, over-spent, feudal and largest debtor nation in history.

The wealthy performed a wholesale rape on us, plain and simple. They're turning us into scared slaves who do nothing but play it safe, 2006 and 2008 notwithstanding. And I fear that if they continue to operate things the way they are, without a hint of humility or embarassment, a violent uprising by the citizens against our so-called corporate "leaders" is the only thing that will make them listen and LEARN.

Life has to re-evolve. This neo-liberal "free-market" tumor that failed us historically and repeatedly cannot rise again. Housing has to be less ostentatious and wasteful. Businesses have to dump the "quarterly profits above all" mindset and move to a slower, steadier wealth building paradigm. Manufacturing and industry has to flourish in this country once again; a strong economy has the ability to employ ALL people, not leave them behind, and we do not have any such model now.

Business leaders cannot think of "cost" anymore. I hate to break this to them, but with no jobs, you don't have this little thing called BUSINESS, America doesn't have this little thing called TAX REVENUE and you're destroying this big thing called THE ECONOMY, all so you can buy luxury items and hoard cash. And with each thousand-plus layoff, the remaining workers will be unwilling to spend a dime, because they know they can be next and you give them no hope otherwise.

Wealth isn't created in a vacuum and neither is debt. Leaving people behind so that we can care more about the interests of nations that start with an "I" has done nothing except make wealthy people far wealthier. It's time to start caring about America and start putting people back to work.

It's time for the wealthy to START PLAYING BALL. It's not about YOU anymore. It's been about you for 232 years. That's over now. It's about US.