Money
In the face of widespread human suffering in the nation, the American President and the American Congress have decided to focus almost exclusively on money. Saving money, printing more, spending less.
Teenagers are shooting each other over drugs with illegal hand guns, made readily available by failed gun laws. Teenagers are committing suicide after being bullied in underfunded and poorly regulated public schools. Minority students fail at increasing rates. Prisons are filled to overflowing. The rich flaunt their immunity to the suffering around them. The poor, manipulated by the media of the wealthy, do not know where to turn for relief and leadership. They are being divided and conquered by those relatively few who wish to hold onto 80%-90% of the wealth of the nation.
The Supreme Court has facilitated this process by allowing corporations to buy political propagandists (candidates) who represent their interests, not the interests of the people. Banks are taking back houses from bankrupt families at five times the normal rate. Unemployment is high. The climate is changing. Total dependence on the petrochemical industry to maintain the quality of life in America persists. The government obsesses on the automobile industry, the banks and Wall Street. The Republicans plot with Libertarians over taking away the social security network.
The wave of change in North Africa reminds me of the wave of change that occurred in Paris in 1968, which sparked student demonstrations around the world. Again, America looks abroad for examples of popular uprising against the selfish and greedy, who seek always to create a new aristocracy through war and empty nationalism. Now, this is happening in the Islamic world, where populations are awakening to their own needs for economic justice and civil rights. The American State Department, predictably, tries to prop up the Egyptian dictatorship as part of its Middle East chess game, based in petroleum politics.
It is time for the American people to drive the money men from the halls of democracy. This can happen peacefully in the voting booth or it can happen less peacefully in the streets. I hope the nonviolent path can be taken before the path of violence inevitably returns.
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| Tunisians demonstrating for economic justice. |
The Supreme Court has facilitated this process by allowing corporations to buy political propagandists (candidates) who represent their interests, not the interests of the people. Banks are taking back houses from bankrupt families at five times the normal rate. Unemployment is high. The climate is changing. Total dependence on the petrochemical industry to maintain the quality of life in America persists. The government obsesses on the automobile industry, the banks and Wall Street. The Republicans plot with Libertarians over taking away the social security network.
The wave of change in North Africa reminds me of the wave of change that occurred in Paris in 1968, which sparked student demonstrations around the world. Again, America looks abroad for examples of popular uprising against the selfish and greedy, who seek always to create a new aristocracy through war and empty nationalism. Now, this is happening in the Islamic world, where populations are awakening to their own needs for economic justice and civil rights. The American State Department, predictably, tries to prop up the Egyptian dictatorship as part of its Middle East chess game, based in petroleum politics.
It is time for the American people to drive the money men from the halls of democracy. This can happen peacefully in the voting booth or it can happen less peacefully in the streets. I hope the nonviolent path can be taken before the path of violence inevitably returns.
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