Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Proper Place to Vent

  
Well, it has been almost three months since the Nomads have returned from our seven month cross country trip to see America. We have shared our story in the nicest way we could, keeping many of the disturbing sights to ourselves. We watched no TV on the road but kept up with current events via the Internet. We saw first hand the decimation of small towns and neighborhoods with the pickets of signs that spelled "For Lease" or "Foreclosure."
 Upon our return, the country seems more fervently divided in its political climate than ever before. One thing is certain and that is everyone shares in the anger... me included. 
     It's easy it blame Barack Obama... someone needs to be accountable and he is the current leader. I think this is unfair. It was under the Cheney-Bush administration that we entered two expensive wars that are killing both our young men and our economy. I would like to ask them where the billions of dollars of taxpayer money that was shipped by the pallet-ful to Iraq without a trace went? There is no accounting for it. 
     Why are big corporations garnering record profits when so many Americans can't get jobs? The jobs are overseas because the labor is cheaper and profits can be higher. After all, a corporation's first priority is to make money for it's shareholders... and that would be the ultra-wealthy now wouldn't it. 
     It's ironic that as a citizen, you are free to go to Atlantic City and lose all your life savings, but when this happened to banks and car companies the American people had to bail them out. In turn they continue business as usual and thumb-nose the taxpyers with the renewal of their big bonuses. Hmm... privatize earnings, socialize losses, then celebrate. That idea makes me mad.
     The Tea Party really gets me fired up though. It's funded by the Koch brothers who are multi-billionaires who want the Government out of their pockets. Guess what folks... the Government is you. You have been voting on it for years. The ultra-wealthy don't care about the things that matter to the rest of us. Healthcare costs for them are pocket change. But to the 80% of Americans who are in foreclosure for medical reasons (even though many had insurance) it means more opportunity to get rid of the pesky middle-class. One plan of theirs is to disassemble Medicare and Social Security. Seems to me these government sponsored programs have been working just fine for our elderly and disabled. Isn't the military a government sponsored program too?
     Greed has gotten to the point where it has hitched its ugly star to one of our most sacred personal institutions... religion. Now we have a move to combine religion and politics... just the thing our founding fathers warned against. It seems being a right wing conservative gives credibility because it cleaves to "Christian" values and so it must be right...right? Meanwhile, I wonder if these christians ask themselves what Jesus would do in the current sate of affairs?
Would he be insisting on cutting money to take care of the poor? Would he be sparing the money changers from paying more taxes?Isn't it he who said "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to get to heaven"?  I am not a Christian so I can't answer these questions, but if I was it would disturb me.
     I think many Americans have been and are being duped into believing that our current leader is on the wrong track. I think he is purposely be thwarted by an obstructionist political agenda whose aim is to destroy the middle class and bring us back into the dark ages where the King (or Queen) and their court can live lavishly on the backs of the peasants. Our country is being held hostage by these clever liars and thieves who have created the perfect storm to divide the middle class... so that they will eventually fall into a class of peasants. Religious righteousness has historically contributed to the sword of fear that swings against humanity... hello Crusades. I fear a big change is coming... and it won't be pretty. Revolutions never are.