9/11-09
It's been a while since I have posted anything but now I'm back. A lot has happened over the past 2 years. We have a new President elected by a huge majority. We have majorities in both houses of Congress. And we still can't seem to get anything done for the people of this country. I do believe what we are witnessing is the result of a complete take over of the machinery of government by big money, high powered interests. The kind that prospers when labor is cheap. Competition is scant. Regulation is weak or non-existent. Where the the so called main-stream media can't seem to find one iota of news to report on them but can some how find plenty of reason to report on Britney Spears until you could vomit.
It's been a while since I have posted anything but now I'm back. A lot has happened over the past 2 years. We have a new President elected by a huge majority. We have majorities in both houses of Congress. And we still can't seem to get anything done for the people of this country. I do believe what we are witnessing is the result of a complete take over of the machinery of government by big money, high powered interests. The kind that prospers when labor is cheap. Competition is scant. Regulation is weak or non-existent. Where the the so called main-stream media can't seem to find one iota of news to report on them but can some how find plenty of reason to report on Britney Spears until you could vomit.
With the passing of Walter Cronkite I have found myself missing the day when these news organizations would actually investigate. Be Journalists. Follow leads. Inform the public. Now they appear cheap and scandalous.
They inform us that we are bad citizens for not becoming real estate agents, or loan officers so that we would know when these state licensed professionals are wrongly advising us. That we are not insurance agents so that when we purchase insurance, we would know that the only thing we are insuring is the bank accounts of the CEOs and stock holders. That gambling is something we may need professional help with and risk losing everything but if you do it under the name of a Bank, you will get bailed out repeatedly.
Have you noticed a theme here? I sure hope so. Not only are we not the persons that our Constitution and Bill of Rights were designed to protect. Corporations have been given those protections from us. We The People.......
Corporations have taken over most aspects of our lives. They misinform and not inform thru the news, commercials and political campaign ads. They conspire thru their associations and board rooms how to dominate our politicians, our process and our lives. And the super elite of these conspire to dominate entire industries. They smile broadly when their influence delivers deregulation followed by new regulation designed by them, for them. To benefit only them. Allowing them to crush all comers and small operators.
Think about it. We have seen it in every deregulated industry. Oil industry, telecommunications, cable tv, banking, trucking, insurance, utilities, agriculture. And with all this good for us deregulation we have seen less choice, higher prices, control of access. And those who labor in these industries have seen there retirements raided, benefit options decrease while out of pocket expenses rise, less vacation, wages stagnate or decrease. Work conditions becoming more unsafe and stressful. How much more can we take?
Now, don't get me wrong here. I am talking in generalities and there are some very socially responsible and community conscience companies out there. I also think it is time for us and them to step up. We can not sustain this trajectory we find our country on. Take a look around. The Arab spring, riots all over western Europe. If we don't unite and organize for some real change, we will find ourselves having lost our opportunity for peaceful change. Peaceful change is what we are all looking for.
We must find ways of organizing locally and connecting nationally. "We The People" are the government. (Say it over and over again.) Our power is in our numbers. We express our power in three ways. Voting, demonstrations and boycotts. Just think about that.
P.S. As you could tell by the date, I drafted the first half in 2009. I decided to finish it today because, as you can see, not much has changed. And what has, has not been for the better. Stop! Please excuse me. Something has changed. "We" have changed. And our media is changing. Even some of us on the "other side" have been changing.
With that in mind, let us all come together in change.
