by David Bruce
Citizens of Egypt asked for change and then demanded change. When change did not come, the citizens of Egypt forced change and forced former President Muhammad Hosni Mubarek from office. In turn, and almost in unison, other countries in the Middle East and northern Africa demanded likewise of their leaders. Protestors in Libya seek to remove Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi from power, opponents of Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh are demanding that the leader relinquish his power, and thousands of protesters march in Jordan to affect political and economic change long planned for and summarily forgotten.
Meanwhile back in the United States, the Democratic and Republican parties continue their ongoing political sparring at the expense of the American people. Current legislation threatens to eliminate funding that will ultimately lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Proposed cuts threaten job training for unemployed workers, teacher training, community health centers, and assistance for low-income families and children. The billions of dollars saved are coincidentally offset by the extension of the Bush Administration tax cuts.
Across the states, the impact of government intervention, spending (or lack thereof), and legislation affects citizens to one extent or another. People are still losing jobs, homes are still being foreclosed on, and food and fuel prices continue to rise. At the same time, the government is proposing cuts that will threaten those least likely to compensate for the rising prices. The changes proposed by the Obama Administration over two years ago have not come to pass, either as a result of political obstruction or executive incompetence is immaterial. The end result is the same and affects the lower- and middle-class citizens of the United States adversely and often irreparably.
At what point do we get so fed up with the dogmatic assurances of change and the continued erosion of hope for a future that at least allows for the average American to maintain an unpretentious existence that we march in the streets in front of our state capitals, demanding from our governors and representatives a true change that works in favor of the citizens of the country and not the political and business empire that dominates our nation?
We have become so focused on reality shows that we have overlooked the reality outside of our homes. We have become so enraptured with the latest electronic toys that we forgotten what the idea of freedom is, having become slaves to advertisements, big screens, and bright lights. We are mesmerized and hypnotized, becoming blind to what our leaders are doing. Will we wake up when it is too late, or will we take a page from the book of those peoples in Egypt, Yemen, and Jordan who have said enough is enough. The change must come from us, or change will not come at all.
Between the politicians and the MSM most people in this country are so entrenched in the left vs. right that they fail to see that it is really the ruling class vs. everyone else. I’m not saying rich vs. poor because there are plenty of what most would call rich people that are good citizens and are being effected by the ruling class. When I say ruling class I’m talking about the people that pay the lobbyist to buy the politicians to make laws and regulations to help their specific industry or business and then hide behind said politicians and/or laws and regulations. Those are the real enemy of the state. It is not the regular people on the right or the left.
Until more people begin to see this fact we are not going to be able to get out of the mess we are in. Until we see this we cannot come together as a people and overthrow the ruling class because we are too focused on right vs. left or black vs. white, or rich vs. poor, or whatever distinctions you want to make with the majority of the rest of the people in the US.
Instead of Occupy Wall Street the real movement needs to be, and will be Occupy the Fed who is responsible for the ruling class maintaining it’s power over us. We need to come together as a people and throw off the ruling class and once we do that and retake this country for the people like our founding fathers did we can worry about the other differences that we have. Until we do that though everything else is window dressing, or as a heard one person say (sorry I don’t remember who or were I saw this) we are just “tinkering with the knobs”
Steve,
Thanks for the feedback. It sort of seems as though we’re living in a Matrix-like world where only a few have swallowed the pill to see what reality truly is. Until more start seeing that we don’t really have the freedoms we think we have and that we are, for the most part, pawns in a game of power and money.
How long before Americans wake up and realize that in this new global economy, better opportunities may come from packing up and moving elsewhere? For that matter, why can’t WE seek asylum in other countries if by our actions and beliefs, we risk persecution here from government via tNDAA and the new militarized police who exist to serve and protect the 1%’s profits and our military industrial complex? It’s a hard reality to accept but America is NOT the home of the brave or the land of the free. It’s NOT your grandpa’s USA anymore, and you might actually live better somewhere else. Citizenship is an accident of birth. If we’re going to welcome this new global economy, we should be able to choose our citizenship!
Mack,
So many have been spoonfed the rhetoric that they can’t see past the red, white, and blue to the reality of our global economy and need to be good global neighbors. It will take more of us participating in Occupy-style events and speaking out – and more of us voting with our dollars more than with our ballots to truly make a difference.
Thanks for your comment!