Chuck Pahluniuk wrote "No matter how much you love someone you'll step back when the pool of their blood inches up too close.", I've been pondering this lately more than usual. On Tuesday someone I love had pieces removed. Not the first pieces, just more pieces. After they took the first pieces she said to me, "Meghan Elizabeth, I want to know what they did with them. They're mine." I didn't really know what to say to this, I think I may have laughed until she laughed. What do you say to that? I mean either you laugh or you cry and she and I, we don't cry, it doesn't work for us, it slows us down. So we laugh until we go back to figuring out how to rule the world. Ruling the world begins with long beautiful hair, your hair is your crown. Next came clean bathrooms, this is key, if you cannot hide that you are human you will never be queen! Also cleanliness lives next to godliness and someday you might need a little god even if its only as a rental. Basically, don't cry over spilt milk, clean that shit up and put it in your pocket, thats a token of cleanliness your gonna trade for a little kindness some day. After this you must own your chosen path of crazy and stick with it. This is essential to your survivor as a ruler, there can be no wavering, no uncalculated shifts in the direction of you and your one woman army. Your mercy is your weakness and your strength, use it with care. Finally, A hard head makes a soft but.
What happens when the Queen loses her crown? You buy her wigs, overpriced, ridiculous, costume wigs and you pray to the god you've been cleaning for that she laughs and wears them.When it's revealed she is, in fact, human and she's cashed in all her spilt milk for a few extra sour years and gone bat shit crazy? You hope its just the cancer fighting the person you love that lived in there.You hope you weren't completely oblivious and blind to who this person was. You wrestle with the thought that what you saw was a mirage.Then you think, "What could a queen have that could cover the interest owed to good old Grim for continued use of the body?". Perhaps the Queen had nothing but pieces, and maybe she wasn't specific enough with one Mr. Grim Reaper, in regard to the terms. Possibly she didn't read the fine print, where it clearly states the good pieces, the kind, loving pieces that the important people love a queen for, those pieces will be the first to go. And if a hard head makes a soft but, what makes a hard head? What makes a hard head? How about banging it against a wall and plotting your next big jump of the sane train, your next bold, death defeating move.That could make a hard head right?
The more important question for me lately is what happens when there are no more pieces to take? When all the harvestable parts have been removed, what exactly is left. I'm trying to believe that the very best parts were passed along to the important people long before the deal with Grim, before the cancer settled in and started redecorating and before we started stepping back. I'm wishing the lessons learned from the Queen before the fall can be remembered longer than the ugliness of a lonely body snatcher named cancer. Each end has its own beginning and somewhere in the middle we turn to run from the puddle that is the inevitable end. No two people will run in the same direction, at the same speed or with the same form but every person will step back before they go and everyone will feel guilt for not going back to stop the blood flow. The last few years I've been stepping further and further back. I've closed my eyes and lost track of the blood but it hasn't stopped pooling. It's survival mode and I may have committed to it. This isn't about CPR or applying pressure, it's not about loving someone enough to splash around in their blood and it isn't about saving them. This is death after life. This is a fight that must be lost eventually because no one gets out alive, no one, literally lives forever. Except maybe a Queen...
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Vote and see, what's beef?
There is an election coming up and its going to be a bigger one than anyone seems to think. I'm no politician and this all my opinion based on what little I do know, but sadly it seems to be more than most of my generation. I don't know that its truly understood what is actually at stake over the next few years if those of us too busy to care don't find the time to care. There are so many people who don't believe that voting matters. To them I have a challenge: Learn about the candidates for this midterm election and vote. Vote and see. See if your vote matters, if everyone who thinks it doesn't matter took the time out of their day to vote and that shit doesn't matter, then what the fuck did you lose? But, if each of these poor unfortunate "I don't matter" souls voted and it did matter, then this revolution will have begun in a whole new way, more importantly this generation will have learned from its past. Our current President is attempting to clean up an 8 year mess caused by a man who let people in his own country starve for 5 days, relaxed oil drilling and safety laws to near non-existence, "stimulated" the economy by giving millionaires tax breaks, while the rest of us lose our jobs to less expensive sweat shops in other countries and he kicked all this off by sending a large part of our country off to war with a country over his daddys beef. Provided this is not just the eye of the storm and things are finally starting to settle, this is the time to keep it from getting worse for us small people.
President Obama , or Barack as I like to call him when I yell at the television, is trying to get us small people a little help but we have got to start helping ourselves. If a building burned a slow burn for 8 days, then you put it out on day 9, you will never be able to build that building back up, as it was or better, in 2 days and without help 8 days or 80 may not even be enough. As a generation and as a country we are allowing our present mindset and our future lives to be manipulated by money, greed, and a lack of self worth created by a combination of forgotten history, American privledge, mommy and daddy issues and a mainstream media so connected to big business that no one bothers to report the whole news at all anymore. Congress and the president are made to fight like an old married couple but slowly this president has made some progress where others have failed. As the progress begins to roll down it is met with the largest man made "accidental" environmental disaster this country has seen since New Orleans survived Katrina but lost the city to shotty government issue levees. As the wheel of progress gets stuck in crude oil, the Bush relaxed policies and MMS regulations and inspection policies seem to have been forgotten as the cause as people all over the gulf search for some one to blame and someone to do something. Hey America : STOP BLAMING THE FALL GUY, start accepting some responsibility, either you want things done fast or you want things done right but you will never get them both simultaneously.
Republican candidates and supporters all over this country are saying really dumb shit, and getting away with it. Arizona's current governor in attempts to be re-elected couldn't read her own speech during a debate. Moments of silence, giggling and poor english awkwardly holding together a statement that would give Lewis Black a heart attack and this woman is leading in all pre-election polls in Arizona. Glenn Beck is calling our President a racist for attacking or trustbusting big business, which just so happens to be a majority of old white guys who have been making rules for everyone but themselves. All my pal Barack is really trying to do is give the working class people back their chance to survive by taking back the opportunities and principles this country was founded on. If you don't think your vote counts then what do you have to lose by voting because you have everything for yourself and your children to lose if you don't. If you voted for President Obama then give him and the people he supports a chance, help them to help you have a brighter future. Know whats happening and take the time out of your busy money driven, bill ridden existence to see if your vote makes a difference and gets your country back to being yours instead of some unknown "theirs". Vote and see, I fuckin dare you!
President Obama , or Barack as I like to call him when I yell at the television, is trying to get us small people a little help but we have got to start helping ourselves. If a building burned a slow burn for 8 days, then you put it out on day 9, you will never be able to build that building back up, as it was or better, in 2 days and without help 8 days or 80 may not even be enough. As a generation and as a country we are allowing our present mindset and our future lives to be manipulated by money, greed, and a lack of self worth created by a combination of forgotten history, American privledge, mommy and daddy issues and a mainstream media so connected to big business that no one bothers to report the whole news at all anymore. Congress and the president are made to fight like an old married couple but slowly this president has made some progress where others have failed. As the progress begins to roll down it is met with the largest man made "accidental" environmental disaster this country has seen since New Orleans survived Katrina but lost the city to shotty government issue levees. As the wheel of progress gets stuck in crude oil, the Bush relaxed policies and MMS regulations and inspection policies seem to have been forgotten as the cause as people all over the gulf search for some one to blame and someone to do something. Hey America : STOP BLAMING THE FALL GUY, start accepting some responsibility, either you want things done fast or you want things done right but you will never get them both simultaneously.
Republican candidates and supporters all over this country are saying really dumb shit, and getting away with it. Arizona's current governor in attempts to be re-elected couldn't read her own speech during a debate. Moments of silence, giggling and poor english awkwardly holding together a statement that would give Lewis Black a heart attack and this woman is leading in all pre-election polls in Arizona. Glenn Beck is calling our President a racist for attacking or trustbusting big business, which just so happens to be a majority of old white guys who have been making rules for everyone but themselves. All my pal Barack is really trying to do is give the working class people back their chance to survive by taking back the opportunities and principles this country was founded on. If you don't think your vote counts then what do you have to lose by voting because you have everything for yourself and your children to lose if you don't. If you voted for President Obama then give him and the people he supports a chance, help them to help you have a brighter future. Know whats happening and take the time out of your busy money driven, bill ridden existence to see if your vote makes a difference and gets your country back to being yours instead of some unknown "theirs". Vote and see, I fuckin dare you!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
A persons a person no matter how brown.
August 29, 2005 I was learning to drive trucks. I was driving all over the midwest, all over the south with a trainer. We watched as convoys of black vehicles with tinted windows and Army vehicles headed south in the days after the storm. At the time my goal was not killing us while I drove. My focus was on paying the bills that had been piling up and surviving my first few months out in a world I knew nothing about. While I was trying to keep myself together in the truck 20,000 plus people of all colors shapes and sizes were waiting for food, water and rescue. I could sit here and try to write without bringing race or class into it like some reporters and politicians have tried to do but i'm just not that hopeful. There is not a bone in my body that can be convinced that if the majority of people in need of saving had been white and rich, that they would have starved and been left in third world conditions for one day let alone 5 days.
After spending the last few months watching and learning about the past and present New Orleans I have learned that despite my tough bitter exterior I somehow maintain hope that the have nots will some day win over those pesky haves. I have received some very suprising feedback on my hope for the culture of New Orleans to not be lost with all that has happened. I've had friends and family tell me that moving there and trying to help in the rebuilding process would be pointless, that these people don't want help and even that they are nasty people who should not be helped. These are the combined words of several different people who I have grown up with, who have raised me and who despite their lack of hope, I still love.
The compassion and understanding that we lack as a country is an ever festering American disease. We watch bad things happen and move on as quickly as can be to the feel good stories about the puppies saved by Sarah Mclachlin, we turn the TV off for the real news because we are too sensitive or too senseless to know that if it could happen there it could happen anywhere. This week broadcasters, journalist, media, American media, chose to look at the good things that are happening now and some looked back at the past and others chose to go with the feel good stories of hope and rebuilding. The fact is they steered clear of the anger and the frustration, they steered clear of race and class and the pink elephants trampling all over these stories. These stories left out the people who still have not been able to go home, barely touched the true crime of tainted FEMA trailers and plans for less public housing, less affordable homes, the lack of reasonable insurance payouts, the simple things like the rise in homelessness due to the rise in rents, the jobs and schools, these are the details that don't make Americans want to watch. What people in the media and in control seem to be missing is that anyone paying attention knows that for every shiny good thing, for every sparkly piece of hope and spirit that these people have there are ten more things that need help, hope and serious attention. We are living in a time where knowledge is more powerful than ever but less desired by the moment and less retained by the hour.
For every person who wants to know there are twenty who are too busy focusing on their bills their needs and their survival to even consider that anyone may have it worse. It keeps me up at night knowing that now I see and if I do nothing I become the ignorance that I've grown to hate. It breaks my heart to know that in my lifetime there are not only racist people but there are people who truly believe that there is no racism involved in something like the days after Katrina. Rational people with common sense and good hearts who believe any one of many lies we tell ourselves to make tragedies into the victims problem, to make it ok to live with ourselves. The people of New Orleans may have been mean and ornery, rude and tough but the truth we try so hard to ignore is poverty. These people did not have the ability to evacuate for various reasons but I'm willing to bet the majority of them were using public transportation. The difference between New Orleans and Detroit is that when things get tough in Detroit people leave. Things get tough in New Orleans and people stick it out, at times clearly to their own peril. The poor of any city are going to be tough, they are going to be angry and they are going to fight harder than most to survive. I do not believe that the people of Detroit could have survived a disaster like Katrina and I don't believe that as a country we are truly so lacking in compassion that we truly believe it is acceptable to throw away our poor. I do believe that we have given up our belief in community, our faith in one another and our fighting spirit. As a country we've sold our souls for the money, forgotten our dreams and lost our voices along the way. Everyone in this country could learn so much about living if we just took a moment and followed the lead of the people and culture of New Orleans.
There is hope for all of us in the spirit of New Orleans and this week as you eat your meals, take your showers, use a bathroom or just go home, try to think about how you would have lived through their tragedies. Consider you have no car, no transportation and the mayor tells you there is a mandatory evacuation, think what you would do while the city shut down its public transportation, parked its busses and left you behind. Ponder the thought of your government, your emergency aid, your army not noticing 10,000 or so people in one place and 20,000 in another, despite the numerous helicopters flying over them, the news coverage and the unmistakeable need for help. Imagine being told to turn around after reaching a bridge into the next city, being told by men with guns that you are not welcome because with you, come other starving, smelly, needy people. Imagine the stench of waiting five days while people around you died, waiting for food and water that can be air dropped to third world countries across the globe in two days. Think about how you would survive this knowing your home, your community and your family may never be the same. Think how you would feel if you were shipped off to some random strange city to be left no way home whether you had a home to go to or not. Be grateful that you have not lived their tragedy but be mindful of the lesson their spirit, their community and their tradition of survival teaches. Remember how fortunate you are to have the means to leave if you had too and remember those who could not.
A little kindness goes a long way in both bad times and good. The storm may have passed but the damage is not near finished and as we watch stories about Pakistan and Haiti lets not forget our own people trying to survive our own tragedies, lets lead by example and make some effort to keep our eyes, hearts and minds open. This is America and if we cannot give our own people the chance to have things back the way their community wants, the way they were or better, based upon the needs of the community instead of the wants of the few, what does that say about how we, help others. If it could happen to New Orleans, LA it could happen to Bridgeport, CT or Charlotte, NC or Detroit, MI and if you don't think it could happen to you, take a look at your elected officials, thank them keep paying attention and be sure to vote next time around.
After spending the last few months watching and learning about the past and present New Orleans I have learned that despite my tough bitter exterior I somehow maintain hope that the have nots will some day win over those pesky haves. I have received some very suprising feedback on my hope for the culture of New Orleans to not be lost with all that has happened. I've had friends and family tell me that moving there and trying to help in the rebuilding process would be pointless, that these people don't want help and even that they are nasty people who should not be helped. These are the combined words of several different people who I have grown up with, who have raised me and who despite their lack of hope, I still love.
The compassion and understanding that we lack as a country is an ever festering American disease. We watch bad things happen and move on as quickly as can be to the feel good stories about the puppies saved by Sarah Mclachlin, we turn the TV off for the real news because we are too sensitive or too senseless to know that if it could happen there it could happen anywhere. This week broadcasters, journalist, media, American media, chose to look at the good things that are happening now and some looked back at the past and others chose to go with the feel good stories of hope and rebuilding. The fact is they steered clear of the anger and the frustration, they steered clear of race and class and the pink elephants trampling all over these stories. These stories left out the people who still have not been able to go home, barely touched the true crime of tainted FEMA trailers and plans for less public housing, less affordable homes, the lack of reasonable insurance payouts, the simple things like the rise in homelessness due to the rise in rents, the jobs and schools, these are the details that don't make Americans want to watch. What people in the media and in control seem to be missing is that anyone paying attention knows that for every shiny good thing, for every sparkly piece of hope and spirit that these people have there are ten more things that need help, hope and serious attention. We are living in a time where knowledge is more powerful than ever but less desired by the moment and less retained by the hour.
For every person who wants to know there are twenty who are too busy focusing on their bills their needs and their survival to even consider that anyone may have it worse. It keeps me up at night knowing that now I see and if I do nothing I become the ignorance that I've grown to hate. It breaks my heart to know that in my lifetime there are not only racist people but there are people who truly believe that there is no racism involved in something like the days after Katrina. Rational people with common sense and good hearts who believe any one of many lies we tell ourselves to make tragedies into the victims problem, to make it ok to live with ourselves. The people of New Orleans may have been mean and ornery, rude and tough but the truth we try so hard to ignore is poverty. These people did not have the ability to evacuate for various reasons but I'm willing to bet the majority of them were using public transportation. The difference between New Orleans and Detroit is that when things get tough in Detroit people leave. Things get tough in New Orleans and people stick it out, at times clearly to their own peril. The poor of any city are going to be tough, they are going to be angry and they are going to fight harder than most to survive. I do not believe that the people of Detroit could have survived a disaster like Katrina and I don't believe that as a country we are truly so lacking in compassion that we truly believe it is acceptable to throw away our poor. I do believe that we have given up our belief in community, our faith in one another and our fighting spirit. As a country we've sold our souls for the money, forgotten our dreams and lost our voices along the way. Everyone in this country could learn so much about living if we just took a moment and followed the lead of the people and culture of New Orleans.
There is hope for all of us in the spirit of New Orleans and this week as you eat your meals, take your showers, use a bathroom or just go home, try to think about how you would have lived through their tragedies. Consider you have no car, no transportation and the mayor tells you there is a mandatory evacuation, think what you would do while the city shut down its public transportation, parked its busses and left you behind. Ponder the thought of your government, your emergency aid, your army not noticing 10,000 or so people in one place and 20,000 in another, despite the numerous helicopters flying over them, the news coverage and the unmistakeable need for help. Imagine being told to turn around after reaching a bridge into the next city, being told by men with guns that you are not welcome because with you, come other starving, smelly, needy people. Imagine the stench of waiting five days while people around you died, waiting for food and water that can be air dropped to third world countries across the globe in two days. Think about how you would survive this knowing your home, your community and your family may never be the same. Think how you would feel if you were shipped off to some random strange city to be left no way home whether you had a home to go to or not. Be grateful that you have not lived their tragedy but be mindful of the lesson their spirit, their community and their tradition of survival teaches. Remember how fortunate you are to have the means to leave if you had too and remember those who could not.
A little kindness goes a long way in both bad times and good. The storm may have passed but the damage is not near finished and as we watch stories about Pakistan and Haiti lets not forget our own people trying to survive our own tragedies, lets lead by example and make some effort to keep our eyes, hearts and minds open. This is America and if we cannot give our own people the chance to have things back the way their community wants, the way they were or better, based upon the needs of the community instead of the wants of the few, what does that say about how we, help others. If it could happen to New Orleans, LA it could happen to Bridgeport, CT or Charlotte, NC or Detroit, MI and if you don't think it could happen to you, take a look at your elected officials, thank them keep paying attention and be sure to vote next time around.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Wooden horses and lighthouses.
Atlanta, Austin, New Orleans, San Francisco, Hoka Minnesota,Savannah, they're all places, places I've been, places I haven't been. All places I will live, all places I need to experience. Everyone has destinations, dreams, hopes and plans they'd like to see happen someday. The thing about someday is someday never just comes. Someday takes more than a daydream or a manic episode, it takes a plan and the focus and drive to act on that plan. John Lennon said "Life is what happens while you're making other plans.", we have all experienced this and know it to be an accurate observation. It's a fair warning that plans like rules are meant to be questioned, challenged, forgotten, faulty and broken. Faith, hope, experience, perseverence and wisdom are major contributors to the completion of any plan big or small. The plans we make, the dreams we have are all possible if we commit to kicking the roadblocks down. The world is filled with people who turn around at the sight of a road block and never venture to look back. There are others of us that maybe not the first time, maybe not the fifth time but eventually we will power on through the roadblock and take the path we planned despite the unknown. I've made as many roadblocks as I've knocked over and I'm sure to make and find plenty more along the way, but eventually they all come down.
I've had a million different plans over the years, some more ridiculous and outlandish than others but the ones that have happened and the ones that will happen are generally planned well in advance. The plans of the past have taught me well, to plan better, to be prepared for glitches and to watch for signs, literally and figuratively. I've spent most of my short life planning escapes into dreams out of realities and out of dreams into realities. I have no doubt that when I'm old and gray, rotting away in the old folks home, I will have the best stories. I know what it looks like out there in the world outside of Connecticut and I have no intention of leaving without a little more than I came back with last time, but I have every intention of leaving. For now the plan is simple, finish this ten year associates degree, spend as much time with the people I love as possible, move to New Orleans, learn some shit, help some people, live a little and love some more. Is this easy or perfect or what you'd want to do? No way. Is this what I'm going to do? More or less, yes.
The thing is most people don't consider that they really can be the firefighter or the cowboy, the nurse or the teacher, the astronaut or the rockstar. For most people the child they were turns into the adult they never wanted to be and thats the end of dreams. Everything I wanted to do when I was ten, I've done and 17 years from now I want to be able to say everything I wanted for myself at 27, I've accomplished. No ones life is easy and nothing worth having comes easily but everything we want is possible if we just remember ourselves. I don't always know where I'm going exactly, or when I'll get there but if I really want to go anywhere in life, I'll go. There will always be setbacks, there are no smooth rides and there are no easy out buttons, but the possibility for someday to become next year, next month, next week or tomorrow is much closer to real than most people seem to realize anymore. I've spent some time without a plan, stepped into the drone shoes and drank the koolaid for awhile and now more than ever I know that is not who I am meant to be. Sometimes knowing who you aren't is enough to keep you kicking through roadblocks and gasping for air. I'm not walking up all these stairs just to walk back down, I'm gonna brave the rain, step outside and love the view from the top. Are you?
I've had a million different plans over the years, some more ridiculous and outlandish than others but the ones that have happened and the ones that will happen are generally planned well in advance. The plans of the past have taught me well, to plan better, to be prepared for glitches and to watch for signs, literally and figuratively. I've spent most of my short life planning escapes into dreams out of realities and out of dreams into realities. I have no doubt that when I'm old and gray, rotting away in the old folks home, I will have the best stories. I know what it looks like out there in the world outside of Connecticut and I have no intention of leaving without a little more than I came back with last time, but I have every intention of leaving. For now the plan is simple, finish this ten year associates degree, spend as much time with the people I love as possible, move to New Orleans, learn some shit, help some people, live a little and love some more. Is this easy or perfect or what you'd want to do? No way. Is this what I'm going to do? More or less, yes.
The thing is most people don't consider that they really can be the firefighter or the cowboy, the nurse or the teacher, the astronaut or the rockstar. For most people the child they were turns into the adult they never wanted to be and thats the end of dreams. Everything I wanted to do when I was ten, I've done and 17 years from now I want to be able to say everything I wanted for myself at 27, I've accomplished. No ones life is easy and nothing worth having comes easily but everything we want is possible if we just remember ourselves. I don't always know where I'm going exactly, or when I'll get there but if I really want to go anywhere in life, I'll go. There will always be setbacks, there are no smooth rides and there are no easy out buttons, but the possibility for someday to become next year, next month, next week or tomorrow is much closer to real than most people seem to realize anymore. I've spent some time without a plan, stepped into the drone shoes and drank the koolaid for awhile and now more than ever I know that is not who I am meant to be. Sometimes knowing who you aren't is enough to keep you kicking through roadblocks and gasping for air. I'm not walking up all these stairs just to walk back down, I'm gonna brave the rain, step outside and love the view from the top. Are you?
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Meghanomics 101
Over the last few weeks of silence I've completed my algebra requirements, spent some time partying and sleeping away my unemployement depression and now I'm pissed off again and ready to write. I'll begin with a little math and then maybe we can move on to some sociology. Get some milk and cookies, unbutton your pants and get relaxed, I've got alot to cover and I don't want you wandering.
There are approximately 310 million people in this country, about 30 percent of these people are not of a "working" age, and 20 percent of these people are currently unemployed and recieving some kind of aid, 2 percent are exceedingly wealthy and we'll say a hopeful 13 percent of Americans are living in poverty. Now for the moment lets pretend all of these are completely proven facts. Giving some overlap room to unemployed and poverty stricken Americans lets say 40 percent of the American people are somehow surviving, 2 percent are tax free and loving it and 43 percent should be severely pissed off right now. 10 percent are going to die before it matters and well why should they care, we've given them no reason to.
By any and all descriptions of majority rule the severely pissed off should be kicking asses and taking names by now, so where are the fuck are we America? Oh did Jersey Shore start a new season? Did Bethany finally get married and are John and Kate officially divorced? Oh wait Kourtney Kardashian passed out after excessively exercising for that post baby bikini shoot, let me get my medical book and we can all figure out what she could have done better. WHAT THE FUCK! News reporters have apparently given up on reporting actual news and I actually saw a report yesterday on a legit political topic (Anthony Weiner, NY representative blowing up over 9/11 bill going unpassed despite majority in favor) where the reporter rather than risk having a mind of her own or simply researching the actual topic, she stated she didn't know the particulars of the bill and had no idea what Anthony Weiner was screaming about and it was "Such a turn off". Susan B. Anthony is flailing around in her grave right now. All the pretty make up and perky tits don't put a brain in your head Miss Perino. This is not a dignified or graceful time in our great country please take your charm school head out of the sand or get ready to become extinct with the rest of the weak.
Its not just fox news giving you the finger America its all media thats treating you like kittens with catnip and strings to keep you busy while the dog is in the kitchen eating your food. Multitasking looks great on a resume, ability to do a million things at once is the new American dream both at home and work, but what are we really retaining of what we see? Pictures of movie stars are selling at prices that would keep me comfortable for a year maybe two but we are hard pressed to get a current valid picture of what the oil is doing to the gulf coast. Fisherman helping with cleanup or living in coastal communities are not only being told "oh too bad, must have been something you ate or sprayed or breathed in that has nothing to do with BP." but they're also being given the old "check is in the mail" story. Meanwhile the majority of the country is talking about Lyndsay and ooh what's Snookie gonna do this season? Wake the fuck up, how is the most talked about thing about the Presidents interview on the View, the fact that he doesn't know who Snookie is? No one should know who she is! She is a distraction from the reality of where we are as a people and we buy it hook line and sinker.
I find it painful, to believe that the people of this country would rather remain numb and dazzled by overtanned unrealistic plastic people than stand up for the rights many before us fought decades to gain. Political leaders are building our country to suit their needs rather than ours and our childrens. 97 percent of us will never be in the top 2 percent, we will never stand to lose by taxing the overwhelmingly wealthy and we will never stand to gain by hiding big businesses immense fuck ups. The gulf coast could use some paparazzi, so can the 9/11 first responders, the unemployed, the under-insured and the impoverish Americans. Get out your cameras people this is not going to be your grandparents revolution, there will be shouting there will be screaming and with even half of the majority getting off their asses there will be progress.
There are approximately 310 million people in this country, about 30 percent of these people are not of a "working" age, and 20 percent of these people are currently unemployed and recieving some kind of aid, 2 percent are exceedingly wealthy and we'll say a hopeful 13 percent of Americans are living in poverty. Now for the moment lets pretend all of these are completely proven facts. Giving some overlap room to unemployed and poverty stricken Americans lets say 40 percent of the American people are somehow surviving, 2 percent are tax free and loving it and 43 percent should be severely pissed off right now. 10 percent are going to die before it matters and well why should they care, we've given them no reason to.
By any and all descriptions of majority rule the severely pissed off should be kicking asses and taking names by now, so where are the fuck are we America? Oh did Jersey Shore start a new season? Did Bethany finally get married and are John and Kate officially divorced? Oh wait Kourtney Kardashian passed out after excessively exercising for that post baby bikini shoot, let me get my medical book and we can all figure out what she could have done better. WHAT THE FUCK! News reporters have apparently given up on reporting actual news and I actually saw a report yesterday on a legit political topic (Anthony Weiner, NY representative blowing up over 9/11 bill going unpassed despite majority in favor) where the reporter rather than risk having a mind of her own or simply researching the actual topic, she stated she didn't know the particulars of the bill and had no idea what Anthony Weiner was screaming about and it was "Such a turn off". Susan B. Anthony is flailing around in her grave right now. All the pretty make up and perky tits don't put a brain in your head Miss Perino. This is not a dignified or graceful time in our great country please take your charm school head out of the sand or get ready to become extinct with the rest of the weak.
Its not just fox news giving you the finger America its all media thats treating you like kittens with catnip and strings to keep you busy while the dog is in the kitchen eating your food. Multitasking looks great on a resume, ability to do a million things at once is the new American dream both at home and work, but what are we really retaining of what we see? Pictures of movie stars are selling at prices that would keep me comfortable for a year maybe two but we are hard pressed to get a current valid picture of what the oil is doing to the gulf coast. Fisherman helping with cleanup or living in coastal communities are not only being told "oh too bad, must have been something you ate or sprayed or breathed in that has nothing to do with BP." but they're also being given the old "check is in the mail" story. Meanwhile the majority of the country is talking about Lyndsay and ooh what's Snookie gonna do this season? Wake the fuck up, how is the most talked about thing about the Presidents interview on the View, the fact that he doesn't know who Snookie is? No one should know who she is! She is a distraction from the reality of where we are as a people and we buy it hook line and sinker.
I find it painful, to believe that the people of this country would rather remain numb and dazzled by overtanned unrealistic plastic people than stand up for the rights many before us fought decades to gain. Political leaders are building our country to suit their needs rather than ours and our childrens. 97 percent of us will never be in the top 2 percent, we will never stand to lose by taxing the overwhelmingly wealthy and we will never stand to gain by hiding big businesses immense fuck ups. The gulf coast could use some paparazzi, so can the 9/11 first responders, the unemployed, the under-insured and the impoverish Americans. Get out your cameras people this is not going to be your grandparents revolution, there will be shouting there will be screaming and with even half of the majority getting off their asses there will be progress.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Henry, Caroll and Maria
This country was built by fairly uneducated immigrants who ultimately figured out how to get what they needed despite big business and ugly politics shitting in their face at every turn. How many Americans are aware that the same companies who received government bailout money also currently have executives making daily what the average American grosses in a year? I researched this today and I know it's wrong but I couldn't help but picture a bunch of lonely old men driving their overpriced, undertaxed, foreign cars home to their completely unnecessary, oversized mansions, rolling around in money, while watching videos of starving Americans fight for unemployment benefits so they can attempt to support their families while their houses are being foreclosed on. Elaborate daydream I know, but even if that's not what these whales are doing with the money, what the hell are they doing? I realize The Gospel of Wealth is over a hundred years old now but maybe its time we recycle some paper, reprint Andrew Carnegie's entire essay on the subject and start stapling it to these peoples foreheads. Better yet lets tattoo the short version onto our asses, this way when big business yanks down our pants each day to fuck us from behind, provided they put down their Iphones long enough and they can actually read, they'll have to see it, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced."- Andrew Carnegie
I realize these are harsh words and images but maybe that's what it takes to get people to care. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not asking these billionaires to hand out money just because things are rough. I'm saying these fools have the money to save the Gulf from big oil and help clean up the damage, they have the money to set up full scholarships for students who want, need and earned the right to an education, they have the money to feed families that need it 3 squares a day and bailout families whose homes are in foreclosure because their companies and their friends handed out loans like candy to people already in over their heads, convincing these people it would all be ok. Instead of helping their fellow man these fat cats choose to wallow in their greed. Carnegie wasn't some swell guy either but the man sure knew how to justify his beliefs and he believed in providing opportunities for those who desired them and in helping those who would help themselves. His employees received low wages and poor conditions but if they wanted more they could go to the local library, donated to the city by a local wealthy family, learn a thing or two and get themselves into a better situation.
I spent some time in a library today and it was revitalizing to be surrounded by so much power. Books have this smell, this feel that no piece of technology can ever quite provide. Books are so full of answers, solutions, questions, knowledge that no amount of recycled paper, green energy or computer technology can replace. Standing there surrounded by books the options feel infinite. Yet we keep trying and thus continue repeating bad behaviour because Bing or Google or Wikipedia don't include enough solutions or they provide too much possibility or none at all, the phone is ringing the music is too loud and we just don't have the attention span anymore, we just don't care enough about the people we've become because we forgot where we came from. The silence of a library can certainly give a person an entirely different perspective, and I just wonder how long it's been since the rest of this country experienced that.
When do we start to get angry again? When do we stop letting our ancestors roll around in their graves while we drop the ball and let the few steal our tongues and speak for the many. Who really wakes up and says "I need 5 to 15 thousand dollars a day to support myself and my family, I require 1 to 30 million a year to survive." These people are robbing you blind of your basic necessities and your spirit alike. These people have you too busy running their wheels to even attempt to look at the world of possibility that exists if you stop buying what they sell. People used to talk to eachother, face to face, actual human contact, now we barely know the people we see everyday. Our hopes and dreams rest on the shoulders of our neighbors, do you know your neighbors name? When they come for you will your neighbors stand to protect you? Are you tired enough, are you angry enough, are we there yet?
I realize these are harsh words and images but maybe that's what it takes to get people to care. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not asking these billionaires to hand out money just because things are rough. I'm saying these fools have the money to save the Gulf from big oil and help clean up the damage, they have the money to set up full scholarships for students who want, need and earned the right to an education, they have the money to feed families that need it 3 squares a day and bailout families whose homes are in foreclosure because their companies and their friends handed out loans like candy to people already in over their heads, convincing these people it would all be ok. Instead of helping their fellow man these fat cats choose to wallow in their greed. Carnegie wasn't some swell guy either but the man sure knew how to justify his beliefs and he believed in providing opportunities for those who desired them and in helping those who would help themselves. His employees received low wages and poor conditions but if they wanted more they could go to the local library, donated to the city by a local wealthy family, learn a thing or two and get themselves into a better situation.
I spent some time in a library today and it was revitalizing to be surrounded by so much power. Books have this smell, this feel that no piece of technology can ever quite provide. Books are so full of answers, solutions, questions, knowledge that no amount of recycled paper, green energy or computer technology can replace. Standing there surrounded by books the options feel infinite. Yet we keep trying and thus continue repeating bad behaviour because Bing or Google or Wikipedia don't include enough solutions or they provide too much possibility or none at all, the phone is ringing the music is too loud and we just don't have the attention span anymore, we just don't care enough about the people we've become because we forgot where we came from. The silence of a library can certainly give a person an entirely different perspective, and I just wonder how long it's been since the rest of this country experienced that.
When do we start to get angry again? When do we stop letting our ancestors roll around in their graves while we drop the ball and let the few steal our tongues and speak for the many. Who really wakes up and says "I need 5 to 15 thousand dollars a day to support myself and my family, I require 1 to 30 million a year to survive." These people are robbing you blind of your basic necessities and your spirit alike. These people have you too busy running their wheels to even attempt to look at the world of possibility that exists if you stop buying what they sell. People used to talk to eachother, face to face, actual human contact, now we barely know the people we see everyday. Our hopes and dreams rest on the shoulders of our neighbors, do you know your neighbors name? When they come for you will your neighbors stand to protect you? Are you tired enough, are you angry enough, are we there yet?
Monday, July 12, 2010
Crap you were right about...
This last two weeks have taught me alot about who I am becoming and its hard to say or even think, but maybe some people are just part of our past. It doesn't happen over night and sometimes we don't even know until it's happened, but some people will fade out of our lives. Some people grow at different stages and maybe they'll catch up but maybe they won't and that's ok, it's nothing personal, its just life. If you'd said to me two weeks ago that my friends wouldn't always be my friends, I would have told you to shut the fuck up. I love each and every person i've shared a piece of myself with and some get more than others but suddenly I'm realizing that changes and growth they either happen or they don't and I want to be with the people that move. I want movers and shakers, lovers and risk takers, I need love and friendship just as much as the next person, but I want more.
There are people we keep in our lives because they understand that part of us that wants and needs more than the moments leading up to now. There are also people we keep in our lives because we hope they'll eventually match our stride. Some will catch up and some will not and as much as I hate to be underestimated, I fear I've been overestimating some of the people in my life. Maybe, I've been overestimating myself, clearly this isn't where I'd hoped to be by now either. As simple as it seems to say oh people drift, oh things change, not everyone is wired to accept that drift and change with it. For some friendship is more like family than family and you don't always like them but you love them. The family of friends that sit at my table, all mean the world to me and maybe the table needs an extension, but I'm suddenly in a place where I'd rather just set up some folding chairs in the corner and send the kids off to their own table. I love them, but space isn't such a bad thing. There are so many different parts of life to experience and maybe its time to take off the training wheels and stop looking for people that no longer exist as they once did.
Part of becoming an adult is knowing when to step back and be happy for the good. I may not be growing into my life the way I planned or as quickly as some of the people I cherish, but I am not nearly as broken as I sometimes think I am. Not every mistake is a bad one, not everyone knows how who they are and hope is always a good thing even when it hurts. Some things are meant to be buried deep and some are meant to roam free, some friendships can be buried deep in our box of memories and some are free to breathe and grow. I'm inspired by newer, stranger, more challenging friendships lately and as much as the past can complicate things I am ok with the changes. Its still sad though, to watch the old friendships fade away. I don't generally handle change or plan ahead very well, long goodbyes make me cringe, I hate going places alone and I've never been much for doing things the way other people do, yet somehow I've always managed to get where I'm going. This time, I'm pretty sure I'm not lost but the path chose me and eventually i'll get there, I guess the table will be set a little differently is all.
There are people we keep in our lives because they understand that part of us that wants and needs more than the moments leading up to now. There are also people we keep in our lives because we hope they'll eventually match our stride. Some will catch up and some will not and as much as I hate to be underestimated, I fear I've been overestimating some of the people in my life. Maybe, I've been overestimating myself, clearly this isn't where I'd hoped to be by now either. As simple as it seems to say oh people drift, oh things change, not everyone is wired to accept that drift and change with it. For some friendship is more like family than family and you don't always like them but you love them. The family of friends that sit at my table, all mean the world to me and maybe the table needs an extension, but I'm suddenly in a place where I'd rather just set up some folding chairs in the corner and send the kids off to their own table. I love them, but space isn't such a bad thing. There are so many different parts of life to experience and maybe its time to take off the training wheels and stop looking for people that no longer exist as they once did.
Part of becoming an adult is knowing when to step back and be happy for the good. I may not be growing into my life the way I planned or as quickly as some of the people I cherish, but I am not nearly as broken as I sometimes think I am. Not every mistake is a bad one, not everyone knows how who they are and hope is always a good thing even when it hurts. Some things are meant to be buried deep and some are meant to roam free, some friendships can be buried deep in our box of memories and some are free to breathe and grow. I'm inspired by newer, stranger, more challenging friendships lately and as much as the past can complicate things I am ok with the changes. Its still sad though, to watch the old friendships fade away. I don't generally handle change or plan ahead very well, long goodbyes make me cringe, I hate going places alone and I've never been much for doing things the way other people do, yet somehow I've always managed to get where I'm going. This time, I'm pretty sure I'm not lost but the path chose me and eventually i'll get there, I guess the table will be set a little differently is all.
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