Back to the future....

I listened to Obama's speech last night, and felt guardedly optimistic - very guardedly, you understand - about his chances at being elected. I don't see Obama as some kind of savior, mind you. I think it's going to take more than decent leadership to put this country back together again. And I think it's going to take a very long time, and I'm not entirely sure that we're even going to have decent leadership, because experience has taught me to distrust the election system. The Republicans have unashamedly stolen two consecutive presidential elections in this country - we all knew they stole them, but they got away with it. So, what's to prevent them from getting away with it again? It's amazing to me the way Americans - those in leadership, I mean: those that we elected to represent us on the local, state and federal levels - have become just so completely greedy and aquisitorial that they will sell us out for what amounts to lunch money from the lobbyists. They - and by this I mean the majority, not those few exceptions who challenge the rest but get nowhere - are so focused on who owes them, and who they owe, and what they want and need for themselves that they can't afford to buck the system on our behalf, not if they want to continue living in comfort and acquisitorial splendor, they can't. It's not what they get paid for their political work that supports their lavish lifestyles, it's all those perks and side deals and constituent "appreciation" that does it. You and I - with our measly little one vote - don't even cross their radar screens. And so, the wealth in this country has rather quickly - over the past several decades - risen to the very top. And they just keep getting richer and richer, and they just keep indulging themselves more and more, and their income, which is in the multiples of millions if not multiples of billions, just keeps growing exponentially while the middle class in America is sinking just as exponentially. See that picture up there in the right hand corner of this blog? That's the child labor that built so much wealth for the robber barons of the 19th and early 20th century in this country. For many of us whose families have lived in New England for a few hundred years or more, that's where a lot of our ancestors worked from dawn until dusk six days a week - in textile and shoe mills under the worst imaginable working conditions. And while our ancestors grew old before their time, or developed serious health conditions because of the dyes and toxic chemicals used in those factories and died at early ages, the rich grew richer still - we've all read about the world of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his ilk. Those robber barons left so much money to their families that there are quiet family "dynasties" all along the northeastern seaboard where just the interest off those estates is keeping hundreds of descendants living in the lap of luxury. One such family had a little scandal within its ranks a few years back - it seems that their trusted "financial advisor" had, over a period of years, siphoned about $50 million out of their accounts. The kicker? THEY didn't even notice it! It only came up when they changed auditing firms and the new firm apparently didn't have the same arrangement with the financial manager that the old firm had. Can you imagine "not missing" $50 million????? Ah, but that's mere chicken feed to those people. Now, after WWII, the middle class in this country actually started to come into their own - actually started to send their kids to college, to buy homes, to drive decent cars, etc., etc.. The age of the robber baron was, ostensibly, over. We were growing into a new society with equal opportunity for all. Life was good. Too good, evidently, because the big dawgs got a little uncomfortable with it, and had to put their heads together to get themselves back up to the tippety-top where they belonged. And, they've done it. The chasm between rich and poor in this country is currently as big as the Atlantic Ocean, if not bigger. And, I look at that picture - at the children and women whose backs our economy was built on, and I ask myself, "Are we headed back in the same direction?" How many houses John McCain owns isn't the important question. The important question is how many houses does it take to SATISFY him and his cronies? Now I know that people see things differently than I do. If age has taught me anything, it's that arguments that seem perfectly logical to me are NOT shared by everyone. I think that they're uneducated fools who can't be bothered to think logically, but they think that there's something wrong with my thinking, so how do you get past that? How do you bring together two diametrically opposed factions? There are people out there who buy into the Republican propaganda. My favorite irony is the fellow driving down the highway in a ten-year-old rustbucket with Bush/Cheney stickers on the bumpers. Are you kidding me? You can't even afford to drive a decent car, and you think these guys should stay in office? (Obviously these are old stickers, undoubtedly slated to be replaced by McCain/whomever as soon as the new bumper stickers come out. Same car, though, only now it'll be eleven years old.) I actually have spoken online to a couple of people who are losing their homes to foreclosure, but are STILL diehard Republicans. Huh? The logic escapes me, I'm afraid. I am just fervently hopeful that folks can break through their racial biases long enough to vote for their children's future, you know? I am fervently hoping that our voting machines don't get tampered with yet AGAIN. I admit to being a bit haunted by the above picture.

Regards,

Z