They Same Son
Let me tell you bout the Dems, they just Republicans,
Draped in camouflaged clothing of friends, they need depends.
Their pledges are bare and leaky, they could have made change,
But they're afraid, shook, intimidated, losing the game.
And the poor and middle class feeling the brunt of the pain,
Cause some dude's thing is tiny, he's feeling too plain.
So he buys an nice new Beamer, from stock profits from Wall-Mart,
With a small heart, more jobs lost, too focused for afterthoughts.
Today we could have had equality in our fighting machine,
And forced the people we made rich to give us back some green,
But these phony-baloney cronies, were to weak for that,
So instead of affording apples, I’ve only got Apple Jacks...
-Daisun C. Williams, 9-24-10
I don't want to make this post about Obama. He's the top dog and it's hard to resist, but the complexities of a President's job have an enormity I can barely comprehend, and in the end, he is but a reflection of his nation. So this will be about America, and the America that voted Obama into his office. I'm talking about the America that suffered through perhaps, the least productive eight years in its history. The same America that has spent the last three decades watching its middle class slowly shrink, its poverty levels, grow, its Economic power depreciate, and its corporations gain more and more power, legally, to shape what this whole "freedom" thing looks like.
I'm talking about the America that has a short-term memory and an even shorter attention span. The one in which people are afraid to think for themselves so they consistently put their faith in leaders who sell them on dreams they will never see manifested. The America that takes the resulting anger from this inability to achieve these fantasies and misdirects it towards any group that is different , or “other.”
Do you know this America? The one exploiting and destroying the industries and livelihoods of other nations so gas is a few cents cheaper per gallon? The one that has so many people writhing in poverty, that these small savings necessitate this destruction? Do you know the America that goes to war, because it cannot afford to provide comfort and find jobs for all of its warriors back home? The American that isn’t developing industries to provide new jobs for its average citizens let alone the unemployed, war-damaged youth that will eventually return home if peace ever reigns? The America that cannot afford another post-Vietnam, while setting itself up for something far worse… Do you know this America? Are you willing to acknowledge it?
I know this America. I see it for what it is. The 1970's-80's all over again. That makes Obama another Jimmy Carter (good thing for him he doesn’t mind this): A great man with great ideas, and very little room to follow through on them. In other countries, poverty is normal and it is a far more “impoverished poverty” than most of us envision ever existing here in the States. But here in America, when times get tough and force us to share a car with our family, or live in an apartment instead of a house ,we scream, we shout, we cry and we forget, just how privileged we are as a nation. We have this America, wherein, we can actually come together and try and make a change if we don't like the path we are traveling on. An America where we can choose to be healthy or sick, productive or lazy, forward thinking or fear embracing… So why do we often opt for the sick, the lazy and the fear embracing instead of their progressive counterparts?
I suppose being spoiled it is easy for my nation to forget how wonderful life is compared to most other places on the planet. And when you have too much at the expense of others, you will do anything to keep from losing that which was so “easily” obtained. We forget that the devil whispers of Heaven as he drags you down to Hell.
This is the America I know. The one that is hated by other countries, not for our freedom, but because we think we are free. Free to hold back progress in other hemispheres, and free to indulge in our most primal urges and emotions: Greed and Fear. They hate the America that chooses flash over substance, and T.V. over a good book. They know an America that would sell itself for a dollar.... and it has.
Last week our leaders could have easily ended "Don't Ask, Don't Tell ." We did not. They could have ensured that the wealthiest two percent of this country gave back a little more to the recession hit masses who make them a little (or a lot) richer each year. We didn't. The leaders choked, but we gave them the bone to choke on.
In the end, Americans don't even have faith in themselves. The liberty and freedom that we supposedly treasure is rarely utilized in productive ways if at all. We pray to Gods who only love people like “us” and our only true faith is in the green in our pocket and the idea that somehow, we may see more of it one day. We elected a leader to create change and never gave him the tools to lead us towards change. This is because we are children, taught and raised to be spoiled and to feel entitled, by corporations who quest for the ultimate power: The power to shape how we perceive the reality of this life. But change takes time and a strength that we, quite frankly, may not have. We have been tempered by the video game controller, and the power ranger action figure. The Amazon.com application on the I-Phone is the greatest technological creation ever, and we no longer smile, we say "LOL."
When the culture of a society becomes so consumed with media created urges, and how to fulfill them as much and as easily as possible, a leader is restrained. What can Obama, do when no-one is willing to acknowledge the truths that exist outside of their individual realities. We’ve never been big on the concept of the “Collective.” We were taught that the word was synonymous with Communism and Socialism. We were taught to honor individuality over everything else. The questions we ask ourselves daily are “What do I want,” and “What do I need?” Thus, every thought and belief we have is more important and more truthful than those of everyone else... Unless, of course, they agree with us. Sound familiar? It may be “why they hate us...”
This is America, we built it, we nurtured it, we bought into it, we sold it, we perpetuate it, and now we hinder its evolution... Too depressing for a Friday? Perhaps, but there is a silver lining. All power is derived from the people and so change is always possible, but first it must begin within each of us. Then we can go talk to the President.
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