Finding ourselves

We think we have an identity crisis in the USA right now, largely due to the over-amplified volume of "Conservative" pundits and groups. They carry behind them money from some of the wealthiest Americans like the Koch Brothers, The Devoses, the Scaifes and others who have fought a propaganda war for 70 years, to convince the American people to uphold law that preserves their fortunes (low taxes, slow moving or stopping environmental, safety and regulation legislation, laws that support the politicians they manage to buy) swing the perceived center to the right and to convince Americans that the majority feel this way.

But the reality is, in almost every independent survey, and when we allow ourselves to meet on common ground, we come away with a large majority of us on the same page and it really isn't for the things the propaganda continues to pound away at.

Even on divisive issues like abortion rights, 7 out of 10 Americans believe that legal abortion should be available in some cases.

Nobody believes Flint Michigan shouldn't have clean water. Nobody wants to see extinction of species or our rivers and oceans polluted.
89% of Americans - including gun owners believe the mentally ill should be prevented from purchasing guns. 77% of gun owners and 87% of non owners believe that the gun show loophole should be closed. We vary some more on other parts of this issue.

Independent survey after survey puts the center position much farther to the left than is touted by conservative politicians and media. 

So why do we end up with legislators trying to outlaw abortion completely, why does Flint still poison their people, does environmental regulation get pushed aside, why does the gun show loophole still exist and why was the ban on the mentally ill owning guns pulled back? How did big tobacco survive for 40 years after we knew it was bad for you? Why aren't we leading climate change? Why are minorities, gay and trans peoples still trodden so heavily upon.

Because the well funded super rich and business have control of our lawmakers and convince enough of us that this is normal in order to maintain control. It drowns out the actual voice of reason. It drowns out the middle.

Those who argue on the other sides of these issues - I have no doubt to your belief and commitment. Part of it has to do with the scripting and propaganda that has been around so long and part to do with other parts of your belief system. But you have also come to believe through this process that you represent a majority voice (from what conservative outlets and media tell you) and that just isn't the case.

If you want a reality check, look at the rest of the wealthy world - look at Europe. Why is Germany committed to eliminating all coal use by 2038? Why is Universal Healthcare a reality in every other wealthy nation? Why do the Europeans have mass transit, clean water, thriving public education?

Because they are older and have found ways to curb the influence of the ultra-right so the true center has a voice. Same voices that say nobody should go hungry or be unable to afford to see a doctor. That understand that Global Warming is real and that war is an atrocity that should not be repeated, especially for economic interest. That multiculturalism is part of this shrinking world.

If we find ways to turn off the propaganda and remove the lobbyists and ownership of politicians (largely remove money from politics altogether) we will find our common ground. And that should be the goal of everyone that is looking for their family to come out whole. Who is looking to be kind to each other, to look out for and help each other. 

Greedy assh*les will always exist. We jut need to take our world back from them - and remember, governance is allowed by those being governed. As soon as we realize we have the power to change things, they will change, regardless of the money. 

MLK Day

As I thought about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today and what he might think about where we are,  as a society and realized I myself am torn – on one hand we see inroads made every day, barriers torn down and in the same breathe, hug breaches of civil rights, racial abuses and murders by police departments and the push the president and some Americans to put up a wall to keep refugees out because of the “huge threat” it is claimed they pose, although statistics over many years show the threat to be low.

I think he would have found that the working class poor in this country have similar or even deeper challenges, that overt racism, although still here, has in some cases been replaced with muted, underhanded racism.

He’d find that religious discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons is at an all time high, with groups actively working to remove protections – and in fact this is happening even in racial situations with some groups arguing that Equal Opportunity laws are no longer needed.

And yes, you can be a Republican and still be my friend and we can have differences in opinion like our views on government spending or approaches to curb poverty.

But when your difference of opinion reach to pull back basic respect for fellow human beings rights to live, love or work – then we’re really past reconcilable or even ignorable differences. It doesn’t mean I won’t engage you.

But you can bet that I am working with everything I’ve got to non-violently change our wish or ability to discriminate. Against minorities. Against the aging. Against women. Against those with different sexual and gender identities. Because of what we learned from him.

The struggle continues, Dr. King. I’m so sorry to say. At least we have your wisdom and words to help continue to guide us.

Dealing

Today I read this and I think it’s profound.

“There are stories that are true, in which each individual's tale is unique and tragic, and the worst of the tragedy is that we have heard it before, and we cannot allow ourselves to feel it to deeply. We build a shell around it like an oyster dealing with a painful particle of grit, coating it with smooth pearl layers in order to cope. This is how we walk and talk and function, day in, day out, immune to others' pain and loss. If it were to touch us it would cripple us or make saints of us; but, for the most part, it does not touch us. We cannot allow it to.”

Neil Gaiman, American Gods (American Gods, #1)

There are days when I can open myself more than others, when I’m ready to bleed, contemplate, mourn, solve or fix whatever little bit I can.

There are others where I have to step back into my life and do my work, keep myself, my family afloat.

There are days of joy when I recharge, thank my friends and gods and without thinking, get ready to bleed again.

It’s the only way it can work and still allow for humanity. And while there is no right amount of bleeding to do to make you a good person (I believe it depends on us each, how strong we are, what we can truly bear) if we never bleed, we never feel, we just function for ourselves - we never truly live.

I’d appreciate your thoughts.

2019

Toby woke up in a fowl mood. The night before had been New Years fucking eve and at the stroke of midnight, his American Express was charged an annual fee for his exercise app.

“Can’t have one second in a year where I’m not a consumer, first and foremost.” he muttered incredulously, suddenly going through the math and realizing he was paying fifty cents a day for the use of the stupid thing.

Briefly he traveled back to his childhood when fifty cents was two candy bars. It was almost the cost of a pack of cigarettes. It was an ice cream. Almost four bus rides to school. And then back to the present world where a coffee costs five dollars.

He was wondering how he got here. Was it the insidious Saturday morning consumerism he was raised with (parental efforts to the contrary notwithstanding) or was instant gratification a human norm that was just being catered to, the age old quest for ease of life? He told ALex to turn off the living room light. “Ha”.

As he went through the house, he started adding up each thing he consumed, touched. He imagined a future where the bank owned everything and the display on your Apple Watch ™ was constantly running total of what you consumed and therefore owed. The wear and tear on that underwear alone was a countdown to throwing it away, leading up to a new loan to buy a new pair. And so on, and so on.

Disgusted, he sat in the room, wanting to be naked, wanting to never go near anything again, and realized just as the meter was still ticking (heat went on, cat ate its food, etc…), the body was doing the same thing in calories. Birds and Squirrels ate, moved and shat.

Life as it turns out, is just input and output, on a certain level.

And people in Arizona and California are attacking driverless vehicles in protest of “Robots taking their jobs” all the meantime, it’s just another part of this input/output loop. Everything is.

Nothing matters unless you are gaining an experience from it. It is both the joy and the sadness in the system. It’s the journey - there are no destinations, no state of permanence, not even in death. And enjoying the ride also meant needing varied states of satisfaction, times when things were not enjoyable, in order for the enjoyment to mean anything.

He stopped over and hugged one of the dogs. One of the moments of satisfaction. Toes pressing in sand. Cold water hitting the palate. And it was OK again. Equilibrium achieved, at least enough to move on, into the New Year.

Copyright 2019, Tobias Y. Venar