When our benefits were cut and we could no longer afford the health insurance premiums,
the rich were silent
they had not lost their healthcare;
And then when gas prices spiked and we could no longer afford to drive, the rich were silent
they had not lost their transportation;
And then when our jobs were downsized and shipped overseas,
the rich were silent
they had not lost their means;
And then when our pensions and savings were lost to corporate scandles,
the rich were silent
they had not lost their retirements;
And then when our houses were taken in foreclosure
the rich were silent
they had not lost their homes;
And then when our brave brothers and sisters were maimed and killed in the war,
the rich were silent
they had not lost their loved ones;
And now . . . the losses on Wall Street have caught up to the rich, and they cry out to us, the lowly taxpayers for help. . . But there are none of us left who have anything to spare them.
If the cadence sounds familier, that's because my poem was inspired by this one, from World War II:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
-Pastor Martin Niemöller
The lesson I think we have failed to learn from history (either WWII or the Great Depression) is: we need to take care of each other, because we are all in this together.
It's not just true of finance. In virtually every other area of life, if one group is suffering, another group is also not as well off as it could be. In countries where healthcare is not available to the poor, for example, the rich are sicker and live shorter lives.
We've also learned from recent history that when one economic injustice is given a pass, it makes room for another one and another one. These problems don't stay confined to the poor either-- they inevitably "trickled up." Now that all these "mistakes" are finally biting the rich in the behind, the rich are ready to blackmail the American people into footing the bill for their mistakes, or else they will "take all their money and go home," causing a massive recession.
To the coming Recession/Depression I say, "Bring it on."
The American people have endured eight years of loss. We have lost our jobs, or healthcare, our transportation, our savings, our homes and our loved ones. We have lost, basically, all the things that are important to us in life, all the things that made American life worth living. This is why the bailout ploy won't work. You can't blackmail a people who have nothing left to lose. The fact is there is massive resentment against the bailout. I called both of my senators today to protest, only to find their voicemailboxes were completely full and I could not leave a message. I'm blogging here today to make sure my message is heard by someone, so here goes:
There should be no bailout. The companies that are going to fail should be allowed to, even if it means we all have to live in tents. The people who would benefit from the proposed bailout did nothing to help us (the taxpayers) out when they could, and everything to strip us of the things of value in our lives in order to enrich themselves. We cannot and should not help them in the way they want, because ultimately, that will lead to them becoming even more greedy and they will soon land themselves in another mess equally as bad.
A Recession would be a good lesson for our greedy culture. We the People are already in poverty; let the criminally rich come join us, and live the consiquences of their decisions. Those that survived the first Depression learned from this lesson and created social safety nets to keep it from happening again. They understood, finally, that misfortune befalls everyone at some point in their lives, and but for the grace of God, it could be them next. They acknowledged that the working and middle classes were the necessary stable foundation that allowed them to enjoy the lives that they had.
But this lesson, sadly, was forgotten. In greed and folly, the rich pushed to dismantle those safety nets, forgetting that we're all in this together. It's sad that a lesson of this magnatude needs to be re-taught, but it is now crystal clear that it does. I say, let it happen. Those who ignore history are rightly doomed to repeat it. Let's hope we can all get it right this time.