I think of so many things that have happened, especially since George Bush was president.
I am bitter when I think of the days after 911, when George & Co. started doing the hard-sell on the Iraq war. When I remember thinking, we can't really go to war with Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with this. But we went to war anyway.
I am bitter when I remember Colin Powell and his charts and graphs trying to justify the war, the mushroom cloud argument especially.
I am bitter when I think of Dick Cheney and how he keeps repeating the lie, even today, linking Saddam Hussein to 911.
I am bitter when I remember... Cheney?... saying we'd be greeted as liberators with flowers in the streets of Iraq.
I am bitter when I remember Cheney or Rumsfeld saying we could be there six weeks, we could be there six days. When we've been there for years now.
I am bitter remembering BushCo saying (laughably, even then, and yet people bought it) that this war would Pay For Itself!
I am bitter every time I see a yellow ribbon on a giant SUV.
I am bitter when I go to the pharmacy and pay what my so-called insurance company calls a "co-pay" that is $136 for a month's worth of ADD meds for one of my kids.
I am bitter when that drug (thankfully) doesn't work well for my kid, and we instead buy the cheaper drug that has a co-pay of only $88 a month. (Two kids on these meds, so $178 just for the one drug, but at least, it's working beautifully for them.)
I am bitter when I see a letter to the editor of my paper noting that tuition for in-state students at my son's college, Clemson University, has jumped from less than $4,000 in 2000 to more than $9,000 this past year.
I am bitter when my husband's company renegotiates insurance plans once again and we once again end up paying more for fewer benefits, as it's been every year since I an remember.
I am bitter when I know how hard we've worked and how lucky we are, and yet even being lucky and having college degrees, how damned hard it is to make it financially in this world. To raise children. To keep them healthy. To keep up with a home and cars and insurance, etc.
I am bitter when I think about how many kids of my children's generation will graduate from college with huge debts, to face houses that are outrageously expensive in many markets.
I am bitter every time some idiot in the government urges us all to go out and shop! As if we live to do nothing but consume stuff and run up debt. As if those government idiots don't already know how in debt consumers are.
I am bitter thinking of CEO's losing companies millions of dollars and yet being rewarded, as they're fired, with millions of dollars.
I am bitter knowing we spend more in this country than any other on health care and get less for it, while big insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies get rich.
I am bitter knowing that our Congressmen and women have Cadillac health care, while many citizens go without.
I am bitter that our so-called President and the men and women of Congress haven't done shit to try to fix health care in... I can't remember when. Was Hillary the last one who tried?
I am bitter when I remember looking around at all the $400,000-$500,000 homes in my town (really expensive for here) and thinking, There's no way we could have that many people in this town who make that much money and can afford houses that expensive. And it turns out I was right. How could I know that, and the entire industry be oblivious?
I am bitter thinking about all the deregulation that's gone on under that idiot George Bush and how much Americans have suffered. The mortgage industry. Credit card rates and bankruptcies. Health Care. Just to name a few.
I am bitter every time the Republican Right preaches about the real problem being homosexuals or people trying to take away our guns or keep God out of our schools, all to get people to ignore their real crimes.
I'm bitter every time that argument works for the Republicans.
I won't leave Democrats out. I am bitter every time I think about defending Bill Clinton after he said I did not have sex with that woman. (Especially after the crap he and Hillary have pulled in this election.)
I am bitter when I think about our stolen elections, and not just that the Republicans stole them, but that we all let it happen.
I am bitter every time I think of John Kerry being unable to adequately respond to attacks on his military service.
I am bitter that Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, have rolled over and allowed our Constitution to be raped and sodomized and tortured and ignored.
I am bitter (and outraged) when I think of Republicans trying to say good, strong American citizens are too good to fall into bitterness, as if there's virtue in ignoring every rotten thing the Republicans have done to our country.
I could go on, easily, but I fear this may never end.
Tell me, please, when you're bitter.