"It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."
— Martin Luther King Jr.
There was a time in this country when the dream of America was so strongly felt, so powerfully dreamt, and so completely believed that there were many who could not even begin to imagine that it might be a false dream. It was the dream that anyone could be a material success if only they worked hard enough. The dream that, that same material success indicated spiritual success. It was the dream that nothing separated the common man from the Rockefellers except a little luck to go with the aforementioned hard work. That at any moment one might rise above even the humblest of circumstances and "make something of oneself".
But then came the horrible awakening known as The Great Depression. A time that saw unbelievable numbers of people go from prosperity, to poverty, in one fell swoop.
The nation was gripped by a spirit of hopelessness, and helplessness.
The timid, tepid answer advanced by those in government was to stay the course. To trust in the Masters of commerce and let them have their head in all things.
The callous, cold answer from those Masters of business and finance was to not look to them for your well-being. They were in business to do business, not to take care of those who couldn't take care of themselves.
All the while, people starved, and froze, and sickened, and died.
Finally, there came some people who understood, even if often imperfectly, what people were going through. They understood how angry, and mournful, and horribly, horribly frightened people were.
These people conceived of a plan. Not just one plan in fact but a plan of plans.
Regulation for the banks that had helped cause the crisis. Help for the farmers that were among the first and hardest hit by the problems of outmoded methods of food production. Laws that would force businesses of all kinds to give workers safe conditions, an honest wage, and a measure of real security. On top of that they realized that people needed to be able to live their lives relatively free from fear. Both fear of the here and now, and fear of the future.
So a safety net was created.
That net was designed to ensure that those who lost jobs would still be able to live decent dignified lives while looking for work. To make certain that even those who could not work for whatever reason would not be destitute. And to guarantee that when people were simply too old to do for themselves that they would still be able to have some kind of quality of life.
These were promises made to the American people. And we put our faith in them.
Today we stand at the brink of seeing the last of those promises betrayed.
Today this country, the United States Of America exists in a state of perpetual war.
No sooner does one war slow down then we find another one to take its place.
We send men and women to distant regions, to kill and die. There's always a good excuse. It's always in the name of freedom and liberty, but all too often the truth is that it is merely to facilitate the agenda of one corporation or another. But even if the wars we are embroiled in were truly for the reasons we've been told, it would not change a fundamental truth.
Everything that exists has a breaking point. Be it a bridge, a building, a person or a country.
One recent example of this is Clay Hunt. A twenty-eight year old Marine from Houston Texas. Clay was a spokesperson for the military's suicide prevention program. Unlike far too many soldiers he did not keep his pain and confusion to himself. He sought and received help. Sadly just like far far too many soldiers in the end there just wasn't enough help to outweigh the pain and Clay took his own life.
But one doesn't have to be a soldier to know pain, confusion and despair.
There are people who have been out of work for so long now that they have stopped even bothering to look. No matter how much they might wish they could, they simply don't have the strength any more to face the endless rejection.
There are others, who thanks to tactics ranging from legal trickery to outright fraud have been forced from their homes. The lucky ones manage to find friends or family to live with. The unlucky ones end up out on the street.
But even having a job these days for far too many people offers scant protection from a life of unending pain. Whether it is someone who is working themselves to exhaustion in a subsistence level job, hoping and praying every day that they don't get too sick to work. Or that they aren't simply the next to be fired while the company searches for greater and greater profits. Or someone who works, and sacrifices, knowing full well that the likelihood of their children having a better life than theirs is growing increasingly slim.
People are tired. They are scared. They are angry. Most of them don't want to be kept like animals in a cage. Rather what they want is to know that if hard times find them they will have the help they need to be able to continue to live like human beings. To live lives of decency and dignity.
But that's not what's being offered to them.
Instead they watch as the rich grow even richer. They see these millionaires and billionaires feasting, and enjoying the best that life has to offer.
And when any of us dare to ask for even the merest crumb from our presumptive "betters"? We are told that we are lazy, and selfish. How dare we ask them to give up even so much as an iota of their wealth? Who are we to suggest even obliquely that they don't have a god given right to every last cent they can lay their hands on?
So the rich get richer. The poor get poorer. But there's something else we get as we get poorer. We get angrier, and more desperate.
There will come a day, and I think that it is not too far off, where enough people will be desperate enough to stop fearing the consequences of standing up to the hoarders who fancy themselves the Masters of the earth.
If we are lucky, the revolution will be a peaceful one.
But I'm not holding my breath.
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The Last Supper Of A Desperate Man:
Gun in my hand.
So heavy and cool.
So real.
More real than the job i lost six months ago.
More real than the home i had stolen from me by the bank.
More real than the wife who left me because she just couldn't take it any more.
Gun in my heart.
So much anger. Rage. Self loathing. And fear.
Did "they" do this to me?
i played the game by the rules.
Got an education. Got job. Got a wife. A car. A house. A couple of kids. Did everything right and still lost.
Did i do this to me?
Too much spending. Too much credit. Not enough savings. I couldn't believe that it would ever, could ever turn out like this.
Gun in my mouth.
The taste is bitter but inviting.
To a mouth that's been more empty than full these last few weeks, any meal's a treat.
Even a meal of metal and gun oil.
Take a deep breath.
Gather the last of my courage.
Be a man just one last time.
Pull the trigger.
CLICK!
Maybe tomorrow i can scrounge enough money for a bullet.
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Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!
The following sources were used in the creation of this article:
From The Houston Chronicle: War casualty on the home front
From The Washington Independent: Death and Joblessness
From Newsweek: War on the Weak
From Truthout: Government by People Who Hate You