It's funny these days, you never know when you are going to make that connection about politics and the current state of the US. I had my annual physical this morning, which went fine but the story picks up just after.
Like some doctor's offices mine doesn't do the bloodwork anymore. I was sent a block away to a lab that does it. I was at my doctor's office for 30 minutes tops, start to finish. At the lab though the minutes ticked by. As the time passed I listened to what was going on around me and I realized the lab was terribly understaffed. There was a waiting room full of people there to have lab work done and one front desk person and one lonely lab tech doing all of the rest of the work. Here is where the story gets interesting.
People were obviously not happy with the wait time and I could hear people complaining to the poor lone person doing all of the work. When my turn finally came I had the exact opposite take, I told her how sorry I was that she was being overworked so badly. That is all it took and she then lowered her voice so no one else could hear and gave me the lowdown.
Her company has recently listed itself on the stock exchange. She said that they have slashed costs trying to get their bottom line up so the owners can reap the benefits. They have laid off workers beyond all sense of reason ("and people with families they can't support now") and not only are they understaffed, they are making lab techs do 'back room' duties such as janitorial, stocking and other things that they have absolutely no time to do. She was livid, and tired and knew that the few employees there were being totally taking advantage of. She said it was waking her up to what was going on in the American workplace and said for the first time in her life she was paying more attention to politics. She said she watched the election in Wisconsin and couldn't believe they didn't throw that bum out.
I brought up What's the Matter with Kansas and the idea of people voting against their own best interests and she said she felt she used to be one of those people but no more. We had a wonderful exchange and she was relieved that someone wasn't taking their anger out on her, the person who was being taken advantage of. I managed to bring up Occupy Wall St. in a favorable light and she concurred. When I left, before she pulled the curtain open she gave me the 'power fist' salute.
I'm glad people are waking up day by day, the tide will turn in our favor because the greedy are sucking the marrow out of the bone of this country but there will be consequences as the political sleepers like her awaken.