Freezing to death on a city street, or in ones car should not be an option for anyone. If a person has the right to 'life' then social systems must see to it that no one is allowed to freeze to death for lack of a place to get in from the cold. This was the rationale behind making access for the handicapped.
Poverty is the most common handicap in the U.S. affecting the lives of 46.5 million human beings. The impact of widespread poverty has decimated the economy of Main Street U.S.A. But Wall Street has done much better during the Obama years.
In my blog Trucking My Blues away I wrote a tongue in cheek approach to revealing the atrocity of misusing the weakest and most helpless in society. Hunger is intimately associated with poverty. They are married to each other in unholy wedlock.
Food,water, and the right to be secure from freezing to death on a city street are basic human rights which are not maintained by those elected to oversee the affairs of state. The callous indifference of lawmakers to the needs of people who breathe air, have veins with blood and get sick and overwhelmed in debt becoming homeless must be addressed vocally and prominently.
Many thought they had dodged a bullet when Romney flunked out of the election. He stated bluntly that he had no concerns for those most in need. He referred to something he called a 'safety net'. Has anybody seen it?
President Obama on the other hand is the 'Poverty President'. Joblessness, homelessness and bankruptcy have characterized the experience of life for Americans during the Obama Administration.
The President is not solely responsible for this mess. Anyone with a functioning political memory will remember Representative Joe Wilson's accusation that the President was a liar at the onset of the Obama Presidency can see that those on the far right never had it in their minds to cooperate for the good of the nation.
The entirety of President Obama's Administration has been characterized by the effects of Wilson's scandalous diatribe. This has culminated in an obscene dereliction of duty by the political parties involved which has had the result of no or little improvement to the nation as a whole. We are worse off than before Obama became President, but both parties have worked hard and long to make that reality come to pass.
The President promised change as he gathered voter approval for his first term. But it turns out that the people were short changed. What the people got was what Obama meant, but not what the people expected.
You might ask yourself what is to be done to bring the hope the Obama Administration offered the voter in 2008 to fruition. At that time the nation needed hope as much as a dying patient needs a miracle cure. The Clinton and Bush Administrations had set the situation up. Under Clinton's watch the Glass-Steagall legislation was revoked. Glass-Steagall was the proverbial cop on the corners of Wall and Main. Glass-Steagall was purposely designed to prohibit hanky panky conspiracies and activities in the financial world. Greg Smith describes those activities in his explanation for leaving employment at Goldman Sachs.
I had the good fortune to have two parents who were newlyweds when the Great Depression hit the streets in 1929. As a result I was educated all my life by my parents monetary habits as well as the description of what life in a totally dysfunctional society was like.
Knowledge of this great event and how it came about is an essential tool for evaluating and creating the solution for the mess we have today. Here is a well done documentary on how that went down. Knowledge of how the present mess came about is essential to making corrections.
The present debacle became public knowledge with revelations of a mortgage scandal involving Angelo and his friends according this WSJ report. The ensuing effects of the mortgage scandal promoted by the financial entrepreneurs of the nation ruined the lives of people across the face of the country.
There was also the Libor scam perpetrated and USA Today explains in few words how this impacted the lives of most of those on the planet.
The Bush Administration had involved us in wars which the current President has faithfully continued, costing Americans a lot of money. How Much? 11.26 million dollars an hour from the time the wars began. Say that out loud to yourself a few times. What effect does it have on you? Well, one effect is that you have less money and your quality of life has been devalued due to lack of funds for social programs such as food stamps and a legitimate form of socialized medicine. Obamacare is like an attempt to redesign the wheel. No other nation has had such trouble providing socialized healthcare for their citizens.
The present cache of elected representatives are the cause of the financial problems facing the nation. I say this because they are the ones who made the decisions that gave the key of the hen house to the fox, so to speak.
You didn't do it. I didn't do it. The elected representatives did do it!
So is there a way to the top of the hole they have dug and put us in? Will the average American ever be happy and carefree again due to having a job and a home for their family? Not if the elected representatives continue to behave the way they have all along.
ALEC the organization mainly responsible for taking the loyalties of the elected representatives from people who have blood, families, drink water and breathe air provides a template for addressing the situation.
There's millions of air breathers with real blood. Suppose there was a CLEC as a counter measure to ALEC? A 'Citizens Legislative Exchange Council'. If ALEC can buy their way into congress and insure laws that favor them are made why can't the millions of air breathing citizens do the same thing acting collectively in their own self interest?
According to Will Rogers America has the best politicians money can buy. Isn't it time Americans started buying some? It's time to step out of line and it's time to raise your voice and it's time to get imaginative when looking for solutions. The same old, same old ain't gonna cut it.
The image below is my own creation. It is made from the photograph of flames from a trash fire. I have named the two individuals "Jack" and "Qkjea".