On Friday while I was eating my lunch, I was explaining to my lunchmates why the "free market" is not adequately addressing our current energy crisis in this country. "...Eventually, the free market will kick in, but in the meantime, people are going to feel a lot of pain..." As soon as those words tumbled out of my mouth, I thought back to something my chiropractor said to me about a year and a half ago, "Tony it appears that you have a really high threshold of pain, and I'm not so sure that is a good thing." The people of my district, like so many rural people, like Americans in general have a high tolerance for pain. Though there is something to be said for rugged individualism, at some point, enough is enough, we must get some relief.
It started out with a rise in gas prices back in the 70's. In response, we started working more hours. Gas prices affect the price of everything, so the prices of everything shot up. Our spouses went to work. It was never easy having both parents working full-time, but we got used to it. We liked having the extra paycheck. With the extra paycheck and easy credit, we could buy all kinds of stuff. Not only did we buy bigger TVs, we bought TV reception itself. Remember when TV was free. We bought bigger cars that could go faster or pull more stuff. Suddenly, we could buy a bigger home farther out in the country. We learned to distract ourselves from the pain with gadgets, cable, square footage, and horsepower.
But distraction from pain is not the same thing as being healthy. The canaries in our coal mine were our kids. Drug use and teen pregnancy rose. Teen crime rose. The number of kids who were identified as having a mental disability rose. Unconvinced? Ask a teacher, especially one with more than a few years of experience, about the status of our schools and the challenges they face on a daily basis. Our kids? The grew up and moved away because jobs, and with them opportunity, moved away. Yes, it may have seemed like we were doing well, but those long hours and longer commutes were taking their toll.
So, what do we do? Like you, I'm not a big fan of sitting around and crying. It doesn't work. Positive action makes me feel better. When I hurt my back, I knew it was bad enough that I needed professional help. I went to the chiropractor. I also knew that it was my responsibility once properly aligned to get my back flexible and strong, healthy. I take steps every morning to keep it that way.
Similarily, we must combine private efforts to regain sanity, with the public effort of electing public servants that will work for us. Government is not the whole answer, but it is part of the answer. Our market form of capitalism has, can, and must be a powerful tool for improving the quality of our lives, but markets will not do this important chore if we are not minding the store. Trust me, when we aren't minding the henhouse, the foxes, in the form of corporate raiders, are.
For the past forty years, corporate fat cats have pumped up our pride in our toughness while shaming us into silence and inaction despite the increasing pain that we in the working class have been experiencing. When is enough, enough? How much do you have to pay for gas while giving your hard earned tax dollars to the oil companies while they earn billions of $ in profits? How many extra hours will you work? Your spouse? Your kids? Our Declaration of Independence states that we have the right to the "pursuit of happiness". Earning happiness is up to us individually, but that doesn't mean we can't work together.
My parents always told me it was important to not only work hard but to work smart also. One of the ways that we can work smarter is by electing officials that serve our needs. It is possible to create family sustaining jobs, cover all Americans with health insurance, and reduce the the sting of high energy and food prices. But, this will not happen as long as we continue to elect to office the same people that have worked to mess things up in the first place. In the coming month, I will lay out my plans for living, surviving, and thriving.
How long are you going to "deal with it"? Let me help you. I know that you can and will "suck it up". But, it doesn't have to be that way. Together, there is much that we can do. Join my campaign, and check out my ideas at http://www.tonybarr2008.com .