Not Alone

I struggle daily with whether I give a fuck or not.  Or a rat's ass.  Seems lately we are deluged with bat-shit crazy people and policies such as this one.   I know it's Texas, but c'mon!  If they are not allowing feminine hygiene products onto the gallery floor, do they expect women to just drip all over themselves and their seats?  Ew.  I know.  What is in the water down there in Texas and why to mostly Republicans seem to be drinking it?  Were the Democrats and Progressives and Pro-Choice advocates sent a memo that said, "Pssst....don't drink the water for the foreseeable future"?

I recently watched the Frontline show called Two American Families and here, again, I am cast into despair at the ruthless and stupid policy decisions that have robbed America of her greatest dream and source of wealth: the middle class.  It documents the wasteland left behind as corporations closed manufacturing plants and sent those jobs oversees.  It shows the incredible stress and sheer determination of two families to simply stay afloat in this 'new economy.'  It thoroughly debunks the often repeated myth that poor people are just takers and need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

I got a bootstrap for ya, right here.  Come a little closer and I'll demonstrate.

A few years ago I read two phenomenal books that exposed the lies and hypocrisy that are fed to the American people daily:  Nickle and Dimed, and Deer Hunting With Jesus.  Both illustrate the increase in poverty and the decrease in a living wage, and what forces we, the people, are up against.  These books blew my mind and I was sure that they were going to change the dialogue in America.  Silly ol' me.  Why don't people get it?  Pay people good wages, and they buy food, clothing, cars, houses, start businesses, send their kids to expensive schools -- you know, the basic stuff we were led to believe was our birthright as American citizens.

Like climate change, boys and girls, the concentration of wealth by the 1% in this country is REAL.  Do your homework.  We are in the crapper and we think it smells like roses.  We feed struggling families the lie that they are doing something wrong, and the super rich are doing something right.  Truth is, the super rich are destroying our way of life and our democracy through a concerted effort over the past 40 years of policy making.

A Buddhist teacher recently said to me, "No one can imagine a day where you can't even buy water because it is such a rare commodity.  But it is coming."  So, what am I supposed to do with that information?  Breathe deeply?

So yeah, do I give a fuck or not?  I am profoundly overwhelmed by it all.  And I know I'm not alone.

And then there's George Zimmerman's acquittal.  Argh.  Won't even go into it here.