Flowings of Your Everlasting Taffyman

more politics (I mean honestly its just that time of year, and yet everything is so connected to politics that its hard to separate.)

I'm reading this book called Economic Apartheid in America
which is an activist written text book for my Systems of Oppression class.
Basically it’s the most depressing thing in the world, because it points out over and over how things are getting worse rather than better. It keeps promising hope or at least tactics for the future in chapter 5, but I'm still struggling through chapter 3 which is about 70 pages of corruption, classism (as in prejudice against classes), the tactics against groups like environmentalists, unions and every day people, citizens, teachers even doctors and how they are getting screwed over and over. It also sheds some light on our overseas adjustments, as in, us adjusting those that are over seas to fit our needs. (one case, was Canada getting sued and having to pay reparations to an American company because they wanted to ban the company’s product because it possibly causes nerve damage... the parliament of Canada cant protect its own people, and has to pay money to a company that hurts it? ~NAFTA)
Not only that, but in an earlier chapter it brought up how social stratification and wealth stratification have empowered a few, while making most of the American populace able to have no say in their democratic process.
And of course the senators who take money, who are owned by their lobbyists or the corporations that back them. (as Delay and Abramoff recently made so apparent)

We have been taught to look at the 80s and 90s as a time when the US won. When Capitalism and Democracy flourished, defeated communism, the glory years the golden times of the United States of America, but if you look at it, 9/11 didn’t change things, they just brought it to our attention, this economic slump we faced (supposedly over now) was not because of the war on terror, but because we have allowed the wrong people to have all the power(money), the US has failed, we are on our way out. If things don’t change soon, for the better. a hundred years from now the 80s and 90s will be known as the American fall (or if they have some how risen above these problems) then the dark ages...

You watch or read V for Vendetta (written in the 80s), you read Vonnegut or Orwell, you no longer see it as a dark future, its the present, we are there.

Every few pages I have to stop, and tell myself there is hope, there is a way out. Every few pages it gets harder to see it.
I don’t believe in violent revolution. I just don’t, at the same time, I can’t see myself not getting swept up in something that promised real change, a glimmer of hope that these monkeys in politics today cant seem to fathom... Melissa my roommate said she is voting independent for governor, so are my rents (moms side) I cant stand Pawlenty so I’m going to vote for hatch, and yet even that goes against my beliefs. I start looking at the lesser of two evils for my hope, and end up in the same heap.... why are we doing this to ourselves? Why do we let them pass laws that strip us of our rights, our values, our freedoms, our opportunities, our hope?
The nation was founded on the principle that freedom is inherent, is undeniable, is sacred and that these things were self evident.
Our founding fathers knew that the only way for these things to “NOT BE TRUE”, is if we give them up ourselves, believe them to be false, believe that there is something more important, or simply don’t care. We make our America false in its name.
In the name of building a better world, we destroy the only one we have. (Corporations’ rights rather than citizen’s rights, no environmental protection, using up resources, man made famines, droughts, plagues; we are the four horsemen of the apocalypse)
In the name of Freedom we take away freedom. (War, terror, secret prisons, torture, wire tapping, no lawyers, enemy combatants? No free press to document it, censorship for security’s sake, secrets and lies! Secrets and lies! Secrets and lies! No habeas corpus!)
In the name of security we take away our security. (see above)
In the name of free market capitalism we take away the ability for you and I to get a job that provides us with income that allows us to spend freely.
(Wal-Mart lowers prices, by lowering wages, but no one can buy discounted goods without money!! Wal-mart being one example of the mass corporate attack against the working American public)
In the name of individual rights we take away your right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness (no health insurance, no benefits, no good education for your kids, no opportunity for full time jobs, no protection, no freedom, no anything in America and soon the rest of the world!)
“No taxation without representation!” the reason for revolution and yet now we supposedly have it and have more problems then those greedy ass white slave owning bastards who started our government.
Still

If you tell me your taxes are too high, than give up your job, your electricity, your plumbing, your education, your streets, your firemen, your police, your “guaranteed” right to a lawyer, in fact give up the courts, the prisons, the hospitals, the parks, the air the water, the earth itself, give it up!!!! Because yes I would like to think that we could get by without it too! But the world you created doesn’t allow it, and that selfish thinking about your fucking tax money is part of what keeps it that way.
You struggle, you are behind on your bills, you cant afford insurance, a car, gas, food, education, etc etc etc….. these are your rights… demand them from your government!!!
But when they tell you they need to raise taxes to do it… understand and don’t ever ask for a tax break because every cent you get back, some rich asshole who has privatized his education/health/streets/house/plumbing/electricity/etc gets back a thousand dollars of money that could be going to your benefit. And yes its inefficient… its corrupt its scandalous… well work to solve that instead of asking for your money back… you do understand that the 30$ or 300$ you get back also cost you that much in inefficiency right? I think its funny the conservatives tell liberals “if you don’t like the country then leave!” well they are often the ones taking advantage of our big government spending, whether corporate hand outs, or the suburban road system that the new deal brought them. “You don’t like big government? Give it back or get out! You fucking hypocrites!” All I’m saying is you cant say “I was here first and I’m gonna shut the door to anyone new” because its abusive and ridiculous to say you made it on your own. You made it, and I made it because we were selfish, but we don’t have to be now that we are here. My education is paid for, and I will hopefully spend the rest of my life giving back trying to make our kids education better. I will give more than 40 hours a week with a meager salary to give back, I will give up opportunities to give others opportunities, I will enrich my community, and I will fight for the right of people rather than of person. Don’t tell me that its unfair that teachers have benefits while there are no text books in the classroom, buy the damn text books and invest in your future. Tax your corporations and tell them their future CEO needs to know the difference between real democracy and the bullshit we are trying to pass off as one right now.