A Mell of a Hess

It's been over four years since I wrote in this blog.  I guess I just gave up.  I haven't even written in my VIP (Very Important Personal) blog in ages because...  well, the pressures of the outside world have just become unbearable when combined with the pressures of my inner world.  


My health continues to deteriorate.  Six months ago I actually died for a couple of minutes until the hospital got me breathing again.  It happened while I was being scoped for a bleeding ulcer.  I got three units of blood and video footage of the inside of my stomach.  Just pills I have prescriptions for and blood I'm told.  Oh yeah, and a hole a couple of centimeters across.  No wonder my appetite was shit, huh?  


So... I've been avidly following the goings on at the various Occupies around the country.  It surely looks like a revolution to me.  Economically, socially, politically... I just don't think things could be much worse.  There are fewer and fewer middle-class families every day.  There are more and more homeless families every day.  


Years ago there was a movie about a future America where the middle class lived in station wagons and those on lower rungs lived in smaller and smaller cars.  And nobody ever actually drove those cars, there wasn't any gas.  It's almost come to that.  


I first predicted a second civil war way back in the mid-80s-- to my grandmother.  She was horribly afraid of that idea.  But I didn't see any other way of "fixing" the problems I saw all around me in our country back then, and it's only gotten worse every day since then.  


My grandmother, both maternal grandparents, actually, were the only people on this earth who always loved me unconditionally my entire life, until I had my son.  (My mother has stated that she doesn't believe in "unconditional love," and I never even met my father until my first birthday, so he wasn't around.)  My son's love of me is unconditional, as is mine for him.  He is 26 now, and still the light of my life.  I'm very proud of him.  He's like me politically, too.  Except he doesn't really understand the Occupy movement, or the entire concept of Occupy.  He keeps telling me that the occupiers aren't DOING anything.  He didn't grow up in the 60s and 70s like I did.  He just doesn't understand how non-violent protest works.  He's dyslexic so I can't just say, go read a book on the history of non-violent protest.  He's also a college student.  I've tried to explain the Occupy Movement to him until I'm blue in the face, but there is only so much time I can pry out of his day.  He understands the why, just not the how.  


We have a government that is controlled by an oligarchy.  The 1% own virtually everything.  Even our elected officials.  There is no such thing as "of the people, by the people and for the people" anymore.  Nearly all of our Senators and Congressmen are millionaires now, and if they aren't already millionaires when they arrive in DC, the lobbyists and insider trading will make them millionaires in no time.  Almost none of them are playing by the rules and are actually fit to run this country.  We elect them because of their great campaign promises to be "different" or bring "change," and all we ever get is more of the same.  Same, same, same.  Except... not really.  There IS change, it's just that it's change for the worse.


There is no job security in this country for the 99%.  If they are lucky enough to have a job, odds are it's a minimum wage service industry job.  No benefits, or if there are benefits of any kind, they can't afford to buy them, so people just do without.  The oligarchs are not going to be happy until everyone of the 99% is working for minimum wage and nothing more.  Minimum wage IS the new slave labor, make no mistake.  And debt is the slave's master.  


Education has become so expensive that few students manage to get a college degree without tens of thousands of dollars of debt.  Predatory banks have made debt a certainty by giving students easy access to credit cards.  In the words of Tennessee Ernie Ford, "One fist of iron, the other of steel, If the right one don't a-get you, Then the left one will."   

Banks are illegally foreclosing on people's homes and the rate of homelessness is skyrocketing.  Homeless shelters, soup kitchens and charity food pantries cannot keep up with demand.  And yet, as a country, we seem to have plenty of money to militarize our police, fight multiple wars for oil in the middle east, have a never ending supply of foreign aid to countries that spend all of their own money on wars and genocides, and let's not forget, bail out the banksters to the tune of $7.7 TRILLION, with an interest rate of less than 1/100 of 1%.


Politicians aren't listening to anyone but the lobbyists who are paid by the 1%.  All of the Republican Presidential candidates have promised to NEVER raise taxes in their lifetimes.  They also promise to overturn Roe v. Wade, bring back DADT, reinforce DOMA, and all sorts of other regressive policies.


The Occupiers are actively trying to help.  The camps are feeding anyone who is hungry, giving warm clothing to anyone who has none, and trying to shelter anyone who has nowhere else to go.  They are attempting to connect people with diverse needs with the holey safety net programs that still exist.  Many Occupy camps are just overwhelmed.  I saw a tweet recently that asked the question "What if all the money spent on controlling the Occupiers had been spent on social services instead?"  What if, indeed.


So, how do we fix this?  I just don't know.  I hope that non-violent protest is enough, but I am afraid that factions will break off from the Occupy Movement and start fighting back against the 1% and their soldiers, the police forces all over the country and indeed, the world.  They are already starving us out, denying us medical treatment, taking our shelter and sending their goons in to tear gas, pepper spray, terrify and brutalize us.  People are angry and they are getting angrier every day.


I wish the 1% could understand that they can't be the 1% if they kill all of us off like so many fleas.  Without us, they are nothing.  Without jobs, health care, shelter and food we will all die.  I wonder if they even realize that without us the tip top of the oligarchy would start preying on the "lower" rungs of the oligarchy?  I wonder if those at the tip top really want to end up alone in the world just sitting on piles of worthless cash?  What would be the point of that?  Is there ever such a thing as ENOUGH for them?  I mean, what is the point of owning everything if there isn't anyone around to lord it over?


As my beloved grandfather used to say, "It's one mell of a hess."