THE STATE WE’RE IN…… So, there are 20 million unemployed Americans with no unemployment benefits. The country is bankrupt both fiscally and morally. We are now robbing the once sacrosanct Social Security stash to keep funding perpetual war in the Middle East. Politicians keep favoring the kings of capitalism with their bills and laws. And the middle class is decaying faster than road kill in an Arizona summer. That at least describes the tip of ice berg. (At least the part that Sarah Palin can see from her backyard.) So how did we get here and what are we going to do about it? The answers would be simple if they weren’t so complicated. Certainly politicians seem more intent on shedding blame than accepting responsibility. They have ignored the president’s job bill, choosing rather to focus on making the phrase “In God We Trust” part of our official branding. Well, these idiots better trust in somebody because they don’t have a clue what is really happening. Or, scarier yet, they do but they choose to remain inert and dysfunctional. And isn’t that a frightening prospect; when your elected officials are busy bumping into furniture rather than turning on the lights. Of course Americans also have to take responsibility for the state we are in. After all, we gave George W. Bush eight years to mess around with this country and the world. That was like giving a five-year old kid a loaded .45 hand gun and telling him to go have some fun. (Unfortunately, out kid didn’t shoot himself.) I can hear all or you moderate/Republicats saying that this is just another “Blame Bush” diatribe. You’re damn straight it is. When President Clinton left office, we had money in the meter. When President Bush left office, not only had our meter expired but our car was being hauled away. Frankly, if you can’t see that G.W. Bush was one of the worst presidents this country has EVER had, then you are a lost cause and might as well go back to watching re-runs of “America’s Biggest Loser”. Being a product of the 60’s and 70’s “hippie culture”, I’m amazed at people my age justifying the cruelty of capitalism as “just the way it goes.” It’s like enlightened nihilism; it just doesn’t work. These narcissistic fence-sitters, who eat healthy, who spend their afternoons stretching and sweating in the yoga sauna, who listen to new-age music hoping to raise their vibrations, who chant mantas to clear their chakras, will not give that homeless guy ten bucks because they’ve got to get the Beemer washed. They are as clueless as any card-carrying Tea Party Conservative. Folks, you are either part of the cure or you are part of the cause. I can’t put it any more simply. Thank God the Earth is more resilient than its inhabitants. This rock knows how to bob and weave like a professional boxer. It is programmed to endure; humans are not. We are, alas, a confused and ultimately meaningless species, put on this planet to hopefully learn how to transcend our ego and embrace our brothers and sisters, regardless of their accumulated wealth. (TO BE CONTINUED)