I just passed the highway sign again: HARD TIMES 30 MILES, PROCEED WITH ANGST AND LOATHING. I’ve been here many times before but the place is perpetually changing, like a soliloquy written by a schizophrenic. Of course I come with the requisite baggage: a 24-pack of self-loathing, a Styrofoam cooler filled with interminable doubt, several aged bottles filled with abandonment and parental injustice, a matched set of antique but functional dueling pistols and a well-rehearsed PowerPoint presentation containing a compelling array of my reasons for making this journey. With all of those plus 3 cases of Pacifico and a sandwich bag filled with “shrooms” I should be able to hang on long enough to reconcile my predicament: trying to find comfort between a rock and a hard place.
As I cruise down the main drag, I see that the town looks pretty much the same as the last time I was here. Battered and bloody women running and screaming through the dusty streets; grown men huddled by the side of the road, boldly weeping into their beards; a distant cacophony of shrill screams and soul-drenching moans that create a bizarre yet compelling libretto that welcomes me back to the place that loves to beat you down.
There is no point searching for friends for you have none here. This is a town fueled by loneliness and despair; heartbreak and frustration. I stop the car, take a seat by a business man with a broken spirit, and begin the process of unloading my baggage. He turns his head as if wanting to ask me a question, but immediately realizes the futility and returns his gaze to the garbage blowing through the street. We sit on the curb, each of us drinking in the bile, filling our lungs with all the rancid catharsis that Hard Times has to offer. For me it is the death of wonder, brought on by the weight of no longer being able to make my way in the world.
A woman in a torn and dirty sweater appears at my side from nowhere, whispering the same phrase: “Why can’t I be loved?” My momentary desire to console her passes quickly as she shuffles away, confronting another despondent old man down the road with the same unanswerable question. Unfortunately, Hard Times is a place filled with questions, not answers; filled with despair not resolution; filled with bitterness not joy.
For me, the inability to find work in spite of diligent effort skewed the context of my life so badly that all that I believed became a question, not an answer; a condition welcomed by the despondency that fills the air like a putrid fog in Hard Times. The struggle to regain stasis in my life eventually wore me down, becoming my reality. I expect the woman wanting love had gone through a similar process. The twisted bodies along the side of the road attested to the fact that accepting Hard Times as your home would eventually kill you. Confronting that reality was one of the main reasons to visit this awful place.
I think we all visit a section of Hard Times during our life. The trick is learning to use the pervasive misery and sadness there to awaken the love and hope that lies dormant inside us. It is not an easy task, often equivalent to slaying a monster with a pebble, but it is possible. For me that night in Hard Times was all about recognizing that the present does not equal the future. That each day I continued to endure might indeed bring me closer to a new vision of my life. One filled with compassion and love, not fraught with frustration and anger.
The struggle against the darkness that exists in Hard Times will always be there, for how can you appreciate the good times if you haven’t sampled the bad? The trick is to remember that the only constant in the universe is change and that humans are incredibly adaptable beings, able to re-create their realities at will. To bring about change, all one has to do is immerse themselves in the paradigm, and there is no place better to do that than crawling through the desperate throngs who fill the dusty streets of Hard Times.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Oh To Be Ordinary
I thought I'd write just a little tonight about the plight of being too creative, too sensitive and too removed from the status quo. If you spent twenty years with one person how would you feel if he/she never truly understood you? If you found yourself wandering a frontage road that divided the life you should have lived and the one you got stuck with how would you deal with it? Would you run for the hills that held your life's purpose or would you stay the course, do the "right" thing and fulfill your responsibility to someone to whom you would always remain a stranger? Would you let lust drive your destiny? Would you let it drive you insane?
Just like a square peg whittled down to fit into a round hole, those of us who acknowledge the absurdity of maintaining a palsied status quo run the risk of being ostracized by those who would maintain this paltry level of living at any cost. The majority rules that those emotionally confused folks need to squelch their desires and stick to the rules of the game: marriage, career, children and retirement in some state where the sun shines more often than not. Unfortunately, once you commit to the plan, the only exit is leaping from the status quo into loneliness, despair and desperation, or so they want you to believe.
The truck driver who always wanted to paint, the attorney who wanted to write, the waitress who always wanted to dance; they've become commonplace cliches in our modern machine that worships value only in monetary terms. Sure, stardom is idolized - America is after all a cult of personality. But what about all of those unfortunates who lost grasp of their dreams along the way? Where are they to stash their angst created by unfulfilled potential?
Once again I refer to Canada which recognizes the importance the artist brings to its culture and accordingly subsidizes their development. Socialism our status quo yells, quaking at the thought of actually giving government money to someone following a creative path. Artists don't feed the machine, truck drivers do.
Of course, America has no money to subsidize the arts anyway; we are too busy trying to convince the Middle East that we are their friends. We are too busy paying back favors for votes committed. We are too GODDAMNED BUSY GIVING SENATORS FREE HAIRCUTS!
So the next Martha Graham is left to take orders for food at some backstreet burger joint, the next Jackson Pollock is left to drive 18-hours to deliver plumbing parts to Pittsburgh and the next John Updike is left to plea bargain a three-time loser off of death row. And so it goes for the criminally inane.
America does not savor the artist unless they are a commercial success, because then they become a part of the process that drives this imperialist lunacy. America is a country lost in its own complacency. No one dare step out of line since fear rules the day. The status quo has become the symbol for modern-day stoicism. America is drowning in the mundane. Watch any channel on your television for 10 minutes and proof of that claim will become obnoxiously obvious.
America has created a population that worships the status quo, that thinks no further than their credit limit, that equates success to how much money you make, that sees creativity in the familiar, that refuses to challenge their own cultural bias, because they see it all as just one thing: maintaining the status quo... and so the machine rumbles on, using every ounce of energy fed into it, never moving, never evolving, just providing that familiar matrix for which the country needs to survive.
Just like a square peg whittled down to fit into a round hole, those of us who acknowledge the absurdity of maintaining a palsied status quo run the risk of being ostracized by those who would maintain this paltry level of living at any cost. The majority rules that those emotionally confused folks need to squelch their desires and stick to the rules of the game: marriage, career, children and retirement in some state where the sun shines more often than not. Unfortunately, once you commit to the plan, the only exit is leaping from the status quo into loneliness, despair and desperation, or so they want you to believe.
The truck driver who always wanted to paint, the attorney who wanted to write, the waitress who always wanted to dance; they've become commonplace cliches in our modern machine that worships value only in monetary terms. Sure, stardom is idolized - America is after all a cult of personality. But what about all of those unfortunates who lost grasp of their dreams along the way? Where are they to stash their angst created by unfulfilled potential?
Once again I refer to Canada which recognizes the importance the artist brings to its culture and accordingly subsidizes their development. Socialism our status quo yells, quaking at the thought of actually giving government money to someone following a creative path. Artists don't feed the machine, truck drivers do.
Of course, America has no money to subsidize the arts anyway; we are too busy trying to convince the Middle East that we are their friends. We are too busy paying back favors for votes committed. We are too GODDAMNED BUSY GIVING SENATORS FREE HAIRCUTS!
So the next Martha Graham is left to take orders for food at some backstreet burger joint, the next Jackson Pollock is left to drive 18-hours to deliver plumbing parts to Pittsburgh and the next John Updike is left to plea bargain a three-time loser off of death row. And so it goes for the criminally inane.
America does not savor the artist unless they are a commercial success, because then they become a part of the process that drives this imperialist lunacy. America is a country lost in its own complacency. No one dare step out of line since fear rules the day. The status quo has become the symbol for modern-day stoicism. America is drowning in the mundane. Watch any channel on your television for 10 minutes and proof of that claim will become obnoxiously obvious.
America has created a population that worships the status quo, that thinks no further than their credit limit, that equates success to how much money you make, that sees creativity in the familiar, that refuses to challenge their own cultural bias, because they see it all as just one thing: maintaining the status quo... and so the machine rumbles on, using every ounce of energy fed into it, never moving, never evolving, just providing that familiar matrix for which the country needs to survive.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Reagan: America's Greatest Nazi
From Letters to the Editor, Grass Valley Union, January 25th Edition:
The unfortunate death of “transient” Mark Rye during our arctic blast is a sad commentary on the state of our nation, our state and our city. Misspent revenues and intense infighting have created a condition of lifeboat ethics where you are either on the boat or under it.
Those of us still afloat or clinging to the sides simply have no room for people like Mark Rye who likely wandered into oblivion in the 1980s when Governor Reagan closed all the mental health facilities in California.
Calling them a superfluous drain on our economy, this single heartless act created a perpetual tsunami of misery and fear. Millions of Mark Ryes, who in a civilized society would be given basic health care and shelter, are left to battle their demons alone, hunkered inside dumpsters, curled up in makeshift tents pieced together from found plastic or shivering in skimpy sleeping bags worthless against sub-freezing weather.
Armed with nothing but a pint of rot gut whiskey and shards of memories both real and imagined, they challenge our humanity with a simple imperative scribbled on crumpled cardboard: Please help me! It is a very sad commentary on a very sad time in America.
The unfortunate death of “transient” Mark Rye during our arctic blast is a sad commentary on the state of our nation, our state and our city. Misspent revenues and intense infighting have created a condition of lifeboat ethics where you are either on the boat or under it.
Those of us still afloat or clinging to the sides simply have no room for people like Mark Rye who likely wandered into oblivion in the 1980s when Governor Reagan closed all the mental health facilities in California.
Calling them a superfluous drain on our economy, this single heartless act created a perpetual tsunami of misery and fear. Millions of Mark Ryes, who in a civilized society would be given basic health care and shelter, are left to battle their demons alone, hunkered inside dumpsters, curled up in makeshift tents pieced together from found plastic or shivering in skimpy sleeping bags worthless against sub-freezing weather.
Armed with nothing but a pint of rot gut whiskey and shards of memories both real and imagined, they challenge our humanity with a simple imperative scribbled on crumpled cardboard: Please help me! It is a very sad commentary on a very sad time in America.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
AMERICAN MELTDOWN: A New Look at Logic
It occurred to me that logic is not like the laws of physics; it is not a steadfast conclusion that can generally be proven by simple observation. I always thought that when all the solutions to a problem were considered, logic would automatically drive the query to an assigned parking spot. No matter what the question, with logic behind the wheel, the destination was inevitable. I mean logic is logic, right? Wrong! Logic is as subjective as your choice of bedroom slippers.
For me, logic has always been the solution that accomplished the task in the shortest possible time, doing the least amount of harm, providing the most good while costing the least amount of money. My conservative friends claim I am being misled by paltry emotionalism that leads me down the wrong path. What I perceived as truth was really just an illusion. I had failed to realize that logic changes in direct ratio to the need for a specific outcome.
The conservative take on logic is more malleable and self-serving. Logic for them is simply a word; a means to an end. The word itself is not sacrosanct, like the laws of physics, which I believe they would also argue were far less stalwart than Moses talking to God in a burning bush. After all, they lauded Reagan's demented take on supply-side economics, also known as the "trickle down theory", as the panacea for the country's ills. (Little did they know that the poor guy was actually proffering that the rich simply piss on the poor. Hey, the guy had dementia so don't rush to judgment.)
I mean why bother with logic when you can simply deny empirical data provided by scientists from around the globe proving that the earth is 4.54 billion years old. Who needs good old common sense when you can dismiss carbon dating as the work of the devil, write off fossiliferous evidence of dinosaur life as funny shapes in rocks and declare that an embryo is ready to take the SAT a couple of days after conception.
For the Republican Party, logic is eviscerated by the wheels of greed. It is not cumbersome to them since they have conveniently misplaced their morality. Logical thinking to Tea Party Patriots excludes the plight of the long-term unemployed, the struggle of the minimum wage worker, the heartbreak of the mother whose son has just been gunned down in the streets on his way home from school, the family farmer being decimated by the huge, corporate farming machines, the severely ill man without medical benefits who decides to die from his disease rather than bankrupt his children, and the list goes on and on.
For me, logical thinking about what America is all about asks: if we are not all citizens of America, then what are we? If we are not all entitled to the same opportunities then what are we? If our efforts to better our status are stifled by prejudice and bigotry, then what are we? If a small group of soulless, power-hungry elitists aspire to control the disadvantaged to fulfill their needs, then what have we become?
A small, powerful, elitist group, operating above the law and exploiting the disadvantaged has always been at the core of any fascist movement, from Caesar to Mussolini to Reagan, the agenda has always been the same: make the underprivileged so miserable that simply working becomes a privilege. Just make them forget that their impoverished status is predetermined and any hope of transcending their state in life is fueled by nothing more than well-crafted lies.
The right wingers love to fan the flames of paranoia by tossing around the term "socialism" like some half-inflated football dunked in the Ebola virus. They stress the extinction of a person's civil rights, the creation of a "New World Order" (Brought into existence by one of their own, George Bush Sr.), the loss of the right to bear arms, the escalation of the number of illegal immigrants spewing over our ill-protected borders like ants after a sugar cookie and any other lie they can sell to try and increase the paranoia of their well-heeled, but imbecilic followers. And what is there ultimate selling tool: logic with a twist of fear.
Watch Glen Beck diagram his implausible hypothesis on his blackboards. Man, talk about deconstructing and reconstructing the facts. I like to call it "fringe facts". He is really working that propaganda machine overtime. And since his audience is already immobilized by the fear of illegal aliens or unemployed drug addicts breaking into their impeccably landscaped McMansion that they earned with the sweat off their brow and the flex of their muscles, and of course that 500K they inherited from Grandpa Joe. And even though they are safely tucked away behind a virtually impregnable gate guarded by some guy that makes Barney Fife look like The Rock, still they worry and look to Herr Beck for answers. And of course, in the end, he provides them with irrefutable logic, skewed through the Glenn Beck filter.
So logic is not a constant. It is just a word used by different groups to try and prove their points. Some of the points are reflected only with the use of carefully placed mirrors; the ones that really let the fear shine through. So logic is a tool of propagandists. If they can skew the evidence enough, then the logic is easily digested by their anxious and myopic listeners.
To the person who has not yet buried their compassion under that new 36-jet built-in spa, logic is the only path to the truth. A truth that includes the fate of everyone involved in the decision.
The citizen who still recalls our forefather's definition of America (and still possesses a soul) knows that the road of life is filled with switchbacks, potholes deep enough to snap an axle, pedestrians unexpectedly stepping in front of your car; a plethora of problems just waiting for their number to be called. And so it is with logic: all people affected by the decision must be considered and the outcome cannot outweigh the facts that come to bear; the damage caused by a selfish decision will roar across the populace like a tsunami, upsetting everything in its path.
So I reiterate my approach to making a logical decision: logic should be the solution that accomplishes the task in the shortest possible time, doing the least amount of harm, providing the most good while costing the least amount of money. If you see it presented as anything else, you will know it is propaganda in logic's clothing.
For me, logic has always been the solution that accomplished the task in the shortest possible time, doing the least amount of harm, providing the most good while costing the least amount of money. My conservative friends claim I am being misled by paltry emotionalism that leads me down the wrong path. What I perceived as truth was really just an illusion. I had failed to realize that logic changes in direct ratio to the need for a specific outcome.
The conservative take on logic is more malleable and self-serving. Logic for them is simply a word; a means to an end. The word itself is not sacrosanct, like the laws of physics, which I believe they would also argue were far less stalwart than Moses talking to God in a burning bush. After all, they lauded Reagan's demented take on supply-side economics, also known as the "trickle down theory", as the panacea for the country's ills. (Little did they know that the poor guy was actually proffering that the rich simply piss on the poor. Hey, the guy had dementia so don't rush to judgment.)
I mean why bother with logic when you can simply deny empirical data provided by scientists from around the globe proving that the earth is 4.54 billion years old. Who needs good old common sense when you can dismiss carbon dating as the work of the devil, write off fossiliferous evidence of dinosaur life as funny shapes in rocks and declare that an embryo is ready to take the SAT a couple of days after conception.
For the Republican Party, logic is eviscerated by the wheels of greed. It is not cumbersome to them since they have conveniently misplaced their morality. Logical thinking to Tea Party Patriots excludes the plight of the long-term unemployed, the struggle of the minimum wage worker, the heartbreak of the mother whose son has just been gunned down in the streets on his way home from school, the family farmer being decimated by the huge, corporate farming machines, the severely ill man without medical benefits who decides to die from his disease rather than bankrupt his children, and the list goes on and on.
For me, logical thinking about what America is all about asks: if we are not all citizens of America, then what are we? If we are not all entitled to the same opportunities then what are we? If our efforts to better our status are stifled by prejudice and bigotry, then what are we? If a small group of soulless, power-hungry elitists aspire to control the disadvantaged to fulfill their needs, then what have we become?
A small, powerful, elitist group, operating above the law and exploiting the disadvantaged has always been at the core of any fascist movement, from Caesar to Mussolini to Reagan, the agenda has always been the same: make the underprivileged so miserable that simply working becomes a privilege. Just make them forget that their impoverished status is predetermined and any hope of transcending their state in life is fueled by nothing more than well-crafted lies.
The right wingers love to fan the flames of paranoia by tossing around the term "socialism" like some half-inflated football dunked in the Ebola virus. They stress the extinction of a person's civil rights, the creation of a "New World Order" (Brought into existence by one of their own, George Bush Sr.), the loss of the right to bear arms, the escalation of the number of illegal immigrants spewing over our ill-protected borders like ants after a sugar cookie and any other lie they can sell to try and increase the paranoia of their well-heeled, but imbecilic followers. And what is there ultimate selling tool: logic with a twist of fear.
Watch Glen Beck diagram his implausible hypothesis on his blackboards. Man, talk about deconstructing and reconstructing the facts. I like to call it "fringe facts". He is really working that propaganda machine overtime. And since his audience is already immobilized by the fear of illegal aliens or unemployed drug addicts breaking into their impeccably landscaped McMansion that they earned with the sweat off their brow and the flex of their muscles, and of course that 500K they inherited from Grandpa Joe. And even though they are safely tucked away behind a virtually impregnable gate guarded by some guy that makes Barney Fife look like The Rock, still they worry and look to Herr Beck for answers. And of course, in the end, he provides them with irrefutable logic, skewed through the Glenn Beck filter.
So logic is not a constant. It is just a word used by different groups to try and prove their points. Some of the points are reflected only with the use of carefully placed mirrors; the ones that really let the fear shine through. So logic is a tool of propagandists. If they can skew the evidence enough, then the logic is easily digested by their anxious and myopic listeners.
To the person who has not yet buried their compassion under that new 36-jet built-in spa, logic is the only path to the truth. A truth that includes the fate of everyone involved in the decision.
The citizen who still recalls our forefather's definition of America (and still possesses a soul) knows that the road of life is filled with switchbacks, potholes deep enough to snap an axle, pedestrians unexpectedly stepping in front of your car; a plethora of problems just waiting for their number to be called. And so it is with logic: all people affected by the decision must be considered and the outcome cannot outweigh the facts that come to bear; the damage caused by a selfish decision will roar across the populace like a tsunami, upsetting everything in its path.
So I reiterate my approach to making a logical decision: logic should be the solution that accomplishes the task in the shortest possible time, doing the least amount of harm, providing the most good while costing the least amount of money. If you see it presented as anything else, you will know it is propaganda in logic's clothing.
Monday, August 30, 2010
THE LOST & LONELY: Homelessness & Mental Illness
Psychiatric News February 5, 2010
Volume 45 Number 3 Page 7
© American Psychiatric Association
* Community News
How Many Americans Have a Mental Illness, but No Home?
How many Americans are both mentally ill and homeless?
There appears to be no clear answer to this question. But some statistics, as well as estimates from experts on the subject, provide some perspective on it.
For example, the U.S. Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Survey, published in December 2008, included information on homelessness and mental illness in 23 cities between October 2007 and September 2008. On an average night during this time span, and in the 23 cities combined, some 28,000 people were sleeping in emergency shelters or on the streets, and about a quarter of them had a serious mental illness.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless fact sheet published in June 2008, 16 percent of the single adult homeless population has a severe and persistent mental illness.
“Depending on where you read, between a third and two-thirds of homeless people are mentally ill and/or use drugs or alcohol,” Van Yu, M.D., who heads up the Project for Psychiatric Outreach to the Homeless in New York City, told Psychiatric News. “And a significant percentage have both. So a conservative estimate is that 15,000 of the 38,000 homeless people in New York City are mentally ill and/or use drugs or alcohol.”
“Most estimates put the number of homeless people in the United States around 3.5 million a year,” Sam Tsemberis, Ph.D., founder of Pathways to Housing for the homeless mentally ill population, said in an interview. “The question then is, How many of these homeless 3.5 million people are severely mentally ill? Depending on how you define mental illness—the criteria you are using—the estimates range between 20 percent and 40 percent. So between 20 percent and 40 percent of the estimated 3.5 million homeless are mentally ill. In other words, anywhere between 700,000 and 1.4 million Americans are both mentally ill and without a home.” Graphic
Volume 45 Number 3 Page 7
© American Psychiatric Association
* Community News
How Many Americans Have a Mental Illness, but No Home?
How many Americans are both mentally ill and homeless?
There appears to be no clear answer to this question. But some statistics, as well as estimates from experts on the subject, provide some perspective on it.
For example, the U.S. Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Survey, published in December 2008, included information on homelessness and mental illness in 23 cities between October 2007 and September 2008. On an average night during this time span, and in the 23 cities combined, some 28,000 people were sleeping in emergency shelters or on the streets, and about a quarter of them had a serious mental illness.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless fact sheet published in June 2008, 16 percent of the single adult homeless population has a severe and persistent mental illness.
“Depending on where you read, between a third and two-thirds of homeless people are mentally ill and/or use drugs or alcohol,” Van Yu, M.D., who heads up the Project for Psychiatric Outreach to the Homeless in New York City, told Psychiatric News. “And a significant percentage have both. So a conservative estimate is that 15,000 of the 38,000 homeless people in New York City are mentally ill and/or use drugs or alcohol.”
“Most estimates put the number of homeless people in the United States around 3.5 million a year,” Sam Tsemberis, Ph.D., founder of Pathways to Housing for the homeless mentally ill population, said in an interview. “The question then is, How many of these homeless 3.5 million people are severely mentally ill? Depending on how you define mental illness—the criteria you are using—the estimates range between 20 percent and 40 percent. So between 20 percent and 40 percent of the estimated 3.5 million homeless are mentally ill. In other words, anywhere between 700,000 and 1.4 million Americans are both mentally ill and without a home.” Graphic
Saturday, August 28, 2010
THE LEFT BEHIND - The Ignored Unemployed Suicide Rate
A ramp up in audacity seems imperative by the Democratic Party if they intend to win in 2010 and 2012. They are facing some amorphous, menacing creature in the Republican Party that seems to explode with new and evil appendages daily. It’s a creature that feeds on the fear of the weak and the paranoia of the ignorant. And yet the narcoleptic blue team seems content and oblivious to the threat, peaceful in their complacency. So I have to wonder WTF are they doing?
Frustrated by the lack of a voice the major media could hear, I created this petition on change.org. (See link on the right column) And while the impact has been minimal, I think the message is beyond sobering. Tragic is really the word that comes to mind.
These self-absorbed lunatics (The Republicans) seem to believe they are not responsible for the results of their heartless and gutless actions. Their insistence on ignoring the plight of the long-term unemployed has directly resulted in a steadily growing suicide rate amongst those who have finally lost all hope. I expect this number to grow exponentially over the coming months as millions of more members of the "once working class" realize they are ultimately those people who are "in the wrong country at the wrong time".
This whole deal is totally unacceptable. I believe it represents an attempt by the Republicans to eradicate an entire section of the American population. Hey, got to get those numbers to jive somehow, so why not "lean the herd" of all the stragglers, gimps and runts. And so families are brought to ruin, former hard-working Americans are broken and left to bleed out, while the "new elite" continue on as if it is business as usual.
Maybe the news of another unemployment-related suicide makes page 13
of some local rag and the death of another American, directly tied to the Republican’s choice to put politics above people, goes unnoticed, barely as bothersome as a pebble in their Gucci loafer.
And still the Democrats sleep. Shame on them all!
Frustrated by the lack of a voice the major media could hear, I created this petition on change.org. (See link on the right column) And while the impact has been minimal, I think the message is beyond sobering. Tragic is really the word that comes to mind.
These self-absorbed lunatics (The Republicans) seem to believe they are not responsible for the results of their heartless and gutless actions. Their insistence on ignoring the plight of the long-term unemployed has directly resulted in a steadily growing suicide rate amongst those who have finally lost all hope. I expect this number to grow exponentially over the coming months as millions of more members of the "once working class" realize they are ultimately those people who are "in the wrong country at the wrong time".
This whole deal is totally unacceptable. I believe it represents an attempt by the Republicans to eradicate an entire section of the American population. Hey, got to get those numbers to jive somehow, so why not "lean the herd" of all the stragglers, gimps and runts. And so families are brought to ruin, former hard-working Americans are broken and left to bleed out, while the "new elite" continue on as if it is business as usual.
Maybe the news of another unemployment-related suicide makes page 13
of some local rag and the death of another American, directly tied to the Republican’s choice to put politics above people, goes unnoticed, barely as bothersome as a pebble in their Gucci loafer.
And still the Democrats sleep. Shame on them all!
AMERICAN MELTDOWN: Palin & Beck Leading the Lemmings
Two unabashed self-promoters polishing their rhetoric for the big event: leading their pack of lemmings to the edge of the abyss. What an aberration spewing this vitriolic diatribe to honor a man so full of compassion and love; a true minister who believed that God would give his oppressed followers the strength to carry on against violence and hatred. A peaceful visionary who believed that all should be equal in America and that by facing this injustice, without hate or violence in their hearts, they could defeat it.
Now does this sound anything like the hate-filled bile that spews out of Beck's mouth every week on television? Does this sound like the agenda of the elitist, exclusionary Tea Party Conservatives? This whole gathering is an insult of the highest order to MLK and "his dream" of America providing hope and opportunity for EVERYONE, regardless of race, color or creed.
Beck, Palin, Limbaugh and all the rest of the rabid lemmings who follow these self-proclaimed "visionaries" believe in a policy that excludes the very people Martin Luther King embraced: the homeless, the long-termed unemployed, the poor, the sick, the elderly and the oppressed.
These are the same groups Jesus would have embraced. Perhaps the ultimate blasphemy is continually invoking the sacred names of God and Jesus in his evil, exclusionary clap-trap. (It seems likely that if Jesus showed up at the rally, he would take the microphone, chastise these people for accepting this hate-filled man as a messenger from God and tell them to all go home and break open their Bibles.)
It is likely, and sadly ironic, that the only person involved in the triumph and tragedy of Martin Luther King's legacy who would have been a Beck/Palin supporter is the man who assassinated him.
God grant us the strength to discern the good from the bad, the lies from the truth and self-proclaimed demigods from God Himself. Amen.
Now does this sound anything like the hate-filled bile that spews out of Beck's mouth every week on television? Does this sound like the agenda of the elitist, exclusionary Tea Party Conservatives? This whole gathering is an insult of the highest order to MLK and "his dream" of America providing hope and opportunity for EVERYONE, regardless of race, color or creed.
Beck, Palin, Limbaugh and all the rest of the rabid lemmings who follow these self-proclaimed "visionaries" believe in a policy that excludes the very people Martin Luther King embraced: the homeless, the long-termed unemployed, the poor, the sick, the elderly and the oppressed.
These are the same groups Jesus would have embraced. Perhaps the ultimate blasphemy is continually invoking the sacred names of God and Jesus in his evil, exclusionary clap-trap. (It seems likely that if Jesus showed up at the rally, he would take the microphone, chastise these people for accepting this hate-filled man as a messenger from God and tell them to all go home and break open their Bibles.)
It is likely, and sadly ironic, that the only person involved in the triumph and tragedy of Martin Luther King's legacy who would have been a Beck/Palin supporter is the man who assassinated him.
God grant us the strength to discern the good from the bad, the lies from the truth and self-proclaimed demigods from God Himself. Amen.
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