Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor…My Ass.

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.”      ~ Martin Luther King, Jr, on 4 April, 1967

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.” ~ Confucius

We’re a bit under the weather here at Casa de D today, so I really don’t have the mental energy to really serve you all right with a well thought-out, creatively worded article on just about anything, sorry. However, I do want to share an article with you that a friend turned me on to earlier today.

It’s been sixteen years since the article below was written and it still rings true, sadly. We still pour money into unnecessary and immoral wars, we still refuse to legislate adequate funds to programs to feed, clothe and provide health care to the poor of this country. We sweep them under the rug while spending billions on killing machines and killing strategies…creating more poor in those countries we destroy in the name of “Freedom“.

So, although we may have a national holiday today recognizing Dr Martin Luther King Jr., the media and government still refuse to recognize what the hell the man actually stood for, worked for…and died for. We as a people refuse to take any responsibility for digging past the propaganda to find the truth. We as a people hide behind rhetoric and lies…lies told to us and lies we tell ourselves…lies perpetuated by so-called “Christians” and the Tea Party and anyone else that spews hate by way of rationalizing the denial of aid to those in this country in need.

© 2011 D. Kessler

The Martin Luther King You Don’t See on TV
Media Beat (1/4/1995)
By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon

It’s become a TV ritual: Every year in mid-January, around the time of Martin Luther King’s birthday, we get perfunctory network news reports about “the slain civil rights leader.”
The remarkable thing about this annual review of King’s life is that several years — his last years — are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.

What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet King didn’t take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever.

Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they’re not shown today on TV.
Why?

(…Read the full article here.)

 

Welcome to Our World: No Different than Last Week, Last Year, Last Decade…

I’m tired as hell hearing about the economy.  This bail-out, that bail-out, this Dow Jones, that Nasadaq, what one person thinks it means, the other person’s babble that says it doesn’t, where “WE” ‘re going from here, where “WE” ‘ve been, why “WE” ‘ve been, why “WE” won’t be…AAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

I realize that I must listen to too much NPR.  But then again…do they think, at NPR or anywhere else in broadcasting, that EVERYone is THAT interested in all this blabber about the same thing every frakin’ day??  I mean…how many of us even understand this whole economy thing, really?

Now, I consider myself to be fairly intelligent. Okay, actually…at the risk of sounding like an elitist arrogant snob of grand proportions…I will tell you that I consider myself to be more than fairly intelligent and definitely more intelligent than your average Joe or Wendy Schmoe.  I read Shakespeare for fun when I was in grade school and understood it, couldn’t get enough of it.  I have followed politics since the Nixion/McGovern election when I was six, as I have previously referenced here in this blog.  I skipped most of 4th grade and went directly to 5th grade because I was bored and I could. I scored high enough on placement tests in 9th grade…those designed to help your teachers and counselors to figure out where your aptitude is and what classes you should take, steering you toward your ultimate goal of college, productive citizen etc…that my teachers and counselors let it slip to me that I would mostly be merely going through the motions for the next few years just to earn enough credits to appease the system to get my diploma (the fact that I did not get to go to college and continue in the steps those teachers felt inevitable, is a topic best left alone for now).  I watch PBS and I listen to NPR and PRI (obviously, as previously noted).  I am not a stupid person.

But I am really tired of hearing about practically nothing else but the economy, the economy, the FREAKIN’ E-CON-O-MEEE!  And frankly, I just don’t get it.

Oh, I am quite aware that we are all fucked at the moment, some more than others, but this whole thing about getting the credit out to the people…though understandable in over-all terms of “get the money moving” and the trickle-down effect to the American people, etc…it doesn’t really apply to me and I’m tired of hearing about it.  It doesn’t help me directly…or quite a lot of other people, either.   In fact, hearing about it makes me feel worse, not better.  It makes absolutely no frakin’ difference to me that they are getting the funds out there to help banks and other financial lenders so that they can do that lending that they like to do so well.  I know that it has to be done, I get the theory of it, I have confidence that my beloved President (yes, for real, I love the man), his advisors and maybe even Congress probably know what they are doing and are taking the steps needed to turn the economy around.  But I also know it’s gonna take a while, and a hard arm, to turn this boat…and I definitely don’t need to hear any more about it while we’re waiting to get our nose to pointed to the shore!  Because…

I. DON’T. QUALIFY.  Not for any of it.

Not for a freaking lousy credit card with even a minimum lending limit. Not for a car loan (like I want a petrol guzzling box o’ tin and fiberglass, no thanks!).  Not for a mortgage.  Not for nada.  Not ever, now, or in the past. 

There.  It’s out in the open.  I have a really sucky credit rating, and always have, for reasons I will not burden you with.  I can tell you that I just have worked my ass off for my whole life, trying to stay ahead of the shut-off notice, the delinquent medical bill, trying to keep my self fed and clothed (barely) and a roof over my head…and I am not alone.  Me…a consumer??  With what money would I be such a thing?!  I haven’t bought a new pair of shoes for myself…SHOES!…in at least 3 years.  SHOES!! (and I love shoes…)  Forget about any big-ticket items like a car or a house or anything else…

So, I wish that the media would just shut the hell up.  I don’t need to hear HOW they are doing it anymore.  I just need to know that they ARE doing SOMEthing…something that will work. Something that will get me a few more dollars in my pocket…and I’m not talking credit dollars.  I’m talking real cash, lower prices at the grocery store and more dollars in my take-home pay.  And if that something makes sense to those economist minds that get all that blathering, let them blather.  Just stop doing it on every news radio & television program every which way I turn. 

And now, I will go scrounge for change in all the pockets and drawers in my  apartment just so I can do a single load of laundry before returning to my office grindstone tomorrow.  Then, we’ll heat up leftovers from three days ago for dinner.  Cuz that’s how it rolls in this house, and many millions of others across the nation…and always has.  No different than last week, last year, last decade.  Not in this house.

Until next time…hopefully soon…

© 2009 D. Kessler

 

NaNoWriMo: Hey…Is That My Brain Spinning Out of Control Across the Room?!

So, I’m totally losing my mind…nope, wait.  I’ve officially lost it.  The cat is freaking out on me, watching big-eyed as “mommy” (that’s me, of course) confuses the heck outta her, totally.  My husband is at his wits end and doesnt’ know whether to laugh hysterically at/with me or yell at me to let him play his freakin’ Xbox game.  I apparently can’t shut up as I bounce around the kitchen and living room and all sorts of goofy shit is spewing from my mouth:  modified Sesame Street songs, show tunes (Hel-LO Dolly??), and…Iron Maiden?!? I HATE Iron Maiden…

Too much coffee, sugar and not enough actual story ideas coming from my brain makes for crappy weirdness…but it sure is fun!

Then my upstairs neighbor and best friend comes down and puts a damper on THAT…bitch-bitch-belly-ache about loser boyfriend not getting up today to look for work, bitch-bitch-freak-out about her hours getting cut at work (lovely economy we have here, dontya think?)…and do we have everything we need for Thanksgiving?  I can’t believe how expensive everything is…yadda-yadda…Come on, help me make a list…and did you send out the email to everybody…etc

Meanwhile, the maintenance-guy-slash-painter-man shows up to finish the project started yesterday in the bathroom…drywall, plaster and now the actual painting…so my ADHD it in total overload mode.  Too much going on in this house to write….AAAAUUUGGGHHH!

But on a good note…I have a finally have the name for a newly introduced character (yes, I know…late in the game, but we still need her…).  Say hello to…ha! Gotcha…you’ll have to read the story to find out…

So…back to the grindstone…turn up the Rockablly-Psychobilly soundrack!

© 2008 D. Kessler