"I have rather radical viewpoints and rather big mouth, and the sociopolitical climate in the US until only just recently was not very kind to dissidents"
Dawn, honestly, I appreciate your honesty and outspokeness every day, but the only time in my day-to-day life that I actually have a conversation with anyone whose political beliefs are to the right of yours is on-line (and occasionally in a cab--for some reason cabdrivers liked Rudy Guiliani). That is something people forget sometimes depending upon where they live.
I remember the stolen election well. That cracked me up at the time. Last time I had seen that was in Mexico (where it had been standard for years). It was something I had associated with dictatorship and single-party third-world or semi-third-world countries. Even there, by the 1980s, had been considered going too far, but people here in the U.S. took it pretty well. Didn't cause much more than a ripple in the news and a lot of jokes about hanging chads, dimpled chads, bulging chads or pregnant chads. (Did anyone really believe that people went into a voting booths and thought, "I do not feel that strongly, so I will just not press forcefully enough for the candidate I choose and that way my vote won't really count?") New Orleans caused a little more than a ripple--I guess seeing all those dead bodies on TV was a little chilling. But what if anything has been down to prepare for or change what the response would be to the next New Orleans?
We wouldn't be in such bad shape if what this country did only mattered in this country. But, unfortunately, that is obviously myopic. It extends beyond our kids not having jobs, their kids not having decent health care or education. We endanger the entire planet. When I worked as a reporter in Mexico, it was always a joke among the foreign-press clubs types when the U.S. sent Monkey-trial yahoos to international environmental conferences and the rest of the world sent scientists. It was so embarrassing to be the American in the group having a drink and hearing about the latest.
I am old enough to remember when every year newspapers bragged about how more kids graduated from high school. And there was still a choice then when finishing high school of taking a decent job with a living wage or going to the university becoming a professional. I have seen people work harder to have less every year since I have been an adult. I was poor as dirt when I went to school and my student loans equaled the equivalent of two month's pay, when I got out of school from one of the best universities in the country. Chew on that youngsters.
My daughter has a job which requires a university degree, and she cannot even pay to have her baby included on her health care plan. She had to sign up for government-subsided health insurance. Still at great financial hardship to her and frankly rather appalling--ever single well-baby checkup he has had has been postponed because there were not available appointment times. He got all of his immunizations late. That's standard these days, if they are still lucky enough to get them at all. But there is no shortage of money for Bush to try to take over another country.
I am not a pacifist and I find what this country does and their justifications for it appalling (nauseating really).
I have my pitchfork ready, come the revolution,
I spent my entire life fighting for social justice and I am exhausted, only to see it go downhill. I'm overweight and have a bad knee but I have my pitchfork ready also, but it is pretty pathetic to think that I have to be the one wielding it.
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-30 12:31 am (UTC)Dawn, honestly, I appreciate your honesty and outspokeness every day, but the only time in my day-to-day life that I actually have a conversation with anyone whose political beliefs are to the right of yours is on-line (and occasionally in a cab--for some reason cabdrivers liked Rudy Guiliani). That is something people forget sometimes depending upon where they live.
I remember the stolen election well. That cracked me up at the time. Last time I had seen that was in Mexico (where it had been standard for years). It was something I had associated with dictatorship and single-party third-world or semi-third-world countries. Even there, by the 1980s, had been considered going too far, but people here in the U.S. took it pretty well. Didn't cause much more than a ripple in the news and a lot of jokes about hanging chads, dimpled chads, bulging chads or pregnant chads. (Did anyone really believe that people went into a voting booths and thought, "I do not feel that strongly, so I will just not press forcefully enough for the candidate I choose and that way my vote won't really count?") New Orleans caused a little more than a ripple--I guess seeing all those dead bodies on TV was a little chilling. But what if anything has been down to prepare for or change what the response would be to the next New Orleans?
We wouldn't be in such bad shape if what this country did only mattered in this country. But, unfortunately, that is obviously myopic. It extends beyond our kids not having jobs, their kids not having decent health care or education. We endanger the entire planet. When I worked as a reporter in Mexico, it was always a joke among the foreign-press clubs types when the U.S. sent Monkey-trial yahoos to international environmental conferences and the rest of the world sent scientists. It was so embarrassing to be the American in the group having a drink and hearing about the latest.
I am old enough to remember when every year newspapers bragged about how more kids graduated from high school. And there was still a choice then when finishing high school of taking a decent job with a living wage or going to the university becoming a professional. I have seen people work harder to have less every year since I have been an adult. I was poor as dirt when I went to school and my student loans equaled the equivalent of two month's pay, when I got out of school from one of the best universities in the country. Chew on that youngsters.
My daughter has a job which requires a university degree, and she cannot even pay to have her baby included on her health care plan. She had to sign up for government-subsided health insurance. Still at great financial hardship to her and frankly rather appalling--ever single well-baby checkup he has had has been postponed because there were not available appointment times. He got all of his immunizations late. That's standard these days, if they are still lucky enough to get them at all. But there is no shortage of money for Bush to try to take over another country.
I am not a pacifist and I find what this country does and their justifications for it appalling (nauseating really).
I have my pitchfork ready, come the revolution,
I spent my entire life fighting for social justice and I am exhausted, only to see it go downhill. I'm overweight and have a bad knee but I have my pitchfork ready also, but it is pretty pathetic to think that I have to be the one wielding it.