No $$$, No Voice, No Difference

I have a multiple choice question for you, and I'd like you to choose the answer that makes the most sense from a human standpoint.

Funding to most programs in the United States has been cut by 5-8% from 2013 until 2021. You can choose to add money to one of them to ease the pain of those who use the program. Which do you choose?

• Head Start - providing early childhood education for infants/toddlers/preschoolers/children with disabilities, nutrition, and parenting skills to low income families.
• Meal on Wheels - providing hot meals to senior citizens who can't afford and often can't physically make meals of their own regularly.
• Work Study for College Students - providing students with a way to gain practical work experience while paying part of their tuition and avoiding student loan debt.
• Energy Assistance for Low Income and Elderly - providing assistance with energy bills during times of extreme heat and cold when many can't afford the higher bills. 
• Federal Aviation Administration - providing air traffic controllers who keep airplanes moving. 

Which would you honestly choose?

Last week I was appalled at the response the FAA furloughs received, simply because people who can afford to fly in airplanes have been inconvenienced by the austerity package, better known as sequestration, imposed upon us by our government. This idiotic plan called for across the board cuts to most federal programs in March 2013. What has sickened me is that as people with money and the voice to speak up have realized the cuts will affect them, federal dollars have magically appeared to exempt programs deemed critical - FAA, TSA, meat inspectors, border patrol agents. 

Meanwhile, those who have no money and no voice, those who rely on all the other programs, are continuing to suffer the devastating cuts. Food banks are losing funding, unemployment benefits are being cut, programs for low income housing are squeezed, school meal programs are being slashed, and more. 

And don't think it all ends September 2013. It doesn't. The poor are expected to suck it up and make due until at least 2021. That's right. If you hear that sequestration ends this September, don't believe it. We're in this for another 8 to 10 years unless our government takes action. What are temporary furloughs this year will become permanent layoffs next year, meaning not only services lost, but also jobs lost and more people added to the already long unemployment rolls.

If you currently have a job, house, car, plenty of food on the table, new clothes, shoes, and can go to the movies whenever you want, good for you! You're probably thrilled the FAA is no longer experiencing furloughs. But what if all of that went away tomorrow? What if you were faced with a crisis so large that it all disappeared? Think it can't happen? Many people are a job loss or medical emergency away from becoming low income or homeless. Ask the millions of people who are now low income if they honestly thought they would be where they are today. I'll guarantee you they don't want to be there.

So if that disaster hit you and you had nowhere to turn, wouldn't you hope there would be organizations and people in the community who could help you? Without the assistance of the programs that are being cut today, you would be in serious trouble. Those of us who have voices need to speak up. We have to make phone calls and write letters to Washington to let them know that children, seniors, and poor are just as important as people who can afford to buy a plane ticket. 

The Bad Guys Are Right Here

John Boehner,
U.S. Speaker of the House
and Leader of Evil

Steven and I recently watched the remake of Red Dawn. I'm not giving anything away by telling you the country that invades the United States this time is North Korea. One of the movies on our "Movies To See" list is Olympus Has Fallen. I've read reviews and surprise, North Korea is once again the villain invading us. Are they our new foreign "go to" baddie? If so, it doesn't work for me. I have news for Hollywood. I'm not as afraid of North Korea, or any country with evil intent, as I am of our own leaders. You read that correctly.

From my perspective as a middle class American, the people I had no choice but to vote into office (both Republicans and Democrats) are more of a threat to my way of life at the moment than any leader in another country. They seem bent on dismantling my world, piece-by-piece, starting with my job. The recent sequestration cuts have hit me directly. I'm facing the loss of a paycheck, which will affect how I budget my money and live my life. I'll feel fortunate if I come out of this in a few years with my job still in place. I wouldn't be surprised to see the program at which I work go away altogether, even though it successfully serves thousands of children and families across the United States, and makes a positive difference in their lives.

The bad guys aren't nameless people from a foreign land who don't speak English well. The bad guys were born and raised in America, and they were elected by us. The bad guys are men and women who are so far removed from every day American life that they have no idea what it's like to live paycheck-to-paycheck or have only enough savings to get them by for one or two months. They are people are have no financial stake in the outcome of the decisions they're making. They are people who no longer care about serving the middle and lower class citizens who elected them, but only care about furthering their own agendas based on beliefs that no longer fit a 2013 society.

The sick and sad thing is that we have built a political system in which we have no real choices. We can't elect individuals who would truly represent us anymore. The system is twisted so that only the wealthy or connected can run for office. Sure, a "middle class" person slips through now and then, but look closely and you'll see the strings attached to his or her arms and legs as wealthy backers manipulate them into doing their bidding.

It's hard to take Hollywood movies seriously when they have North Korea invade Washington D.C. and have a super cool good guy come to the rescue. No, I don't want North Korea to win, but at the same time, I'd like to see all the John Boehners and others be pushed out a few windows. I'm tired of them making my life miserable. I'm ready to see them pay, even if it's only a fictionalized version of them. I don't give a rip about seeing North Korea pay. That's what makes blow-em-up action movies fun. We want to see the bad guys that threaten our daily lives pay. So come on Hollywood. Make me a movie about the Senate and House taking a major hit and the U.S. having to start completely over with new rules. Maybe a nice political uprising with the working poor and middle class taking over for a change. We're smart. We know what needs to happen. I'd like to see that movie. Heck, I'd like to live that life.

And We're Surprised...Why?

We've all seen news about various Occupy movements around the country and the term class warfare has been tossed around by the likes of Speaker of the House John Boehner and others. Now generational warfare is the latest, as the Super Committee admits failure to come to consensus. Anyone who's surprised by recent events hasn't been paying attention.

For years Americans have arrogantly believed it was their right as citizens of the U.S.A. to build wealth and flaunt it. In fact, they felt they were entitled to it. Can't actually build wealth? Hey, it's OK. Just borrow money and pretend you have it to spend. It's what the U.S. government does. Instead of learning values from their parents, many American citizens learned them from a government that has continued to pretend it's still a superpower in the world. They learned from celebrities who ask for more and more for doing relatively little. They bought into the false belief that everyone who lived on U.S. soil was, for some reason, inherently entitled to wealth and "the good things" in life.

Is it really surprising then that when everyone came crashing down to earth, when reality finally set in, that people would be angry? The economy has failed. The losers are those who bought into the pretense of living beyond their means, those who simply wanted to have a piece of the American Dream of owning a home, and those who were unlucky enough to work for companies or government agencies that felt the need to begin massive layoffs to balance budgets or build reserves. In the meantime, people who have remained wealthy, those who actually had plenty to lose and still float in the deep end of the luxury pool, are living their lives as they always have; however, they're now perceived as the new super villains, along with government and corporations.

It was inevitable. Life as many people knew it was going to change, and not for the better. If people didn't see this coming, they were lying to themselves. I'm not an economist or a great world thinker, but I had conversations with people years ago about how it was all going to come crumbling down one day. It was inevitable.

I'm not going to delve into who's right, who's wrong, who needs to see the light, who needs to back off. I'm just surprised by the number of intelligent people who watched the same news I did, saw the same things happening in our country, and didn't see that one day we would be a country at odds with ourselves. Republicans vs. Democrats. Rich vs. poor. Insured vs. non-insured. Those with homes vs. the homeless. Well fed vs. the hungry. Baby boomers vs. Generation Z. The list goes on. The only thing I can't look into the future and see is how it's all going to end. I wish I could.

We need to look at ourselves, that includes me, and ask what our part in all of this is. We need to look at ways we can concretely create change. It isn't by pitching tents and sitting on sidewalks, waiting for a rogue cop to pepper spray us. It's by closing our wallets to big corporations and supporting our local small businesses. Transferring our money from big banks to local credit unions. Researching candidates and items up for vote before we cast our ballot. And actually following through and casting that ballot. Perhaps we need to remember the values our grandparents and great-grandparents had; those that focused on family, friends, and earning an honest living - not material possessions. Maybe we need to get back to the basics.