I Don't Want To BE Negative, I Just Am

I was raised in a white upper middle class Conservative family.  

My parents grew up during the Depression, went through WWII and came out on the other side to become part of the working middle class who elevated themselves financially.  Their early experiences may have shaped their thinking but they also had help from the Federal government thanks to numerous social policies implemented including the Social Security Act and the GI Bill.  

White people in this country were all pretty much in the same boat so I don't think they faced the obstacles the white middle class now faces.  My parents' prejudices, particularly my father's, stemmed from poverty.   For some, prejudice allows people to feel better about their station in life because there is somebody or another class of people over whom they feel elevated.  It's twisted but I think it's true. 

I was raised to believe I would have a better life than my parents because it was supposed to be that way.  Of course, it wasn't that easy and I was quite surprised by the low paying jobs I had to take when I graduated college.  Somewhere along the way,  I began to change my thinking.  I had experiences.  To paraphrase John Lennon, "life got in the way of my plans."  I became a Liberal, criticizing Nixon, Viet Nam, the Establishment, racial discrimination.  We moved east to rural Kentucky, south to Virginia, experiencing other regions and cultures and a lot of severe poverty first-hand.  My husband became a social worker.  We did volunteer work.   I knew the U.S. had the resources to eliminate poverty and help others achieve the American Dream but it always seemed in the near distant future.   That was back in the Seventies.  Now, in the 21st Century, it is farther away than ever.  

I don't understand people who have so much and don't want to help those who do not.  I don't understand the lack of obligation to others less fortunate, whatever the reason.  I don't understand ANY sense of entitlement.  I've worked hard to have a good career but I know it is luck more than hard work that has kept me employed.  I'm not that smart.  I am that lucky.

We owe all children an education. College should be a given.  We are still one of the wealthiest countries in the world yet we have a 19% poverty rate??? Inexcusable.  We pay farmers to destroy food crops when starvation is rampant throughout the world?  We can't deliver food, medical supplies and the like to people under seige without its falling into the hands of pirates who'll steal and sell it?  We give politicians, the very people who won't help us solve our problems, great benefits like health insurance and a lifelong pension? Our priorities are so screwed up.  

Let's hope "Occupy Wall Street" is the beginning of a tidal wave of non-compliance towards the people who don't care.  We can make them care if we really want to.

Class Warfare???

I don't understand this "class warfare" sound bite coming from the mouths of members of the GOP.  It's a catchy phrase, to be sure, but in the context it's used, it seems oxymoronic.

The term expression now used by many politicos on the Right is a refutation of  the tax proposals put forth by the President last Monday.  President Obama wants to tax anyone making a million dollars plus to pay at least the same effective tax rate as many of those who work for them.  Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

There was a hue and cry from the GOP with (R) Rep. Paul Ryan leading the charge with his own tax program "which would slash taxes for the rich as well as funding for food stamps and other low-income assistance programs".  Huh?  When asked if he was engaging in his own "class warfare", his said

“...the president is using rhetoric that divides people, that preys on people’s sense of anxiety, fear, envy.” He said: “what we’re trying to do is appeal to people’s sense of hope, aspiration. We want an equal- opportunity society. We want a society of upward mobility, and that is what we’re striving for.”

Wait.  Whose hopes and aspirations is he talking about?   Upward mobility?  Right now, many of us would be happy with a job, food on the table and a permanent place to sleep.

Speaker of the House Boehner was not to be denied his moment in the sun; of course, he always looks like he's been in the sun.  

“I don’t think I would describe class warfare as leadership. The government has a spending problem and I don’t believe it makes any sense to tax the people we expect to invest in our economy.”

Uh, that would be a shitload of GOP supporters and opposition to environment protection, social welfare and less government oversight like the billionaire Koch brothers.

They couldn't possibly mean these people.  The ones the US Census Bureau say are now 46,000,000  strong in what is still considered by many the "richest country in the world":

The pain was not evenly distributed, however. Black households suffered the greatest decline, losing 10.1% of household income since 2007. Those over the age of 65 saw household income increase by 5.5% since 2007.

Roughly 9.4 million individuals have lost their full-time jobs since 2007. There are roughly 6.6 million fewer men in the full-time workforce and 2.8 million fewer women.

The national poverty rate has hit 15.1% of the population now lives in poverty — up from 14.3% in 2009 and from 12.5% in 2007. 

The Census reports that 46.2 million individuals now live in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009. This is the highest number of people living in poverty since statistics were first kept in 1959 — a 52-year highRead more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/census-report-income-down-poverty-up/5140/#ixzz1YobLjsa6

You get the idea.  And the idea is we, the people of the United States of America, are circling the downward economic drain while the country burns and the GOP, lobbyists, bankers, corporations and Wall Street fiddle.