Well have you ever "over-commented" back on a string on Facebook? You feel sheepish afterwards but just had to say it.....
Just did it. Thought about deleting.....rewording....oops too late. Its not that I don't believe in what I said, its just that I shot a cannonball against a fly.
I won't divulge the chain leading up to it, and here is my post......like I said, I believe what I say but I should have saved it for elsewhere. Like here.
Never claimed to be smart.
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re: the racism comments: Wouldn't it be better if we sought common ground? Jeff at least admitted that their might be some racism leaking out.....a rarity... and there is often no admission or recognition of the racism that has the face of a patronizing attitude. What Jeff expressed is what is broadly taught about the poor and those that receive government aid. The truth is too inconvenient.
When you work with people at or below poverty level as often as I have day in and day out you are well aware of the racism in this society . What we are even more aware of is how much pain is inflicted upon the poor by the immediate polarization and name calling the right and the left resort to on issues that are really life and death for many people. I'm sick of it.
An underclass has been required by our economic and political structure for many years. Ever since Ronald Reagan made up the story about a Chicago welfare queen ripping off 150 thousand dollars and driving a Cadillac this urban legend fulfilled a craving by the non-poor to be able to look away without seeing. No matter that the story was proven to be totally false.
Ever since, somehow a mom with three kids to feed is worthy of scorn for receiving aid even though we glorify and promote an Ameican dream out of getting rich quick (so you can be lazy and do nothing) ...often on the public dole via sweet deals in the banking, mortgage, military and other industries, or by flipping property, or any other get something for nothing scheme. Do any of you out there claim you have not dreamed this dream and attempted to find some way get on easy street?
Insert into this dream-scape someone who hasn't got a job and has no milk in the fridge for their kids to drink in the morning and a disconnect notice on their electric bill (for what ever reason and I swear it is not always due to laziness or lack of foresight....middle-class and upper-class folks have more than their fair share of laziness and lack of foresight, btw) well many a person who is broke is going to feel totally stupid to not take up what looks like the best deal available. And often it is the only choice available.
Our courts have recently decided that corporations have the same rights as a person. They also ruled that money has equal treatment as speech. It is not just the poor who are not equally spoken for anymore. We are not a republic any longer, nor a democracy. We are a corporatocracy. We had a revolution accomplished without a shot fired....it was handed to them on a plate. The immediate polarization resorted to in this comment chain is what allowed corporatocracy to assert itself and is what has killed the spirits of many beautiful people. If we don't start seeking common ground now, not later, than we have killed our own hopes.
