Email from my older (Republican by habit) brother:
Bear with me for a bit while I cry in my beer. I read that AT&T has received FCC approval (contingent upon a two year agreement to maintain "network neutrality") to reacquire Bell South making the "new" Ma Bell once again the largest telecommunications company. Only Qwest and Verizon remain outside the corporate framework. Now I have to ask it. What was the purpose? What was the purpose in tearing apart the "old" Ma Bell and dumping tens, yes hundreds, of thousands of people like me on the bricks with no prospects of any further employment in the telecommunications industry and absolutely no help whatever in finding new careers? What was the purpose in wrecking our career and retirement plans beyond repair? After twenty-four years of scrabbling and scrapping and bankruptcy I finally am making the same wage I was when "Divestiture" loomed on the bleak horizon. But now I have no health insurance plan, no life insurance, no vacation and holiday benefits, and no retirement nest egg. I drive a 37 year old car with no hope of ever owning a new vehicle. The "Information Explosion" has left me unable to even afford cellular phone service which is one of the supposed benefits of divestiture! Now, again, I have to ask, "What was the purpose?" Pardon me while I say God damn the United States Justice Department, the Congress and the Federal judiciary!
My response, from the gut and first thing in the morning, before the coffee woke my inhibitions:
Was thinking about you while reading about the Baby Bells being gobbled up by Ma again. Not much consolation, but same results (via different accounting and merger tricks) happened to hundreds of thousands of workers in hundreds of different fields.
Decades ago, I came to the conclusion that the huge corporations were taking the reins of the republic firmly in their greedy little palms. When the Air Traffic Controllers got their union effectively busted, I knew the unions were gonna get trounced everywhere and the American worker would soon find him/herself in an America that was fast becoming a Third World Nation. Oligarchy isn't pretty, but it is what we have been hurtling toward on the fast track.
People used to tell me I was a raving paranoid. How I wish they had been right and I had been wrong.
No, this is not the nation you and I grew up in. Though we have our personal political differences, we agree on that.
De-regulation was NOT the friend American workers were promised. Treaties have been signed and consented to, by people from both parties, which effectively destroyed the whole concept of NATION. There are too many cases now where sovereign nations cannot enact laws which violate the desires of giant corporations.
Many things that went on were 'tests'. The REAL powers that be have been testing us like lab rats, to see just how much we will put up with. Sadly, the American people have rolled over far too many times. As a people, I am ashamed of us. We are NOT the hard driving, independent, SELF SUFFICIENT pioneers we once were. We are (the national we, not the you and I we) a sad shadow of people THINKING we are NUMBER ONE when we have fallen far from it. We are a people of sheep, in too much fear and too easily distracted.
We are the people Franklin warned us about... willing to trade liberty for the illusion of security, deserving neither. We have willingly followed the illusions presented to lead us to ruin.
Workers in all the big, 'safe' fields have been clobbered. Small investors, living frugally and putting savings in stock to provide for their old age were sold up the river by overpaid CEOs who were more concerned with Quarterly Reports so they could sell more stocks than they were with running companies that made things or provided services. Cut cost, increase profits, sell the paper, fuck the workers that made the company even possible.
Yeah, those CEOs were selling their own shares while still selling the concept of how great an investment it was to workers and retirees.
The crooks have been running things, my friend. There is no America anymore.
And with only 160,000 jobs created last month, with not the security and benefits jobs were supposed to hold back when you and I were young, there is only a future in olive drab for too many young people. It is NOT a volunteer military when offspring of the poor and middle class have no other option.
China owns our ass. There is no money for the needs of people and the infrastructure that once made this nation the envy of the world and now crumbles. There is plenty of money for ventures that seem little more than a means to funnel funds from working taxpayers to the huge corporations that have been screwing them since the 80s.
America? I heard about it once, long ago. Perhaps it was just a myth, like Camelot. Perhaps it was a place once. But it doesn't exist anymore.
And to the agents of the REAL POWER, those who work for the Corporatists and are so afraid we will wake up that they have to read our email and now our USPS mail, I say, bite me. Come and get me, because I will not close my eyes to what is happening. Nor will I silence my voice. I have rage at what has been done to my nation, my people, and I will speak truth.
I understand your rage, I really do. And I understand just how universal the travesty has been. It goes much further than any Bell, large or small. I figure Gompers and the Founding Fathers are all spinning in their graves. If we could harness THAT power, we could throw out Big Oil and all the extraction companies!
And I fear for the world our children and grandchildren have left to them.
I do understand the anger. I share it. I saw it coming long ago. I was called insane. I wish that had been the case.
All I can offer is that one must not let anyone else define them. They can take ALL else away from any, or all, of us. But only we can allow them to define us and defeat our spirit.
Take what joy you can from the simple miracles that still abound and most are too blinded to see. Join me in my insanity of knowing that life is cycles, and this too shall pass. Of course, it is likely WE will pass first, but in the huge expanse of what has been and what will be, NOW is a very small thing. Might as well savor what is good about NOW and let others' definition or what is or isn't success fall off you like the water off the duck.
You have worth. They cannot take that unless you give it. It is scant comfort sometimes, but it is REALLY all any human has. There are so many with so much less. That is not a surrender to the powers which only take, it is just fact.
You have worth. This day has worth. The sunrise is beauty. Your sleeping spouse is a grace and a gift beyond measure. The love and respect of our children is a wealth some never know. The sunset is a holy thing. The dark of night holds the magic of hope.
The sun rises again.
I love you. You have worth. They can't take that.
Back in the darkest days of the hell of divorce, I found a word in my heart that I had been seeking to explain to myself and others why the pain was so sever that death was preferable. The word: DEVALUED. I felt that the person I trusted most, believed in most and cared about most had DEVALUED me.
I finally came to realize that I was still quite valuable, a rare gem in fact. If he didn't see my value, it was his loss, not mine.
It applies. Have righteous rage against the greedy bastards and their soulless tools in politics that take from those who work so hard and then crush them. Speak truth about and TO power, for that is our obligation as AMERICANS. But never, NEVER let them trick you into feeling devalued.
You have worth. It is beyond measure. But is does not protect any of us from the daily struggle for survival. And prosperity is just a myth they advertise so they can sell those worthless pieces of paper on Wall Street. There is no prosperity. There is only what is and the real problem is that human nature gets in the way of fair disbursement of the resources.
A little brown man with only a loin-cloth and a root to eat today has value. Even when the huge corporations come, take his land, his water, his right to save and plant seeds, he has value. The trick is, learning to take enough nourishment from that fact to survive and find ways to laugh each day.
It isn't for sissies, and America has become a breeding ground for sissies who fall for the myths and devalue themselves when they fall short of impossible tasks. The deck is stacked against us. Always has been.
Our sister, ####, did pretty well, professionally. She worked her ass off, learned, paid for more learning, worked in a manner where others did better too. In the end, she got fucked royally too, by the company she made millions for, and with the tacit approval of many subordinates she ensured would have a better life.
It isn't just you. It isn't just the Bells. It's the fact that corporations have rights and we don't. The system is insane, your and I are OK. But, yeah, the hurt is real and horrible. Just don't let it define you, or they really do win.
You have value. They are built on feet of sand. Cycles are a constant, as strange as that sounds. Sometimes humankind is humane and kind. Sometimes, not. Dark ages happen. Seems we are heading there again. Cycles. We won't see the next one, you and I, but it will come anyway.
And you have value.
I love you very much. Much of what I know and how I define MYSELF is based on things you have taught me. I have taught others. Your value is a benefit to others you will never meet and those closest to you. That is why we must keep trying a little every day. You never know when the ripple you make may be part of an important wave.
You have value.
But, your baby sister got very old and bitter before her time. Once that passed, I learned to be more at peace and it was easier to find some happiness. Let there be anger and know there will always be hard work, but see the beauty and define yourself. It is how we each prevail against the monsters that will devour us. Nobody gets out alive. May as well be what we are and not what we are told.
One of my favorite DUers, merh, wrote a post long ago about impact. It is worth bookmarking and reading on days when you feel like a failure or that the good fight is not worth waging.
((((((((Ripple Effect)))))))))No matter what the Idiot in Chief says today, no matter what wall you may find yourself against today, remember that YOU HAVE VALUE. Define yourself rather than measure yourself to any mythical standards meant only to control you.
Define yourself.
Have a great day, DU. I love you very much.
hm
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
