How long have we heard that small business, the middle class, and the average working stiff are the backbone of America? Little in the way of economic calcium, as it were, has been afforded to keep this backbone strong. Meanwhile, the great corporate penis has been kept unfailingly erect with what can only be described as economic Viagra. Clearly there is a desperate need on the part of those clinging for dear life to this great phallus (or fallacy, take your prick - I mean pick), and as desperate is the need to keep the necessary pharmaceutical flowing.
I wish I knew what to do to protect me and mine from the simultaneous rage and insincere apology of the addicts who have run us and ours into the ground, those so intent on shitting on everything in sight and using the average American to wipe its ass. I wish I could stop corporate proctologists from breaking into our homes and breaking our asses. (No offense to real proctologists who seek to remove cancerous growths rather than bundle our asses up, repackage them as securities, and sell them to investors far and wide.) I wish I could keep the weight of a soon to be flaccid monster from landing on and crushing our every American dream.
I have no answers. I have only to live under the looming shadow of that which I was told was the Washington monument.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Diana, well put. You said everything I am feeling, and more.
2 - bliffle
Good article Diana.
3 - Cindy D
Diana,
When I took a black and white photography class years ago, I learned that the best photographs could be described with one word--compelling.
When I apply this to writing, I think the best writing can be described with one word--provocative.
To me, your piece is a perfect example of those things. That is some amazing writing. It has inspired me to think.
4 - Clavos
It has inspired me to think.
Damn, Cindy! You sure do leave some tempting straight lines... :>)
5 - Realist
Excellent commentary, Diana! I wonder if our neo-con co-contributors to Blogcritics would take your facts into account when they try to support the current economic conditions as being justified and correct. Somehow, I doubt it.
Your analogy of addicts and their addictions is an apt one. The only problem with this approach is that the tough love gets applied to the enablers and not the addicts. I don't know where the funds will come from to cover the losses and to support those whose retirement funds have been stolen, other than to come from those of us who played by the rules and did the things we were told were correct. Even we get to suffer the consequences.
As for wishing that the perpetrators experience asphalt reality at the end of a swift decline, why would you allow them the opportunity to escape the consequences of their actions? They should have to work all day and every day for the rest of their miserable lives at a soup kitchen which keeps the victims of their excesses alive. They should have to act as medics for those whose healthcare went into the kitty, and have to construct shelters for those who lost theirs. Maybe then they will have begun to atone for their sins. Maybe.
6 - Cindy D
LOL @ Clav :-)
7 - Ruvy
Diana,
Your article and that of Realist on Atonement may be the hopeful beginnings of a very hard look at what your country has done - both to the world and to its own citizenry.
It is not for me to draw up a moral inventory of what your nation has done. It is for you. You live there. And the courage to draw up that moral inventory, and the honesty that you draw it up with, is what will save those of you who survive the maelstrom that is coming our way.
I offer you the same advice that I offered him. Find a Yom Kippur prayer book and look up the detailed confession found there and learn it. Knowing it will serve you in good stead in the near future.
Have a good week,
Ruvy
8 - diana hartman
well ruvy, and realist for that matter, it is my firm belief that perpetrators of any kind (who have made it abundantly clear that is all they are and nothing more) are doing the world a favor by killing themselves...short of that, it should be our obligation to exterminate those who, again, have made it clear they serve (or will serve) no purpose but to exploit, rob and drain off of the rest of us...
there is no appropriate or rehabilitative punishment that will redeem the sordid - as there is no redemption...there is no penace, as they are not remorseful, won't change how they do things, and would do what they do again if/when given the chance...
let them -- they who would see us slammed into a wall and think nothing of it -- eat asphalt...if by their own hands, so be it...
9 - moon
Perhaps firing squads should be revived?
10 - Lisa Solod Warren
Beautiful work, Diana. Beautiful. We have missed you during your absence. You should send this around elsewhere....It's amazing!!!!!
11 - Xpressions
I agree, the socialist illuminati in our government have became so relax with welfare. It's a shame at all they are giving these people who have kids by deadbeats and drug dealers, and don't want to work. So we not only have to take care of our families, but their families as well. That is not fair, and it needs to be cut across the board!
12 - bliffle
Hmmm. Are the heads of our major financial institutions all "...deadbeats and drug dealers, and don't want to work."?