July 15, 2008
by Philip A Farruggio
You know, guess what? Yeah, I am ' mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore ' to quote the character Howard Beale from the film Network . So, I write columns like this one ( 4 or 5 a month ) , I write letters to the editor, and I do the single most important thing I do with my life: I stand on the street corner of my town in peaceful protest.
Sadly, after 5 years of this travesty in Iraq , at a cost of over 600 billion of our tax dollars, I am lucky to attract 4 or 5 to stand with me each week. For the rest of the ( literally ) thousand drivers that cruise by our corner protest........ Silence!
Tell me, because I guess you can call me stupid or ignorant of the great American public and how it thinks. Tell me, what is it gonna take to shake up the majority of Americans who are not immune from this economic and cultural malaise? Does gasoline need to go over $5.00 a gallon, or even more local businesses need to close down?
How many additional layoffs nationwide will it take before hardworking folks finally say " I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!!" How many schools must be shut down; how many more families pushed out of their homes; how many of us must decide between a needed medical exam and clothes for the kid or food on the table? Am I exaggerating? Am I? How many food banks must go short of needed supplies to satisfy the growing army of the needy?
How many properties must be boarded up before we say the magic word Depression?
Yet, what really pushes my hot button is how many out there are oblivious to all the above. I mean, how many CEOs and top management folks need to earn in the mega millions before the 9 to 5 American says "Wait a minute, this is a bunch of crap! I can't even pay my mortgage, or fill up my gas tank, and these guys are living off of my tragedy!"
Enough is enough!
How rich do the insurance and oil and other private concerns need to get before Americans begin picketing the headquarters and gated communities where those corporate Fat Cats hide from the rabble? What will it take for we who sweat and strain to meet the next car or house or rental or credit card payment to finally demand from our elected officials " Do something, and quick , or I'll write in Mickey Mouse before I vote for you!"
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Look at someone like Ralph Nader, or the Green Party's Cynthia Mckinney. Read their respective platforms on all the issues suggested in this piece. See how they both agree that they both differ from the garbage served up on the plates of the two major party candidates.
In every instance, every single one, Nader and Mckinney stand for the working folks of this great nation of ours. Universal Medicare for all Americans, not some half hearted sell out to give the insurance companies continued power over our lives ( and the medical practitioners as well ) .
Getting out of Iraq.... Not in 16 months or 100 years..... Getting out ASAP and allowing the UN to do its job of giving Iraqis the sovereignty they deserve. Stopping the ( in Eisenhower's words, not mine ) Military Industrial Complex from forever bleeding our treasury with spending that does zero to protect America.
Taxing the super rich ( not those who are lucky enough to earn $ 300,000 or even one million a year- no, the real super rich who earn tens of millions ) and the big corporations. You know, mega conglomerations like Big Oil and Big Pharma and Big Insurance, who rake in big profits on the little guy's sweat and strain. How about this one: Move toward Public Funding of Elections , so that regular 9 to 5 Americans can actually have a ' level playing field ' to enter into public service. No private money in politics means to strangle the whole corrupt and underhanded system of Lobbying . No more promises of campaign donations means that a politician could now listen to the only voice in the ear that really should matter: one's conscience.
By the way, if Congress listened to Mr. Nader and Ms. McKinney years ago, we would now have a) vehicles that get 50 and 60 mpg, b) a truly independent and comprehensive investigation of what really went down on 911, and c) hearings of inquiry on the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, with ( by now ) indictments against some of the major players in that whole Lie.
As long as 4 or 5 or even only 10 or 20 stand on street corners across America, instead of the hundreds or thousands that could and should...... Silence! The fear is that when our great nation does go down like the Titanic, fascism will appear as it did in Germany circa 1930.
As the late great Jack Paar said: " I kid you not ! "
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Philip A Farruggio [send him email] is a free lance columnist, small businessman and activist. Since the 2000 elections, he has had over 90 columns posted on various websites and in many newspaper op-ed sections. To review some which have been shown, just google his name.
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