This exclusive focus on race in the Shirley Sherrod storyOr, as they say in that song, "The rich get richer and the poor get children....
exemplifies what we really can't talk about in America--which is
class. Shirley Sherrod said her realization in helping the
individual of another race was that the battle in this country is
between the "haves and have nots." How true. Except that it isn't a
battle. It is a massacre. Recent moves by a cowardly Congress that
can't even require transparency in television advertising, show
that the top 2 percent of America's wealthiest have effectively
destroyed any pretext of equality in this country that once prided
itself on a vibrant, innovative, enterprising middle class.
Well, say goodbye to all that. We can't even cover the Sherrod
story honestly, preferring to wallow again in the pain and self-
righteousness of our twisted heritage of white oppression.
Meanwhile the super rich nod thoughtfully, buy another home or
another wardrobe or two, and allow their kids to pursue again some
courses in graduate education--or party in the local bar--and get
richer.
Ain't we got fun?" Not much!
Still, today was a gorgeous day, especially in the morning until Mother Nature remembered it was supposed to be HOT and kicked up the thermostat. And Chelsea gets married tomorrow, thanks be. May all go very well with everything.
A good editorial this morning in the NYT shows how corporations have gotten obscenely rich by laying off workers in droves while making those that sill have jobs work harder with no raises. Yeah. Ain't we got fun indeed.
ReplyDeleteI hope I fixed the blog problem that you are having with my blog. Please let me know if it works now.
Darlene: Yes, Bob Herbert's "A Sin and a Shame"--wonderful column, but scary. When will we wake up and stop this adoration of the top income brackets? Bush's taint is very deep. I hope we can pull ourselves out of it.
ReplyDeleteThat's the sad reality that we face today. I do hope though that these rich people will follow the footsteps of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet and give more money to charity instead of spending on something frivolous.
ReplyDeleteI find it appalling that we tiptoe around the edges of so many problems in our world that are caused by our having too many kids. Kids are wonderful; but, too many is too much strain on personal and national economics and on the earth, itself.
ReplyDeleteCop Car
Cop Car: I agree with you 100%, but I think it's not the number of kids per se...it's what we think the kids need to survive: more than two or three outfits of clothing, air conditioned cars and homes (and schools, in some instances), drive-up meals from places like Mickey D's. We've gone off the rails in what we think Mother Earth has to provide us with. One of the local libraries in these parts has just dumped 1/3 of the titles in its collection--why? to make room for computers so kids can "learn" online. Never mind that 1/2 of the online activity kids do is play games!! Worst of all, the library in question hasn't even begun to plan the renovations or calculate the space needed, but they're already dumping the books. I'm glad I won't be living another 73 years. Books have been my friends since I was 3 years old. We had no books in our house, but my mother took me to the library every week, sometimes twice to take out as many books as we were allowed. Now they want to toss them so kids can hang out online and play games? argh.
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