marichiko

It is the job of government to "promote the general welfare" of its people. What is the one thing that makes a country properous? Natural resources such as petroleum, minerals, precious metals, arable farm land can help a country achieve prosperity, but it is the people of the country who must act to ensure that prosperous conditions prevail. Countries without many natural resources can still be prosperous. Look at Japan. Look at Switzerland.

The United States stands alone among other Western nations in the lack of assistance it gives to its people. Why is this? Because our national subconscious still accepts a paradigm of the United States that ceased to be valid at least 50 years ago. Still, in the back of the mind of every American citizen we view this country as our Pilgrim ancestors did - a vast land of opportunity where anything was possible, and with enough hard work we could achieve our dreams. Our children are still taught to lisp the words of "America the Beautiful": "Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains' majesty above the FRUITED plain."

The reality is that America has become a land of limits. It stops at the Pacific ocean. There is nowhere else to go (except to seize power in other countries, of course). The complexity of the modrn world has made education a necessity, not the comparitive luxury it once was when there was always simple (if hard) work on our farms and factories. Today the family farm has given way to agribusiness, and our factories have been outsourced to China, our technology is being outsourced to India. Our economy is vitally dependent on petroleum largely extracted from an area of the world which hates us. The extended family unit has vanished and its every man or woman for themselves.

Middle class America does not want to recognize these things. Nobody likes paradigm shifts and Americans are no different from anybody else in this regard. Life is hard enough, supporting our families, going to school, trying to do a decent job at work. And Americans ARE a hardworking people. The Protestant work ethic has been bred into us and we are suspicious of people who we perceive as not sharing that ethic.

We look at our paychecks and see that the government is skimming 1/3 right off the top for something called "FICA" - that's welfare, or social security, or entitlement programs - however you want to look at it. That notation "FICA" is one of the biggest lies the American government tells its people. That money is supposed to go to the social security fund. Instead, it goes to every government boondoggle imaginable, all in the name of the poor and disabled - the group least able to speak out for themselves.

People attack this misuse of their money by blaming the disabled and the poor and the elderly. Their idea of government accountability is not to demand that the government spend this money on what it was intended for, but rather that the government throw our old people and our disabled to the dogs.

Even if Radar were elected president tomorrow and Wolf and Smooth Moniker were made members of his cabinet, and the old and disabled were thrown to the wolves, the rest of you who live in the states would see little difference in your tax burden. That's because so little of what you pay in taxes actually went to social programs in the first place.

I sometimes wonder what Radar and company would do about the elderly and the disabled. The cities in America already have a large number of homeless people wandering about, sleeping on sidewalks, holding up signs at intersections that read "Please help." They are not only a nuisance and unsightly, but an embaraasment when hosting foreign businessmen and dignatories. Should Radar ever become president, my suggestion is that he order out the army and have us all shot. As someone who has been homeless with no medical care and little food, I can assure you all that this would be the most humane solution. Put us all out of our misery and do so quickly, so that you all can be proud to be Americans again. Get rid of your people.

There is a picture which I have seen hanging in an office somewhere which has burned itself into my memory. It shows a man with a hard hat and engineering plans spread out in his hands. He is on a construction site and he sits in a wheelchair. Underneath the picture is a caption which reads "America needs ALL its people."

I have two graduate degrees. I spent the better part of my life as a librarian and a college teacher. I loved my work and I worked hard. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been given the opportunities I was given. I want to give back what I was so lucky to obtain. I have over 20 years experience in my profession and a love for young people. I want more than anything in this world to stand on my own two feet and be a productive member of society again. Thanks to an unfair divorce settlement and my own stubborn refusal to ask for help (I considered applying for disability a major personal defeat), I went through every penny I had and I had no medical insurance. I had to fight the government for 5 long, bitter years just to get the medical help I need. Even now, I can't find a neurologist who will accept Medicaid.

As far as I'm concerned, its like taking a well made Swiss watch worth thousands of dollars and throwing it in the trash for lack of a $2.00 battery to refuse to help a person like me with my background and education and desire to work. I am not so arrogant as to believe that I am that unique. There are many, many other people just like me in this country who simply need a hand reached out in encouragement - not some hand out.

Radar and Wolf and Smooth Moniker would rather throw us all in some human garbage heap than extend ten cents of their own money to help us. Its easy to feel animosity toward that alcoholic Vietnam vet with the "Please help" sign. Why doesn't he just sober up and get a job? Why should I have to support HIS drinking habit? This attitude gets extended to the disabled community in general. Unlike the faceless government beaurocrat who tells you lies and mismanages your tax dollar, you have a face to put on the poor. That drunk down on the corner. And of course, everybody has some story to tell about someone they knew or their neighbor knew or their cousin's neighbor knew who was outrageously milking the system. Well maybe they were, and maybe they weren't. Just how well did you know this person you tell the horror story about? Did you sit down and share a meal with them? Did you exchange the stories of your lives, your hopes, your concerns, the victories you won and the things that defeated you? Most likely not.

The middle class travels in a well protected bubble. All their friends have jobs and they went to school and they worked hard and they don't see why everybody else can't do the same. Too many of the American middle class are intellectually lazy; they lack the imagination; and most of all, they lack the courage to understand how what they have achieved might not be possible for some people.

There is a great deal of prejudice against the handicapped in America today. This prejudice is largely born out of fear which is mostly subconscious. People fear becoming one of "them." People want to think that their lives are secure, at least to some extent. They don't want to face the reality that bad things can happen to THEM. When they see it happen to someone else, it must be that person's own fault.

Goddamn you, Radar! Goddamn you, Smoothmoniker, Goddamn you Wolf! I'm no different than you. I'm a human being, too. All I ask for is a fighting chance and all you have to offer me is your smug indifference. I and every other American like me. I am here to tell you that what happened to me could happen to you. When you look at that man on the street corner if you have the guts to meet his eyes, you will see your own eyes reflected back at you. When you look in the mirror, it is my eyes and the eyes of every other American looing back at you. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."