The Very Nature of Snakes

A big deal, a magic phrase, a slam dunk in political conversations is the cry of "States' Rights". States' Rights supposedly trump anything those evil doers in DC want to shove down the throats of the innocent masses (who voted them into their cushy DC offices in the first place).

Things like public schools, an interstate road system, centralized postal service, safety standards for work places, helping those in need, NOT helping those in need- all that stuff is better served by states instead of nationally.

Fine. Great. Lets see what happens when you give the states more power.

Like in Michigan.

The state of Michigan's current politicians voted to allow the actual takeover of municipalities by the state. On the face of it, it means that if there is trouble resulting from a local election that must be nipped in the bud without causing chaos, the state can come in and yank a duly-elected public local official out, and assign a governor-chosen person in his/her place without recourse and indefinitely.

In practice, it means that if a city is not doing what the state thinks is right (or has the possibility of making a shitload of money for someone who has state politicians in their pocket), the state can usurp the entire city council and put someone in there more friendly to their cause.

Surely not?

Ask Benton Harbor.

Benton Harbor is a little town that has the (mis)fortune to be sitting on a lovely Lake Michigan-side park that was gifted to the town by a local family- to be used by the people of the town for free forever. A developer would LOVE to have that piece of property for "improvement"- making it into a resort complete with golf course, swimming pools, clubhouse, and surrounded by pricey little homes for wealthy retirees.

The people of Benton Harbor would be welcome to buy memberships at the schmancy club. For thousands of dollars a year. AND just look at all the jobs the new resort would supply for them. Not surprisingly, the people of Benton Harbor said "Thanks, but no thanks" after laughing their asses off.

They like their park the way it is. They are aware that all the new jobs would be as caddies or bartenders or maids and that none of them can afford membership to the club even if they wanted to rub shoulders with a bunch of old white people.

Or that they would even be allowed to.

Benton Harbor is mainly black.

Benton Harbor stood firmly in the way of someone's plan to make a shitload of money.

So Benton Harbor had to go.

The state stepped in and ousted the entire slate of locally elected officials and assigned a "City Manager" who, astoundingly and amazingly, is much more warm to the idea of the planned resort.

What to do?

Many of the same folks who holler "States' Rights!" also holler "2nd Amendment!" saying that if We the People have the right to bear arms, we'll always be free and no one can take our rights away from us.

So what happens in Benton Harbor?

They can't vote the new guy out- he's a state-appointed manager and CAN'T be voted out.

Can they take up arms and storm the state capitol?

Really? How will THAT be spun? When the entire BLACK population of Benton Harbor storms the state capitol demanding THEIR city park be left the hell alone?

What will happen ESPECIALLY if they're armed (legally and rightfully armed) when an angry mob comes up against say...the National Guard called in by the oh so terrified governor of Michigan cowering helpless and innocent in his mansion?

Remember Occupy?

It's still here- morphing and changing with the weather and the issues, but it's still here no matter what the Talking Heads like to tell you.

Occupy refuses to push back. And it pisses the hell out of those who just want it to go away.

We've already discussed the What, Who and Why of Occupy. Like them or not, they are not resorting to violence no matter how illegally their belongings are taken and destroyed, no matter how they are being herded into small areas and pepper sprayed, no matter how many are arrested without cause.

And I hold my breath and hope fervently that they don't. There are some who say they won't accomplish anything without violence. I say they are accomplishing much by the sharing of knowledge and the education of others.

Because what will happen if ONE Occupier throws a punch? Or a rock? Or brandishes a baseball bat much less a (legally carried)gun?

Benton Harbor suffers needlessly and without real-life recourse.

Occupy moves back and regroups instead of surging forward.

And the Other Side pushes and pushes and pushes in tiny measured increments, waiting for the moment someone somewhere can't stand the indignity and injustice and yells

"ENOUGH- this is bullshit!"

giving them reason to really show their stuff quickly, and precisely, and with deadly force.

My old neighbor, whom I loved dearly, came at my bidding one day. Ward was at work and Alec was tiny and the house wasn't yet renovated and there was a 5 ft. long rat snake winding his way up the wall and searching for a way in through the crack in the screen door.

I love snakes and am not afraid of them, but with a tiny baby I was irrationally squidgy.

I told Saint "You don't have to kill it- just get it off the house".

Saint said "Darlin'- if I come over there that snake will be dead".

So he came. With a hoe.

I stood there, baby in arms and watched Saint knock the snake off the house and proceed to hack away at it with the hoe. Because the soil here is mainly sand, even a mighty blow didn't make a clean kill.

After about 3 whacks, the snake, who'd just been trying to get away, turned and valiantly struck at the hoe (not Saint- just the hoe).

Saint said triumphantly "SEE??? See how aggressive it is?"

I said "Well, Saint- if you were trying to hack MY head off with a hoe I'd be a little annoyed, too!".

He never understood that reasoning.

Benton Harbor. Occupy. Rat snake.

I have a terrible feeling we will at some point be witness to "how aggressive they are" and it'll all be recorded and justified by the clips we see on TV.

Twelve Complex Questions, Twelve 10 Word Answers

The questions are valid and complex. The answers are purposely short to encourage thought, research and introspection without the trap of getting bogged down in party or social politics.

Because we're all supposed to be in this together- we all need to take care of each other, and leave our world better for our children and safer for our elders, even though and especially because in the end- not a one of us is getting out of here alive.

1) Why does Occupy want to turn us into a socialist nation?
It doesn't. We want capitalism that's accountable, regulated and moral.

2) Why don't those people grow up, go home and get a job?
Most Occupiers are over 40 and have homes and jobs.

3) So what the hell are they mad about?
OUR government being purchased to the detriment of the people.

4) Hey- if anyone in America really WANTS to work, all they have to do is go get a job.
Right. Over a million applied for 50,000 burger flipping positions.

5) If it's so bad here, why are illegals still flocking across the border?

They're not. Illegal immigration is at a 60 year low.

6) But we're in a tough economy- EVERYONE needs to sacrifice- share the burden.

Yes. Don't cut or eliminate ANY taxes- ESPECIALLY corporate taxes.

7) But those are the Job Creators- if we help them, they'll help us.
Seriously? When? In between moving the jobs and money overseas?

8) What's this "People Before Corporations" crap? Sounds communist.
Society is judged by how it treats its weakest members.

9) But this is America- home of the rugged individualist- survival of the fittest, gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet and all that jazz...

Tell it to your children and grandparents. Never get sick.

10) How can we have national universal health care? Who's going to pay for it? Through MORE taxes?
Taxes INSTEAD of your premiums. Do the math. It's horrifying.

11) Providing EVERYONE who needs and wants health care whether or not they deserve it? That just seems wrong and encourages sloth. I don't want MY money going to someone unworthy.
Who "deserves" highways, schools, police and fire protection, mail service?

12) My pumpkin pie recipe made more filling than I needed- what can I do with the extra filling?
Bread machine- 1 1/2c filling, 4c flour, 1 1/4tsp yeast. Pumpkin bread.

I'm Waiting To Hear From You...

I have not talked to one person who thinks that what's happening on Wall St. and in the board rooms and in our government due to elected politicians being purchased by special interest groups is right.

Everyone agrees that while if you make a lot of money you should be rewarded, there is also a basic morality that says using some of that money to buy your way out of paying taxes to the country that gave you that opportunity is inherently wrong. That all that money going to lawyers and accountants could be used for things like making your homeland better for "the little people" (also known as your employees and customers) would be a better way to spend the same fucking amount.

That people (human people just like you and who may even WORK for you) who make as much in a year as what falls beneath your sofa cushions should NOT pay a higher percentage tax than you do.

That the government should consist of elected officials who work for the majority of the electorate who voted for them, not just in numbers of campaign dollars donated, but by numbers of individual votes cast.

No one thinks our current system is working.

Everyone is aware that the American Dream is slipping out of reach for most people- home ownership that can be afforded on one income, safe workplace environments with fair compensation and benefits like health insurance and pensions, a strong and up to date infrastructure to keep this nation moving ahead- all floundering.

Everyone knows someone (or IS someone) who has faced unemployment, an unaffordable health crisis, the loss of a home due to sketchy lending, the disappearance of retirement money from the players on Wall St. Hell- just look at your paycheck (which probably looks much like it did 5 years ago) and look at your grocery receipt (which has gone up at least 1/3 even with frugal shopping).

So- problem.

Problem is that we, as in WE the Regular Workaday People are sinking, and fast.

The solution?

I dunno. You tell me.

The Tea Party had its humble beginnings co-opted by big money who have turned it into an angry circus for its own ends- protect the Big Money while crying for the "taking back and taking down" of the government. Basically a Big Corporation wet dream. The seed planted is "Well, I don't have anything today, but this is AMERICA and SOMEDAY I might be rich just like those fellers- how would *I* feel if people who "didn't deserve it" wanted some of MY hard-earned money?"

*Hint*- you'll never know that because you'll never be "them". Ever. Nothing personal, neither will I and I'm perfectly OK with that.

Having our voices and opinions heard in the voting booth is not working. If it WERE working, our president would've passed a health care bill with real meat in it (Single Payer Option) and all the republicans voted into office in 2010 would've been busy every damn day creating JOBS instead of woman-hating abortion laws, child-hating spending cuts to social programs, voter-hating punitive changes to requirements to vote and making sure everyone knows our country's motto is STILL "In God We Trust".

Because it's been that way ever since the Founding Fathers said so.

In the 1950's.

Because I guess they were time travelers.

Or something.

So what the hell do we do?

If our Constitution is ignored, and our votes uncounted, we must physically SHOW THE HELL UP...

as in Occupy.

Say, "Look- we're here and we're pissed and we're just letting you know it. In case you forgot about us. We are peacefully assembling without leadership from any one front and without funding from any huge entity and without fucking sidearms and threatening signs. Please pay attention because this is OUR America, too".

If that doesn't work (because it won't- we know it won't) we move our money. Individually we have very little- I think we've got $291 in our bank account right now- but en masse it adds up very quickly. Move the money out of the big banks and into locally owned banks (where ours has always been) or to locally owned credit unions. That gives the banks pause.

Only shop at businesses who are locally owned AND who bank at local banks- ask them, and follow through. That gives big corporations pause.

Singly we are tiny. Together we are huge.

And for that "I am the 53%" young person and all the folks who are passing that on as a response to the (very real) suffering of the 99%?

I'm happy you have work ethic. Actually we ALL have work ethic. Here's what I don't get.

Why are you content to accept that as your lot in life? Why do you think it's OK to have to work several jobs (without benefits) just to afford your crappy apartment and when the hell did it become the American Dream to wish that sort of drudgery existence on your children? Isn't the American Dream to give our children MORE opportunities, not train them to accept less?

Is it because Americans flat don't know how people live in other countries? Where things like Universal Health Care, FREE college educations, 4 day work weeks and at LEAST a month of paid vacation is the norm for EVERYONE? That we don't look at that because we've been taught

"THAT'S SOCIALISM- DON'T LOOK- THEY ONLY LOOK HAPPY AND RELAXED- THEY'RE ACTUALLY CRYING INSIDE AND WISHING THEY COULD WORK 40 HOURS A WEEK AT WALMART THEN ANOTHER 20 HOURS A WEEK AT SUBWAY TO BARELY SCRAPE BY".

So you don't think Occupy is the answer.

You think it's making a mess that Taxpayers have to pay for, extra clean-up, extra cops...lemme let you in on a little secret-

I'm a taxpayer. So is every single person at an Occupy. We'll be happy to pay for it, thanks for your concern.

If the videos coming in were from Russia, or the Middle East, or Africa, America would be hailing those citizens as patriots and we'd be sending troops to "help protect them". But HERE?

"Why don't they get a job?"

"What are they protesting?"

"Hey- the police ASKED them to leave (a public space)- if they got arrested/shot at/tear gassed they deserved it. Even the children and old people."

"DO THEY HAVE A PERMIT TO ASSEMBLE???"

Shut up.

You know there's something wrong, something very wrong. You know it in your gut even if FOX News keeps trying to make you swallow the bile down like so many cows over and over again.

You fear our country is headed for fascism, but are so trained to fear the WORDS "socialism" and "communism" you can't see straight enough to read what the concepts of them actually are and that there are many forms of each and not all of them have anything to do with dictatorships or theocracies. (spoiler alert- guest blogger coming soon to help you out with that).

You MUST make yourself believe that those unemployed, foreclosed on, newly-poor people did something wrong- misjudged, misspent, misused credit, slacked off at work, made bad choices, SOMETHING because if they really ARE victims of "shit just happens"...

it could happen to YOU. In a fucking heartbeat.

Don't like Occupy?

Tell me YOUR plan.