Brave Enough to Be It
“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations that’ve long since bought and paid for, the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and the information you get to hear…They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them.” – George Carlin, 2005
According to the latest Fed data, the top 1% of Americans have a combined net worth of $34.2 trillion (or 30.4% of all household wealth in the U.S.), while the bottom 50% of the population holds just $2.1 trillion combined (or 1.9% of all wealth). – Forbes, October 8, 2020
“It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club. …The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice… because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream, ’cause you have to be asleep to believe it.” – George Carlin, 2005.
Money has been spinning in my head for a while now. It started last week when I was asked to fill out the Morgan County CARES Act Grant Application; I had not applied for various reasons that would fill another bookworm. Then the media kept talking about the COVID relief packages. It seemed to me that most of the time the catch line went something like this, “Biden introduces $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that includes $1,400 stimulus checks.” The first relief package was $2.2 trillion. One million is one thousand thousand, one billion is one thousand millions, and one trillion is one thousand billions. Approximately, 160 million people received the first stimulus check, my math shows that as a total of $192 billion. 2.2 trillion – 192 billion = 2 trillion 40 billion. Do you see the problem I see? Maybe I am just a natural pessimist or maybe I am just too sensitive. It just seems to me that they list that stimulus check to offset where the bulk of the money goes. I also notice that a large portion of the population sees that check as a “welfare” or “bonus” check. It is neither, but yet it still feels a little like the old, “let them eat cake” line. Or should I say, let them buy cake.
It may surprise you to know that I understand why people wanted Trump to be president and why they were upset to see him go. They wanted someone different, someone that listened to them, but I believe Dave Chappell summed up what was really happening.
“The poor whites are my least favorites…I listened to them say dumb white people things,” Chappelle said of voters who headed to the polls. Imitating a Trump supporter, Dave Chappelle exclaimed, “Man, Donald Trump’s gonna go to Washington and he’s gonna fight for us.” “And I’m standing there thinking in my mind, you dumb (explicit word).” “You are poor,” Chappelle said, before adding of Trump, “He’s fighting for me!”
If you are reading this bookworm, you are not part of the club. We are being played. The saddest part is that we are fighting one another. Keep the peasants in a state of unrest so they keep their eyes off us. I don’t want to be part of the 1%, I don’t want us to all share that amount equally, but what I do want is for people to stop fighting. If you are going to fly your flag upside down, don’t do it over the election. Be well informed, well educated, think critically. Stop fighting the people in your community, they are not in the club.
“There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” – Amanda Gorman
Be the light folks, we deserve more.
Upcoming Events: 1/25 MOCO Warriors Support Group (zoom) at 6:30pm, 1/27 Story Time in the Community room (masks required for adults) at 10am