We The People - Confessions of an anti Government Zealot

I wrote this piece December 12th. As I reflect on the tragic shootings in Arizona, and pray for the recovery of Congresswoman Giffords - I am mindful that one can distrust this government, believe it is corrupt, owned by corporate interests, incapable of big things, yet the solution is not violence - yet given the conditions outlined below, I feel blood will continue to flow -

We the People – America’s bloodless Revolution

we are putting faith in a broken and corrupt system.... a system where our government all 3 branches are wholly owned subsidiaries of global corporations.....only able to produce change lite...but seductive enough to draw in the American public into an electoral process by identifying charismatic candidates who can raise expectations, hopes, and money.....in 2008 it was Barack Obama....this system needs to be blow up.....how can that be done?....only by we the people - the steps to revolution can only come via a population that is either not programmed or de-programmed - so no you are not venting...u c the emperor has no clothes

In my 2003 poem"Black Power - Yeah Right"

I wrote

Our blindness energizes the new world order, Babylon’s daughter

We all say we want a better world, we pray about it, we talk about it, we blog about it, we march about it, we vote about it, yet despite the massive amounts of energy and resources expended in this country, we are slipping deeper and deeper into an abyss. Yet what is most frightening is the degree that now instead of laying face down execution style and taking a bullet to the brain, we now gladly take the gun from the executioner and do his work for him. We are smiling gleefully as we pull the trigger, and squeeze off a round ending our lives. I recently re-read Running Blind by Lee Child whose man character Jack Reacher was on the hunt for presumable a serial killer who was on a killing spree but leaving no evidence at the crime scene, but all of the women died by swallowing their tongues. Jack Reacher and the FBI were puzzled because their was no sign that these women were forced to do kill themselves in such a painful and frightening manner, until the end when they learned that the killer was an FBI trained hypnotist. So she hypnotized the victims and they followed her instructions to their demise.

Fiction or not, the Lee Child narrative effectively captures the plight of America today. I would image that astute archeologist of a future century would look through rubble of the American carnage and say wow! Cause of death mass suicide, brought on by congestive brain failure. Those same archeologist would then begun the work to deconstruct America’s unraveling, and what they would find was that same symptoms that brought down other empires, but in America’s case they would be amazed at the accelerated pace of America’s demise. Where would they start? Perhaps it would be the de-evolution of the American mind which has succumbed almost in whole to processing information, not by engaging critical thought, but by accepting as read, information that is downloaded, streamed, or pitched on television. As a sedentary nation bonds more and more with the internet and television, the best we can come up not is the ability to mimic often chapter and verse what TV talking heads and internet bloggers put out there. As a result the American public if often looking the wrong way, at the wrong time. As the mass media defines what we should like, what we should eat, how we should look, and most importantly what we should care about, we abrogate our power to decide our own priorities. The human fragilities of over consumption, living beyond our means, keeping up with the Jones, have been part and parcel of every society in some form or fashion since time immemorial. But the undue influence of the mass media, now accelerates, and spreads the gospel that self worth is tied to owning things, like a deadly virtual wildfire. There was a cellular telephone provider whose commercial that was played during last year’s NCAA Basketball tournament is dispositive on how the media creates neatly ties one’s self esteem to the capacity of his mobile device. In this commercial four friends are communicating by telephone discussing the latest basketball game. As the commercial ended, it was clear that one of those friends, by appearance a well to do young black man, did not have the same capability on his phone, the commercial ended with a close up shot of this man’s down casted face. At a macro level, media images and clever marketing campaigns have helped usher in American consumer debt, a rise in bankruptcy, foreclosures, and the ticking time bomb of sub prime loans that exploded with a viral impact on this nations – as well as other’s economies.

In the 20 so months of the Obama administration the mass media has had us gripped and dialed into the inside the beltway death match that included the President versus the Republicans, as well as the President waging war with his own party. At the same time I often wondered how many of us have made significant lifestyle changes on our own accord? How many of us, realize for example we – not Congress or the President have the ultimate control over our own health? How many of us realize that we – not Congress or the President have control over our personal budgets, and budgetary choices?

How many of us, realize that we – not Congress or the President have the ultimate responsibility for our children’s education, our neighborhoods and communities, and our future? Yet what is most frightening is the manner in which the media though all of it’s outlets continue to frame our political system as functional, how despite the fact that by all accounts our government at the national level – all three branches have been reduced to becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate interests – both domestic and international – yet our system of government is still sustainable.

America is changing; the baby boomers are aging at time when Social Security becoming an unsustainable burden on our national budget. The unresolved plight of twelve million Hispanics threaten the social fabric of several communities, and challenge an impotent national government to respond to them. Millions of middle class white Americans face in their mind, threats both real and imagined as they see this no longer the world of 1959. Large federal and state deficits undercut safety nets, aging infrastructure, school systems, and the capacity of state and local governments to function. Those at the top of the pyramid are hoping American’s addictions, obsession with the lives of others and general slugginess, will allow them to continue their game of smoke and mirrors, as the rich get richer, and on the surface a slumbering nation appears to be ill equip to change the dynamic, and reject at large a failing system, and by any means necessary seek as this countries founding fathers did, a new nation.

Yet in America smoldering is a new fire, a new spirit of 1776, waiting to happen. It may not happen in ten years, or twenty years or even in my lifetime, but it will happen. This is a nation of people, and ultimately they will awaken. Our governments inability to resolve big issues, while at the same time losing lives, and resources in foreign wars, will ultimately force and awakening and with it, a revolution of the spirit. Will there be blood? Consider the history of how the status quo has responded to the awakening of the human spirit. Two thousand years ago, a man was crucified, as his revelations challenged both the Jewish and Roman centers of power. Josef Stalin killed of his own Russian citizens in an attempt to control, power. In the sixties change agents from John F. Kennedy, to Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King were all struck down, in order to pave way for America to assume the mantle of imperialist power from a battered Europe.

In the last year of Dr. King’s life he began to expand his message to connect the explosive dots of poverty in America both black and white, to poverty in third world nations. His death April 4th 1968 came one year to the day after his searing indictment of America and its role in Vietnam. The sixties a decade in America that started with President on the cusp of a new frontier ended on the cusp of revolution. That revolution never happened - primary because of the striking down of its leaders, but more importantly the manner in which the status quo moved to begin to create the illusion of inclusion. Whether by accident or design, many of those whose eyes sparked with revolutionary fervor in the sixties where now brought to the table, off went dashikis and afros, replaced by three piece suits, and low cut hair styles. Hippies ended their “summers of love” and rejoined the corporate world of their parents. Black folks left the inner cities in droves, now armed with college degrees, PHD’s and other advanced degrees. With the smoke of the sixties now in America’s hindsight, seeking a new hero to revitalize an American image that took a hit from both Vietnam, and Watergate, Ronald Wilson Reagan stood astride the Oval office, and behind the toothy smile, the warm benign visage,  created massive debt, destabilizing Latin America, and ushered in crack to America's vulnerable urban centers. At the same time, the internet was taking form, which would ultimately usher in both an era of prosperity under the Clinton administration, but cause information to spread at an exponential level.

On January 20th 1993 when William Jefferson Clinton took the oval office, America was now a quarter of a century removed from Martin Luther King’s assassination, and black America was looking ahead – not back. At the same time, a new generation of blacks under the influence of “hip hop” listened to rap music from groups like Public Enemy and Tribe Call Quest, which brought with it a new wave of black awareness. Gangster rap rooted in the South Central LA rap groups like NWA, and  Tupac Shakur were now challenging the status quo both black and white with their music.

Other blacks were under the influence of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan who in October 1996 led a massive “Million Man March” day of "atonement" which promised to bring about a sea change in the attitude of black men, and with it a new sense of personal accountability. A few years earlier young blacks erupted in Los Angelas as a jury acquitted Los Angeles Police officers whose video taped beating of Rodney King, became the first true moment of the video new world. Now almost twenty years since the Million Man March and the Rodney king beating, many young blacks continue to lag behind in almost every category save prison sentences. Many young blacks have become disaffected, and disillusioned even with the presence of a man of color in the White House. Yet as our federal debt grows larger, and predicted budget cuts will impact those on the lower of the economic scale, while the inner cities burn while Washington dithers? The last twenty years conversely have had a different effect on America’s middle class.

On the watch of President Clinton America’s financial institution begun strides to shred some of the regulatory shackles that prevented them for risky misadventures, began to expand their credit portfolios, therefore opening lines of credit to Americans that heretofore would not be eligible for it. In home loans for example the credit – debt ratio of 28:36 was an industry standard. Meaning, your debt prior to the purchase of a home could not be more than 28 percent of your income, and your debt as a percentage of your income could not go above 36 percent after the purchase of the home. Now lenders by expanding that ratio to sometimes 28:40 were opening the floodgates for new home purchases, to buyers that were ill equip to handle the debt – in short subprime loans. These new homeowners then were seduced into using their home as an ATM machine, which fueled an overheated economy fueled on bad debt.

That all came to a crash on September 17, 2008. When the crash came, it took with, it iconic companies like Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers, as the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, and both Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain were all swept away in the madness. But more importantly the crash depleted pension funds, 401ks, and brought lending almost to a halt. Suddenly Middle Class America had a wake up call, as the economy tottered, many Americans – especially white Americans faced fear on several fronts. Job loss, the specter of an emerging China, and India from the East, 12 million undocumented Hispanics at home, the ongoing war with Islam, and a Black man in the oval office, all gave rise to a political phenomenon called the Tea Party. Funded by conservative extremist like the billionaire Koch brothers, many of these ulber conservative groups challenged both Republican and Democratic incumbents – although their success was mixed, they served notice that gave both parties pause. As anger, disillusion, fears, reaches a critical mass, how will Americans respond? Many will undoubtedly continue to seek a political solution, but what about the rest – when the awakening takes place, will it bring with it the spirit of 1776, or has America become so dumbed down, we will all be asleep as America loses its thorny crown?