For many, whose dreams have been shattered, it’s a time for belt tightening, or worse. As I write this I've been listening to Bruce Springsteen and Judy Collins (yes, Judy also had something to say about the trampled masses). I'm a little wired, so I might curse. If that would offend, gentle reader, please jump over to Tom's Cats. However, if you are an Entrecard member, please feel free to drop your card before you scoot.
- Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
- Or is it something worse
My friend, a talented woman who has worked all her life, finds her situation is now real, real scary. She clings to a part time housecleaning job. She literally could soon be out on the streets. She was trembling as she told me that our state politicians are not going to recognize the extended unemployment benefits. Her dreams are nightmares, and they don't end when she wakes up. I sensed unspoken thoughts of suicide.
John McCain demonstrated that he had no real connection to the common man. He is not Joe (plumber or carpenter) anymore. It's also not Dick or Jane. We are a multi ethnic, a multi lingual society. Some popular names for babies in 2008 were Aiden, Jayden, Ethan and Jacob. I don't think these names came from a broad ethnic spectrum, but the point is that Joe is so yesterday. The average Jayden, the person sitting next to me on the bus or train, the couple ahead of me in the grocery store checkout or the guy at Dunkin Donuts that orders 15 coffees to go, is talking about one thing after they finish discussing the latest chapter of Lost or Life on Mars. Their jobs, or lack thereof.
When I was kid we were poor, but we worked. We weren't drowning, but we had to tread water like crazy 24/7. The kids sold papers once the training wheels came off the bikes. When strong enough, by the seventh grade, I started cycling the 12 miles to the country club to caddie. In my dad's eyes, the real poor were deadbeats. When dad lost his job as an accountant, he drove a truck and picked up laundry from the basements of the inner city restaurants. He carried a baseball bat with him to beat back the rats. He had to take his clothes off before he came in the house, because there always were cockroaches and vermin in his clothing. He was down, but not out. He had a job.
Rush Limbaugh is just making a mockery of our nation's problems.
Are Limbaugh's listeners not affected by the economic meltdown? Are there no former eBay customer service staffers, no front line casualties of the banking crisis - no unemployed bank tellers, or no "on the dole" call center marketing staff? Are there no formally well paid FedEx or DHL drivers listening in?
Most of us are defined (in terms of own self worth and value in the eyes of others) by one of two things. Our families and our jobs. We are loving mothers and fathers, caring husbands and wives, good brothers and sisters, and bakers, cooks, managers and teachers. It's been a 50% divorce rate for quite a while. Family values have been flushed down the toilet. MTV does not present a Dad of the year award. Take away our jobs and what do we have?
I hate what's going on with an equal opportunity anger. My anger is black and white, red and blue
- We've got nothing always had nothing
- Nothing but holes and millions of them
- Living in holes Dying in holes
- Holes in our bellies and Holes in our clothes
I don't like Harry Reid.
I don't like Nancy Pelosi.
Don’t get me started on George Bush. They all suck...I knew I'd curse! I warned you.
- We've got new generals
- our leaders are new
- They sit and they argue
- and all that they do is sell their own colleagues
- And ride upon their backs
Our new president seems to suffer from Jimmy Carter syndrome. My soon to be on the street friend thinks he's a good guy, maybe too good. He and his staff don't appear ready for the urban warfare of Washington politics. We don't need good. We need effective. We need someone who can raise the passion of the people to force the hand of the Washington machine.
This country can not afford four bungling years. Things are getting dicey in my neck of the woods. As much as my summer garden will need more applications of seaweed, I'm thinking I may need to put in perimeter sensors to keep thieves away. Who knows, if the downturn keeps up, I may be the one robbing a neighbor's food pantry.
Marat, friend of Robespierre, Jacobin deputy to the Convention, and editor-in-chief of L'Ami du Peuple, was a fiery orator; he was also a violent man, quick to take offense. Some saw him as an intransigent patriot; for others he was merely a hateful demagogue. Tough times call for tough leaders. Marat was the people's choice during the time of the French Revolution.
Bruce's average Joe, excuse me, average Jayden, goes out with a whimper:
- I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
- But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy
- Now all them things that seemed so important
- Well mister they vanished right into the air
- Now I just act like I don't remember
- Mary acts like she don't care
Judy's crowd go out with a bang. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, Marat was eventually assassinated while in his bathtub:
- Marat we're poor And the poor stay poor
- Marat don't make us wait any more
- We want our rights and we don't care how
- We want a revolution
- Now
You may also enjoy reading: A good crew of laborers is just as valuable as any other aspect of construction.
Also, may I recommend for your enjoyment: The puzzle that is me
Akira is a black and white serial manga or graphic novel by Katsuhiro Otomo. Set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, the work utilizes conventions of the cyberpunk genre to detail a saga of turmoil. Initially serialized in the pages of Young Magazine from 1982 until 1990, the work was collected in six volumes upon completion by Japanese publisher Kodansha. The work was first published in an English language version by the Marvel Comics imprint Epic Comics, one of the first manga works to be translated in entirety. Otomo's art on the series is considered outstanding, and the work is a breakthrough for both Otomo and the manga form. An identically titled anime film adaptation was released in 1988, shortening the plot, but with its structure and scenes heavily informed by the manga and its serial origins.
The manga takes place in a vastly larger timeframe than the film and involves a far wider array of characters and subplots. Through the breadth of the work, Otomo explicates themes of social isolation, corruption and power.
Akira – the character for whom the story is named. Designated "Number 28", Akira has immense, almost godlike, psychic powers, although from outward appearances he looks like a small, normal child. He is responsible for the destruction of Tokyo and the beginning of World War III, though this was probably unintentional on his part (he is so psychically powerful that simply teleporting can cause destruction on a massive scale) . After the war, he was put in a cryogenic chamber not far from the Heart of Destruction (the crater left by Akira's onslaught) and the future site of the Neo-Tokyo Olympic Games. When he first appears, we see that Akira has not aged in the decades he was kept frozen. Akira was inspired by the demon from the anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Saiyuki.Akira – the character for whom the story is named. Designated "Number 28", Akira has immense, almost godlike, psychic powers, although from outward appearances he looks like a small, normal child. He is responsible for the destruction of Tokyo and the beginning of World War III, though this was probably unintentional on his part (he is so psychically powerful that simply teleporting can cause destruction on a massive scale) . After the war, he was put in a cryogenic chamber not far from the Heart of Destruction (the crater left by Akira's onslaught) and the future site of the Neo-Tokyo Olympic Games. When he first appears, we see that Akira has not aged in the decades he was kept frozen. Akira was inspired by the demon from the anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Saiyuki.
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