Politics in America

Regarding the post by Ken Kernaghan.

I believe that people who are so concerned about accumulating wealth that they conduct their affairs at the expense of ethical, fair, moral treatment of other people, have gone beyond being selfish and have become addicted. If we witnessed this behavior in an alcoholic or drug user it would be easy to understand that their behavior is the result of their addiction. Think about that and look at the way that many wealthy people treat those who do their grunt work, while they reap the profits of that work and see that it is an addiction.

I speak from the perspective of my personal experience. I drove an eighteen wheeler for 35 years. What the profit mongers have done to the trucking industry in the last twenty years is shameful! I drove a truck long enough to get over the idea that I was being paid to be a tourist. I understand clearly that driving is a job and I am one of those rare truck drivers with enough intelligence to understand that my “work” day should have a definite starting time and a definite ending time and that as a FREE Citizen in a FREE country that I am entitled to OWN enough of my LIFE and TIME to take a shower EVERY DAY! I am not saying that my day should start at the same time and end at the same time every day so don’t misinterpret my meaning. I am saying that I should not be forced to work 24 hours a day! When a boss can push you to the point that you cannot stop long enough to take care of your personal hygiene and you must carry your kitchen with you because you not only do not have the time to stop for a hot meal but you are not being paid enough to afford it, there is something very wrong here!

What can you expect from a nation that used the “Bible” to justify killing off the savages that this land actually belonged to so that we could steal their homeland? Again we used the “Bible” to brainwash people into believing that black people did not have souls and it was okay to own them and work them as we would a farm animal. People’s religious views were used in Germany to justify the attempt to exterminate the Jews. People’s religious brainwashing has been used to justify the oppression, abuse and discrimination of homosexuals for hundreds of years.

Don’t ever think that because someone has God on their lips and the Bible in their hands that that gives them the perfect justification to act out in a satanic fashion! Indeed, I worry the most about people who have God on their lips and the Bible in their hands because history has shown over and over again just how horrible people can behave if they have allowed themselves to be brainwashed into believing that their own personal horrendous behavior is “JUSTIFIED!” The crucifixion, the crusades, the witch hunts, and it is not all ancient history as these things are happening today in many areas of the world including Iraq.

I am not saying that all religion is bad. It is very much like people. It is the brightest of the bright and can be and has been the darkest of the dark. We could have peace on earth right now if everyone would just stop rationalizing and justifying their own bad behavior. There is no justification for my bad behavior, there is no justification for your bad behavior, and there is no justification for our bad behavior. What if people quit allowing their governments, religions, friends and families to lead them around like sheep? What if people woke up tomorrow blessed with the moral courage to dare to do no harm to another living soul? We would immediately have peace on earth because no government or religion would be able to influence a person to kill or abuse someone else. And there have been shining examples of people who have found this kind of courage. Gandhi and Martin Luther King are two of the more famous examples.

All that said I don’t believe that just because you are wealthy that you are addicted. There are a few rich folks who have a strong enough spiritual influence in their lives to maintain a healthy, balanced outlook on life. Oprah Winfrey comes to mind. She uses her wealth to do a lot of good in the world. Still, I managed to catch several episodes of her “Road Trip” and being a truck driver I could not help but chuckle at her “poor little rich girls” reaction to driving across the USA! She is a very “well behaved” little rich girl but she obviously has gotten accustomed to all the pampering that money can buy! I’m not saying that is bad, it seems to be human nature.

And in spite of all the lavish good things that she does … those things that bring her great publicity … I can’t help but wonder; how many minimum wage workers she has hired in her organization? How much more good would Oprah be doing by raising her minimum wage employees up to a “living wage.” It would not bring the publicity that her other good deeds have but how much more creditable such an act would be!

Which brings me to the old “trickle down theory” or as Ken referred to it “A rising tide raises all boats.” My analogy for the trickle down theory is that it reminds me of the human digestive system. The head gets the banquet and the tail gets the $#!%! I could say that like a truck driver but I will be nice, you get the picture.

Now that I have had my say about wealth let me talk about the political candidates. First of all what if we could wave a magic wand, have sexism be one of those horrible, abusive behaviors that we have done in the past but have grown beyond. Isn’t it about time to have a woman president? Can Hillary Rodham Clinton handle it? Minus the sexism, of course she could. Not that she is perfect. Too many deep pockets are pulling her strings from behind the scenes. I believe that she owes too many favors because of it. Still her little fiasco with trying to create a good health system for all Americans tells me that in her heart she would like to do good for all Americans, not just the monied few. She got her hands slapped so soundly on that one that she has been very careful to mind her Ps and Qs ever since. Still one would hope that if she made it to the White House that she would feel powerful enough to rise above her monied backers influence and actually do some good for the people.

Barack H. Obama, again isn’t it time to quit JUSTIFYING our own bad behavior? Isn’t it time to get over our bigotry? Will we give a partially black man from the melting pot of the world, the presidency before we give the presidency to a woman? Just like we did with voting rights? I REALLY LIKE WHAT I HAVE HEARD HIM SAYING!

A comedian on David Letterman said that he would like to see Hillary as President and Obama as Vice President because that would guarantee there would be no assassination! The comedian told the truth but said it in a way that would make people laugh! I did not catch the comedians name so I can’t give him credit for his brilliance.

John Reid Edwards has the charm and good looks of the Kennedy’s. (I included this because of the comments about looks in the blog that I originally wrote this for.) He is confident and expresses himself well. Smooth politician or not he comes across convincingly as being honest and authentic. I also like what I hear him saying.

I think any of these candidates would make great presidents. The only other candidate that I would consider would be Ralph Nader. He has spent his whole life setting boundaries with the addicted wealthy who would indiscriminately run over, exploit, abuse the poor if someone with good moral character and high consciousness did not have enough power and influence to stand up to them and set healthy boundaries that protect the poor.

I voted my conscious and voted for Ralph Nader when “King” Bush pulled the mafia take over of the elections. I and others like me will once again throw our vote to the Democrats because the “elite who Bush calls his base*” will continue their abuse and exploitation of the common people if we don’t get him and his goons out of office.

* Micheal Moores movie, “Fahrenheit 911” showed Bush giving a speech to his elite base and saying just that.

THE END


I tried to post this on the CBC News at the following site but it keeps telling me that I am trying to post over 2000 characters. I broke the article into four sections and did a word count to try to get around that but it still would not let me post. I will try again later.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/champblog/2007/03/a_dark_horse_for_president.html#comments_open