Independence Day 2016
I Have Seen
I have seen a nation divided by people who gain in countless ways from the divisions that they have exploited, and continue to exploit, from the human condition: conditions beyond people’s control, the ebbs and flows of life that come to us all, but the political class has seen to it that the ebb is sensationalized and the flow is taxed. At times, the ebb is taxed and the flow is sensationalized. The general consensus among the professional takers is to not waste a crisis for political gain.
I have seen people trying to survive fears and anguish from childhoods that were torn asunder by selfishness and greed. Those individuals, who have become quite lost in their grief and hopelessness, proceed to trust the very people who will rob them of any solace and hope and, during the process of manipulating the worst fears, take as many donations of time and money as the blind-but-trusting fools will send to them.
I have seen good-hearted people offer themselves up to political causes, thinking they will “make a difference” to help solve a problem, only to get used and kicked aside once the pawn has served his purpose and the problem is kicked into the long grass. At least until the next sucker can get lured into caring about that problem — because the politicians have no intention of ever fixing or even caring about it! Just keep the dollars and debit (and credit) card transactions flowing to the con artist!
I have seen friends become enemies because of foolish “issues” that become larger-than-life. Perhaps the friendship was never real or was on life-support when the labeling of life into voting blocks took hold, like a nasty virus that does not go away. It mutates into other forms, other slogans, new sound bites for the hungry-at-heart. The sound bites became further sub-divided into sound syllables as the exploitation demographics became slivers of populations in sections of zip codes. The “American people” have been sliced and diced -- and shredded -- like cheese for pizza.
I have seen my nation, America, permit the politics of personal destruction, perpetrated by the very people who accused others of inventing it, to become the public square. And I have mourned the loss of freedom that once was free for all to laugh and play and enjoy the liberties of this great nation, all because of the fears that were stoked and manipulated for political power.
I have seen power destroy people in private and the sight is not much prettier in public. I have seen the steady gaze of trust in this nation become the cynical sideways glance as we, the people, get taken for another costly ride. It’s been a heartless ride, plotted, planned, calculated and executed by the heartless to con, bilk, flimflam, fleece, hose and dupe as many of the populace as possible, all for the sake of filling the greedy endless pockets of the professional politicos and to satiate all of the animal appetites that historically accompany the arrival of any “popular” politician.
I have seen leaders back away from leading because the price is not worth it, the shredding of one’s life and one’s loved ones so that the entrenched status quo can maintain itself while the politicos appear to offer hope and change and fairness and life after death. I have seen one political party completely abandon the state that became my home more than thirty years ago when I was young and a-political and happy about it.
That political move was wise for that party; the crumbling, aging infrastructure should topple on and pancake the politicos who ignored it while building the California Welfare State. And this political move has been wise for me, returning to a previous state of mind in a time that I needed to reclaim for myself personally, artistically, and perhaps even morally.
Quite a few years ago, I returned to being young and a-political and happy about it — because of all that I have seen. My civics lessons to my children had ended; my children now teach me more than a few things. My attention to the irrelevant has always been minimal; it is now non-existent. It’s a bore!
I love my country, my family, and myself too much to care one iota about politicians, their scams, their shams and their kicking those cans down the road. I have seen enough. In reality, I have seen too much.
Frankly, my dears, I don’t give a damn.
