I have been thinking a lot about our country's obsession with "me". The me I am talking about is the concept of I've got mine, screw you. That is what is the main problem with all this health reform crap that the Republicans have been screwing up.


I firmly believe that the the Republicans have become the party of "me" and the Democrats are the party of "ours". With the Republicans it is all about money and win/lose. They think that they are the only ones that work. Remember the bumper stickers that read "on my way to work, someone has to"? Do they ever think about the woman they hire to clean their toilets, or the men they hire to mow their grass? Don't they think that those people are working as hard or harder than they are?

When did all of this selfishness start? We of the Kennedy generation accepted JFK's dream that we could do anything we wanted and that we would give back to our society to make it better. Of course, "those people" didn't like Kennedy and killed him. They killed him, but they could not kill the vision that he had. Many of us kept that dream alive and did what we could. Some of us joined the Peace Corps; others volunteered in Appalachia. But we did try to work for a better society.

Then came the bugaboo of Vietnam. It split our country down the middle. The unfortunate were drafted and sent to die in a war that should not have been. Yes, I know many volunteered because of the patriotism that is drummed into us from childhood. They still died in a war that was never supposed to be.

Did the military lie to LBJ; or did LBJ lie to us? We know now that the Vietnamese were not stupid enough to attack the U.S. Navy in small gunboats, but we did not then. Remember how Bush tried to tell us the Iranians were attacking us in "gunboats"? Luckily we did not fall for it again. I guess it was a good thing that W was to stupid to study history. He might have tried something that would have worked.

We muddled through Vietnam, got a lot of good men and women killed, but we finally pulled out. The damage was done; hatred was sewn in our society between right and left and the politicians learned how to yank our chains. The left moved forward and became "community activists" and tried to bring equality and justice to our communities. The right cannot move on they are stuck in the past. The "good ole days" that never were. Their ideal life is "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best". Unfortunately their reality came from a glowing picture tube, not the reality of the hardships of our people.

What is our reality? The institutional government lies to us. The tell us only the evil communist governments abuse their citizens. Sure, anyone remember Kent State? Will we ever find the truth and give those dead and injured students justice?

We persevered and got Nixon out of office showing that YES, he was a crook. Then we got poor old Jerry Ford, such a team player, that he would not allow Nixon to be tried for his crimes. I am sure that Ford believed that he was bringing peace and love to the country by not trying Nixon. He screwed up royally. If Nixon had been tried, along with his henchmen we would never have had the Bush Crime Family take over our government.

Jimmy Carter came along and proved that the country could not stand having a good honest man that speaks the truth. He was abused by the rightwing as a do nothing president. We should have realized that was the beginning of the vast right wing conspiracy.

Then the right wing brought us Ronald Raygun, their god of all gods; a senile B-grade actor who could spout everything his rich boy handlers wanted to hear. That bastard was so dumb his wife had to become a ventriloquist so he could answer any questions. Because of his idiocy the moneyed boys took over. Greed became the norm. Regulation of industry? Yeah right. Worry about the environment? Nah, their mansions were big enough to have their own micro environments. They could afford bottled purified water, why should they worry about the rest of us? We were just cannon fodder and social security numbers.

PATCO strike? Perfect chance to destry the unions (and the families of the traffic controllers). Who gives a damn if the workers have enough money to send their kids to school? Why should they worry if the employees can't afford to pay their rent and buy groceries. It doesn't affect the moneyed boys. We will just hire some other schmuck for less money.

I figure "they" thought that it worked so well with PATCO they might as well try it on the other unions. The minute workers ask for a larger share of the pie, they got slapped down and became afraid to speak up for their rights. Because of that "they"began to realize that even cheaper workers could be found overseas; so "they" started having laws written that would even allow "them" to write off the costs of moving jobs overseas.

Those Americans who were not caught up in the layoffs decided that they were "smarter" and "better" that those damn union members; so they aligned with the moneyed boys, thus creating the current Republican party. The "smarter" Americans never speak out and do what they are told to do because they might lose what they have; becoming like "us". Oh, heaven forbid they look around and realize what the greed has done to our country.

Now whenever someone speaks out about helping the poor, they are labeled "socialists". I laugh when the old rightwingers scream about keeping government away from their Medicare, the most "socialist" program we have; they just prove that they were hiding behind the barn when brains were handed out. It is too bad the Republicans gutted public education in this country. At least a few of these rednecks might have read our "Declaration of Independence" and our Constitution and realized what this country is all about. We do have a history of individualism in our country, but it is not the individualism that sacrifices society.

Barack Obama, my beloved President, has his work cut out for him.