Thursday, June 25, 2009

Equal right for the non rich

Our country was founded on the principle that all men are created equal. The definition of all men has changed over time here in the US. When our nation was founded it really meant all white, educated, land owning men. Slowly over time other groups had to fight for their rights even though our laws supposedly guaranteed them.

In the early 1900's we saw women protest en mass for their equal rights. In the 1960's we saw black protest as well lead by the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Preacher Malcolm X amongst others. Today we see gay people fighting for their right to legally wed.

For whatever reason, fear, hate, not wanting to give up power, the leaders of our nation did not want to give these equal rights away without putting up a fight. Right now I think its time for a new group to begin its march for equal rights. The poor and the middle class.

This group is constantly being stepped on by the leaders of the country. The uneducated. The immigrants. The home with two working parents just making ends meet. The person who is just barely staying afloat and gets sick and loses their job and home. The guy who retired ten years ago thinking he would be comfortable with his small retirement package from GM until they went bankrupt and decided to cancel all health insurance for those already retired.

Those people from the Michael Moore documentary Sicko who have health insurance but are getting squeezed by their Health Insurance Company who wanted to save money, so they had to decide, between which fingers to save after a machine accident, or having to decide between food or surgery.

Or the family's in one of the Carolina's who can't leave their home because they happen to live next to one of the world largest pig farms that is producing so much pig feces waste and not properly removing it, resulting in poisonous fumes that make it too toxic to go outside. Or those who chose to gamble on the stock market, who thought the game wasn't rigged, and found out it was and they lost a lot.

Or the poor in Californian who have no health insurance and use free clinics but will soon be told sorry we cannot help you anymore because of the crisis going on right now with the California budget. One Californian activist predicts people will begin to die on the streets of LA because there wont be enough free clinics and supplies to treat everyone. Or the teachers in California have to worry about their jobs after the Governator approved the firing of 1/3 of all California state teachers.

Millions and millions of us are falling through the cracks with out anyone coming to the rescue. Yet we see the richest of us being saved by the same government that is failing the poor. As a wrote in a previous blog after hurricane Katrina it tooks days to get water into Louisiana. Which was more time than it took for Congress to pass a bill to make trillions of dollars available to wall street thieves who stole it all to begin with, almost crashing the entire economy of United States in their wake.

To me, it may not be as obvious as having separate bathrooms for two people with different skin colors. But the size of my bank account definitely determines what laws I am asked to follow . Just ask OJ Simpson, and every corporation that ever dumped toxic waste into the environment who destroyed peoples health and were not responsible under the law. Just ask the people in Michael Moore's Sicko who lost a loved one because the insurance company refused treatment that would cost a lot of money, legally killing people. Just ask the government lawyers who sued Microsoft for monopolistic practices and who won while Bill Clinton was still in office and than when Bush took over he threw out the case, after the government won the case!?!?!?

The size of my bank account also determines what laws are passed. Rich banks too big to fail get trillions in cash to shore up their bankrupt tyrannosaurus rex size companies. The rich lobby of the health insurance gets laws written that favor their profit margin over the public interest. Just now being talked about in congress is a clean air act that will prohibit the regulating of power plants if they are related to global warming, because the regulation would effect the companies bottom line.

When did the bottom line become the new mantra of the nation. The bottom line is the rich in the country get laws passed, everyone else doesn't. Everyone in Congress as well as the past dozen presidents have been millionaires. If we having millionaires running the country are we surprised that laws are passed to benefit only millionaires.

I am merely saying it seems those laws are discriminatory in nature. If a jury is not made up of peers it is not a legal jury. If our government does not represent the people it might not be legal.

Any time someone on the corporate run news brings up any of these points they are jumped on for using class warfare. But i cant think of anything else to call it. If it walks like a duck, well you know.

If you begin to slowly crush me under you boot for over a hundred years than i quickly trip you to get you off of me how can anyone of reason believe i am the trouble maker.

So who is with me? Any lawyers in the house? Any ACLUers up in here? Could this be my calling in life?

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