Who do you work for?
Yourself?
America has always provided success in life for SOME of us. Apart from those who, as someone said, “were born on third base and thought they hit a triple,” there are others who, born in poverty or the near poverty of the struggling immigrant or the minimal wage family, made their way “up” in the world.
Respect is earned. We are right in honoring them for their success. Of course, luck was involved, but also in many cases hard work and self-sacrifice. And they were often talented people, a cut above the rest of us.
They made their way “up” or “out,” if you will. What is also important, though, as I see it, is that there are two ways to act and live once one has “escaped.”
You can either continue to separate yourself from the world you left. Get richer. Live in a separate world. Pledge never to return. Make sure your children stay at the top. Or you can offer a hand up for those who you left behind. Not left, not forgot, but pledged to return and help.
I know this is an overly simple view of things. But I have always seen some people who were exploited become the exploiters and others never cease fighting for “their people.”
Maybe in a society like America these are the two true political parties.
Compare candidates in this election. Take Ryan and Vance. Vance criticizes Ryan for staying in Washington. He does not, nor should, criticize him for what he has been doing in Washington, fighting for the families that still work tough jobs at low wages and are one step removed from joblessness. Vance also “left” Ohio. But his path took him into the upper class and one of its more rewarding niches, venture capitalism.
He may say he’s come back to help others. A trip to Washington these days as an elected senator with the Republican Party doesn’t look a lot like a commitment to solve problems and make this a fairer society. Maybe that’s what he intends. To be like Ryan. But I don’t hear him saying this.
An additional thought. The rich you will always have with you. That should be the truth statement of our time. Not “The poor you will always have with you.”
But if those who “escape” being poor only care about, maybe only believe possible, keeping the escape route open, the underground railroad, then the majority will not be helped. The safety net will not be patched and raised. The working man and woman not live a middle class life. That takes something like emancipation. The right kind of laws and justice. The right kinds of public policy. They right kind of remembering where one has been.
Mejewski, who says his pronouns are patriot and kick ass, I guess meaning “they”, is a liar. It’s called stolen valor. He lies and lies about having served in combat. Does maga care? No, of course they don’t. He may be headed to congress. And relatedly, we have people like Walker, who, even in a televised debate, pulled out his fake badge and claimed to be policeman. And when laughed at, gathered up his maga allies and declared that anyone laughing at him and his fake badge was laughing at our actual police and our actual military. Really? This is what people have become? And just the other day the governor of Florida traveled to New York with his message telling us how bad crime is in New York when his state has more crime. Florida has almost twice as much violent crime as New York per capita. What kind of upside down world is this? Are we supposed to draft their fake cops to fight their fake crimes instead of real crime. Don't get me started on their leader criminal. And then the richest man in the world, who used twitter to commit securities fraud, now owns it and uses it to twit maga conspiracies defending David Depape along with the trumps. Though they say we don't know the whole story, we know enough. Maga hate and lies activated one of their own. This is where we are.