Divided We Fall

The flag of the United States flies off Ice Foe’s stern to identify our boat’s place of origin.

• raw
• messy
• irreparable?

We are a proud nation, but prefer to forget that it was built along with the systematic, near, extermination of Native Americans, the enslavement of African Americans, and the extinction of untold numbers of species.  Rather than repair our nation, I believe it is time to remake it.  We cannot undo what is done, but that is no excuse not to learn from it.

How has it come to this?

Have we let our nation – the land of opportunity – devolve into the land of opportunity for a select minority or do we delude ourselves into thinking this is new?  If not new, I question how much of our current inequities exist by deliberate design?

• Does it seem just that our public schools are largely funded by their district’s community?  Should children from a disadvantaged community have inadequate school supplies, larger classrooms, and teachers with lower wages?  Why has this paradigm for school funding existed for so long?
• How about safe public drinking water?  Priviledge or Right?  C’mon!!
• Why did my occupation allow me to essentially deduct from my taxes nearly all my and my family member’s health expenses, while a single Mom working two jobs could not?
• On the topic of tax deductions, why can real estate moguls deduct enormous sums of income from their taxable income based on the depreciation of their properties, while their properties are in fact appreciating in value?
• Why are monies earned through investment taxed at a much lower rate than those earned as wages?
• How many hundreds of ways have the privileged persuaded our lawmakers to write into law practices that create and perpetuate inequities that benefit themselves?
• Is it true that our lawmakers vote on their own salaries and the specifics of their health insurance plans?  If so, does that look like a conflict of interest to you?
• Would illegal immigrants flock to our country if employers did not hire them?  Why not just expand the number of work permits for these same people to come and work legally?  A good-faith effort to hire US citizens should of course be conducted first.  Those from other countries could come legally via a work permit and be protected by our fair wage and safety laws.  Oh, I get it – is that why??!!
• Just pretend I skipped another thousand other questions I ponder over that seem to foster, magnify, and perpetuate inequities that are neither new, nor the focus of our attention.

Is it just me?

Have you considered the possible – probable likelihood that the division of beliefs and stifling anger growing between diametrically opposed factions in the US  has come about also by design.  Every issue is discussed as though it is black and white – there are no shades of grey.  Our two predominant political parties are at war.  Are you not tired of being manipulated?  Can we not agree to differences of opinion, but acknowledge that facts are facts?  There can not be your facts and my facts unless we both have taken the time to discuss each other’s truths, and investigate the validity of our source of facts.

United we Stand!!