I'm getting sick. Not figuratively - literally sick to my stomach. No, I don't have a cold, or a flu, or cancer or anything like that. No, I'm being sickened by the politics of this country.
It makes me physically ill that a Republican Senator would filibuster the loan package for the Big 3 -- the companies that were, nay, still are, the heart of our economy. Millions could lose their jobs. Those that don't will probably see their incomes drop, the quality of their healthcare drop, and their pensions evaporate.
Why?
Because Republicans hate the middle class so badly, that they're willing to risk destroying our economy in order to take down a Union.
What will stop them from doing the same to prevent meaningful healthcare reform? Ending the wars? Saving the environment?
What I feel worst about though is the despair that I'm feeling, and what I'm about to do about it. You see, I have multiple citizenships due to the circumstances of my birth, and international law. And, I feel I'm about to walk away from this country -- the country that really has been my home for all of my years. I just want to leave. Dust off one of those other passports I've got in the safe at home, and go.
My wife wants to go, too. She will soon have finished both her M.D. and Ph.D. She is scared to death. Scared of being a doctor in this country. Scared of the idea of watching someone die of a preventable illness because they don't have insurance. Scared of seeing all of her young, idealistic med school friends -- and maybe herself -- being corrupted by a for-profit healthcare system run by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies which refers to people not as "patients" but as "healthcare consumers." She fears being consumed by the desire for money.
She doesn't want to practice medicine here. She doesn't want to practice medicine in any place where she'd be faced with the possibility of having to deny someone the help they need because of how much money they have. Yeah, all that, and she isn't even done with her education yet. I've been told by other doctors that it takes a few years of actual practice before you get that fed up, and by then it's too late to do anything about it.
We've already begun to make preparations. We have been for almost two years, now. Our house is getting fixed up in a hurry to prepare it for sale. We're selling a lot of our household goods to make a move easier. We're preparing to sell the cars. We've contacted Universities and Hospitals to arrange for jobs, post-doctoral studies, and other continuing education. We've begun looking at flats on the internet, as we'll most likely not be able to afford to buy a place to live right away. We've hired a private tutor to help us improve our language skills to make the transition earlier.
Starting next week, my wife and I will be traveling for 10 days. We'll be going to the country I was born in, but left when I was five years old. I've only been a few times, and only then as a tourist. We'll be hiring an immigration attorney to handle my wife's case, even though it is very straight forward in the fact that she married a natural-born citizen, has job skills, and a clean record at home.
What's funny is that right after Barack Obama was elected, we gave pause. We stopped, and asked ourselves "are we doing the right thing? Is there something going on here that we should stay to be a part of?"
But, as the weeks have wore on, I've become just as jaded as I was before. The Republicans are still out there, and they won't rest until they destroy the middle class. They won't rest until universal healthcare in this country is defeated. They won't rest until the middle class are stripped of their rights to organize and bargain for a larger slice of the pie from their corporate masters. They won't rest until all this country's wealth is in the hands of their masters.
I really don't believe that he Democrats will stop them. I think this country is on it's way to taking it's place as the next in a long line of former colonial superpower has-beens. Like England or France. The difference is, those countries were smart enough, when they saw the sun setting on their empires, to decide that the next logical step was to dismantle the military hegemony machines that kept them in power, and instead devote their resources to taking care of their citizens and building a strong economy that provides as well as it can for the broadest number of their citizens.
Significant numbers of people in this country, however, are not smart enough to see that as the next logical step. They wish to enact retrograde policies that serve only to further enrich those that have already been enriched, and undo what has been done to increase the living standards of the broadest possible group of people in this country.
A few weeks ago, had anyone asked, mine and my wife's upcoming trip was a "vacation." As of today, it's been reassigned the status of "fact-finding mission."
It's kind of scary, considering leaving the country you've lived in for as long as you can remember...
...But it's easy when you see what is happening.
Am I wrong to be so stringly considering leaving? Convince me, please.
EDIT: For a few minor typos and stuff. Also, just to say thanks for all the repsonses. I wrote this to vent, didn't expect so many people to actually read it and take the time to comment. To those of you saying I should stay put -- I can agree with alot of what you all have said -- If I didn't somewhat feel that way myself, I wouldn't have written this in the first place.