The Lessor People
By David Glenn Cox
Sometimes I just don’t know, sometimes it seems we live in a nation afraid to look at itself in the mirror. Sunday as I arrived at the library and I was waiting for the doors to open and as usual, a crowd had formed. The people were all there for the computers, the school children of course but the regulars were there as well. The big guy with a big booming voice and a friendly smile. After my first conversation with him I was pretty certain this guy has a photographic memory.
He was quoting GM manufacturing statistics models and factories. He is a very sharp guy and Sunday he was wearing a faded Amoco shirt from a convenience store. Being a Sunday, a gentleman walked up in a dark blue suit and tie and he didn’t seem to have much of the Holy Spirit left in him. He seemed angry and he didn’t say anything to anyone as his angry eyes made us understand to stay clear of him.
There was another fella in worn out blue jeans and a pull over shirt that had shrunk until it was too short. His shoes were the give away though as they were cracked and worn like mine. He was quiet and looked at the ground a lot and I understood why. Like me he no longer feels a part of this society we are the lesser people. When Obama or Biden make one of their visits to a new government subsidized factories built with tax dollars for the corporations they’re not talking to us. They’re talking to the cameras and the media and those with plenty.
The other day as I walked to the library I waited my turn light at the crosswalk and as the light turned I began to cross the road. When I was two thirds of the way across a woman in a new Honda was waving franticly from inside her car for me to hurry and get out of her way so that she could make her right turn on red. I looked at her and I stopped dead in my tracks and I answered, "No," She revved the engine and let the car lurch forward threateningly towards me a couple of feet. To her I was a lesser person, I was infringing on her hundred horsepower, air conditioned, leather seat luxury.
As I walked the rest of the way I wondered what could make someone so pathetic and mean spirited. Then I smiled because I remembered what country I was in. The land of plastic Jesus and rhinestone Moses and I suppose that’s what the fella in the suit and tie was so angry about. He got up early on Sunday and put on a suit and tie and they wanted him to give the church help instead of the other way round. So he walked on to the public library to look for a job.
I read these daunting headlines everyday and it makes me wonder how we can just turn away. Yet we do, we close our eyes tight and stick our fingers in our ears and shout; "It ain’t so! It ain’t so! It ain’t so but it is! More homeowners are falling behind in their house payments. A bank in Chicago failed that was popular with the less affluent customers in low income neighborhoods and it was bought and divvied up like an apple pie by the usual suspects, Goldman Sachs, General Electric, JP Morgan Chase & Citigroup. Now what would these banking powerhouses want with a bank with its branches in lower income communities?
The WikiLeaks of the war logs in Afghanistan tell us the tales of task force 373 a Special Forces unit. An assassination squad that seeks out insurgents and then murders them and if the information they are given is inaccurate well, war is hell isn’t it? The logs show a brutal war in progress that is killing as many civilians as insurgents and no one in America seems to care. Doesn’t wrongful killing by death squad’s make plastic Jesus cry?
It is really a shame that WikiLeaks can’t get documents on the Federal Reserve. A freedom of information request was filed for the information on which banks borrowed how much money from the Federal Reserve to prevent default. Seems like a pretty straightforward request. The Federal Reserve balked at releasing that data and the Federal Court said the Fed was wrong and then The US Appeals court agreed that the Fed should release the data. The Federal Reserve then requested a stay so that it might appeal to the Supreme Court. Anyone want to guess how that will turn out? If you’re not sure, here is a hint. "The stay is necessary to permit the board to consult with the Department of Justice regarding an appeal to the Supreme Court," Fed spokesman David Skidmore said.
There it is again a private corporation seeking protection through this administration’s justice Department. So the next time someone tells you the banking bailout was all Bush’s doing try not to laugh too hard. This is you’re money that they spent and the Federal Reserve is refusing to disclose who got the money and how much they got and when the court rules against them they run screaming like a frightened school girl to the administration for protection.
But as the door mouse would say, It just gets curiouser and curiouser in the land of upside down and inside out. President Obama has approved the construction of new nuclear power plants after being against them as a candidate. Advocates for more nuclear power plants always insist that the new generation nuclear plants are safe! Yes, Mr. and Mrs. America these new plants are so safe that there is absolutely nothing to fear. Lawmakers in India recently sign into a law a new provision that would hold manufactures of nuclear power plants liable in the event of an accident.
The suppliers of nuclear power equipment are hotter than an exposed fuel rod. The international accord passed in 1997 limits damage claims against manufactures and operators of nuclear power plants. It is iceberg insurance on the Titanic in the wake of the Chernobyl accident the world somehow needed an international accord to protect corporations from the irradiated masses of lesser peoples. Because of the new Indian law Westinghouse, General Electric and Hitachi Ltd. may decline to commit to new projects in India. Why! It’s so safe! The tell us over and over how safe it is but now when they might be hung out to dry in the event of an accident the nuclear power manufactures refuse to play along.
The irony here is that there has been a ban in place for thirty years against selling India nuclear equipment because India is not a signature of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. India diverts materials from its civilian program to its nuclear bomb program. That’s a fact, no kidding, no fooling and no joking around and what nation was it that proposed lifting this thirty-year ban? It was the United States and the Obama administration and they gave this guy a peace prize.
We threaten Iran with no evidence of conversion to a bomb program and a nation that is a signature of the non-proliferation treaty. While at the same time the US helps to lift the ban on a country guilty of conversion because it hopes that the corporations can sell lots of nuclear goodies and if there is an accident well, that’s what insurance is for isn’t it?
Maybe you understand and maybe you don’t your government considers you lessor people. That is what Alan Simpson said and Barack Obama understood his message clearly and accepted his apology. The woman in the Honda thinks she’s queen of the highway but when the nuclear plant melts down she’ll glow just like all the rest of us. The insurance provisions are in place to limit corporate liability just as the limits were in place to limit liability of BP in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Federal Reserve doesn’t need to disclose data to you lesser people it’s none of your business how they spent your money. They don’t need to create jobs for you or to help you to keep your homes. They don’t need to keep schoolteachers employed when the budget gets tight because it’s only for the likes of your kids. The new bill passed by congress to save teacher jobs protects 250,000 but allows 170,000 more jobs to fall by the way side and they paid for it by cutting the funding for food stamps for those lessor people.