Wake Up!

It's your fault!  Wake Up.  Yes, if we all got involved in the guiding of our ship, rather than being content to have high definition seats in the Coliseum, the deal wouldn't be going down this way.  Funny, if your burger at a fast food joint is not to your liking, you'll have no problem reading the counter person the riot act.  Yet when the tangible results from the lion's share of your life's energy are snatched from you (I'm talking about cash) and then grossly misappropriated, you're less vocal than a church mouse!

Would you care to know why?  Sorry, I'm going to tell you anyway.  You feel empowered to complain at the restaurant because you haven't been bullshitted into thinking that they were privy to some esoteric knowledge that you weren't invited in on.  Why do you think you're less likely to act the same way in a super fancy restaurant?  Or toward those to whom you have relinquished all control over the fiscal, moral, educational, medical, judicial, and entertainment-based decisions that affect your life? The complaints that you can't make a difference or that there's no way to find out what's really going on are more pathetic than this administration's human rights record.

Start watching and supporting your Public Television stations and C-Span, instead of constantly ingesting the silage offered up by the powers that be.  Read a book whose premise doesn't revolve around sorcerers, spaceships, or sex.  Join one of the many groups already in existence that are putting their energies into what you idly claim to be important.

If not for your children who are in the midst of their apprenticeship to oblivion, do it for the blessed memory of those whose hard work we've tarnished by building hollow monuments to their courageous achievements, rather than paying them the legitimate respect of carrying, and fortifying the torch that their efforts ignited:

* The "Revolutionaries" who braved northern winters with literally no shoes on and no food, because they were tired of getting banged in the ass by their government;

* The dead and wounded soldiers of every war we've ever fought in an attempt to continue and expand upon our supposed life of liberty and pursuit of happiness;

* The great minds whose intellectual curiosities led to discoveries that increased our life span and comfort level to unprecedented heights, etc.

You'd be peeved if some ingrate blew out the match you were trying to light your cigarette with; think of how these giants of human potential realized must feel when they see what we've allowed to happen during our stewardship of their combined sacrifices.

Are you kidding me?