Sad though it is to be a fatalist, realists sometimes become just that. I have
become a fatalist.... really! My America, that of my youth, when the air was
cleaner, the food better, the people more alive.... is gone! Replaced by a world
of consumerized sheep and complacent activism. I mean, look at today. Better
yet, look at me. I am somewhat of an activist. I organize protests against this
so called war on Iraq. I write columns that no mainstream media will ever touch.
Resigned to being posted online and a few letters to the editor being printed, I
receive the regular two or three phone calls of support.... from folks who never
seem to join me on the street corner. Spectator American Activism 101.

I am partner in a new and unique Caffe business. I gaze through my window at
lunchtime and watch the endless stream of cars flow by my place, on their way to
the franchised cookie cutter eatery nearby. Why, even those who stand next to me
on the street corner each week ( or whenever the thrill overtakes them ) rarely, if ever at all, frequent my establishment.
I know, within myself, that if one of them owned a new dry cleaning store, or a
breakfast place, they would have at least one new customer: me! Well, Ralph
Kramden was correct: " Ya want loyalty... get a dog!"

Too many simply disregard the state of their own finances, so long as they can
purchase that new electronic gadget or 54 inch TV. So long as they still own a
home that is worth $ 100k or $ 200k more than they bought it for. No depth of
understanding that they, like me, are a few paychecks away from being indigent.
The strain that health insurance costs puts upon them seems not to matter. The
rising property taxes and other charges where they live seems not to be so
important. Or the fact that gasoline is twice what it was a few years ago. So
long as someone else has the kid over in Iraq, gambling with death ( or shelling
it out ), who cares?

Look up the word serf in your dictionary. That is what most of us have become, when you strip away the layers of the consumer society onion. Serfs! Bowing
and scraping to the wealthy who control our paychecks, our politics. Been out
there on that street corner for over 28 months now, each and every Tuesday.
Might have missed two or three at most. Had a radio talk show, a really unique
progressive hour each week. I was able to interview leading national
spokespersons on subjects ranging from the war, impeachment, bovine growth
hormone, national health care for all, election machine fraud- great shows for
26 weeks. Guess what? Had trouble finding sponsors. Had to beg many of those
from the street corner to help out- about 8 or 9 did so. The rest? Go figure.
Serfs!

Chicken Little, you were finally right on. The sky is falling. And Pogo, you too
were correct. " We have met the enemy... and he is us!"

PA Farruggio

Port Orange, Florida

paf1222@bellsouth.net