A Little Anger

If Mitt Romney wins the election Tuesday then so be it.  We have ample warning that his administration eill be a disaster.   He flip flops on nearly every position, he is awkward dealing with anyone outside of wealthy plutocrats and he says very incendiary things, especially about important international topics.  The worst indictment I have about the man is his absolute refusal to release more than two years of his damn taxes.  As citizens we should outraged at this act of snubbery by someone considering the solemn duty of running the levers of government, it's unbelievable his defiance is tolerated at all.  This is certainly an act of a man hiding something rather horrible and nearly half the country is considering voting for him?  If we do this act of voting suicide we thoroughly deserve the tragedies to come, richly.  If we vote for Obama then okay, we just escaped horrors that I cannot fathom the country embracing.   If Romney wins, within a few days and maybe just a few hours I submit the world will mourn the chance that was just lost.  It will truly be a moment of hatefullness as the power hungry man with no social conscience bears his teeth summoning disasters and strife into life.  No future President will be able to repair what happens after Romney becomes the boss.  It's as clear as day.

Who's More Anti

Mitt Romney, the Republicans and the 24 hour Fox propaganda machine is talking about how Barack Obama is anti-American.  The latest rant is due to Obama claiming that business owners didn’t make it by themselves; they had help along the way.  Obama says that things like roads and bridges, teachers and the American system helped entrepreneurs along their way to success.  The GOP is using this talking point to bludgeon the President as an out of touch socialist, perhaps communist, who has no idea how businesses work.

First, what Barack said is completely true.  No one makes it in this world without help.  Without teachers we would be ignorant.  Without roads and bridges we would find the costs of bringing goods to market too high.  Without the American system ideas could be stolen and the country might function more like Mexico where starting a business means bargaining with a drug cartel.  Of course, these things don’t matter to the sycophants who have decided that Obama is anti-American because he states something that should be obvious. 

Now, let’s consider how anti-American the President is.  He has brought Al-Qaeda to its knees.  He ordered the raid and subsequent death of Osama Bin Laden.  He saved the auto industry.  He rushed to Washington prior to the last Presidential election and cajoled Democrats  to work with Republicans to implement TARP to save our very economy.  Those are not things anti-American Presidents would be expected to do.

Mitt Romney on the other hand hides much of his vast wealth overseas to avoid taxes.  He refuses to let us see more than two years of his tax returns in spite of urgings to release more by his own party, (is he perhaps hiding paying no taxes in prior years?)  Mitt’s work at Bain Capital was actually a revolutionary way to scale businesses but the effect was to reduce wages and eliminate many higher paying jobs to line the private equity firm’s pockets.  Mitt made hundreds of millions while disenfranchising thousands of hard working Americans.  Yes, companies like Staples succeeded because of Bain’s funding, but their employees were made to work rather hard for far lower pay than existed in the years before Bain streamlined big corporate America.  Only Bain and the top executives at firms they funded had a net gain for all the pain Bain inflicted upon the employees that used to earn a nice living.  Mitt Willard Romney seems more anti-American to me than anyone who has ever run for the country’s top office.    

Them

I remember now, a shame that lingers in the back of my mind.  Something I have tried desperately to ignore and overcome but the feelings are still there and they never go away completely.   It happened when my parents uprooted the family and moved to a new town when I was in the third grade.  The town was filled with rich kids and although my family wasn’t poor, we weren’t rich.

For a four year period I was bullied at school nearly every day, maybe partially because I wasn’t well to do and partially because I was pretty smart.  I started out with the best grades in school, handwriting like calligraphy and all the desire in the world to get A+’s forever.  I won every math contest, every spelling bee, anything academic.  I loved school.  This didn’t go over too well in the new town with the new kids.  I became for lack of a better word, the target.  Many; and I mean fifty or so, other children through those years decided to bully me.  I pleaded so often not to be hurt, but reason incensed them.

Full nelsons were the main method of terrorization.  The act didn’t leave marks but I felt my neck about to break hundreds of times.  I gave away lunch money and belongings the bullies decided were theirs nearly every day I went to school.  I had my head put down in manure maybe a dozen times while in the headlock of death.  I was tickled often while in the full nelson where moving seemed like it might kill me, but my uncontrolled laughter wasn’t funny to me as I always felt I would pass out or die.  One day in art class the instructor left for a few minutes and one of the gang decided to start throwing clay at my head.  He urged the other students to pitch in and they all began throwing whatever they could; clay, pencils, books, etc…  Even my “friends” felt they needed to join the fray.  That experience left a deep impression; the howling giggles of boys and girls making me endure real physical and psychic pain.

I couldn’t bring myself to lift a fist or fight back, (I will never physically hurt another person, something my parents taught me that I can’t shake), but I couldn’t bring myself to tell my family.  I felt there was something wrong with me and I was ashamed.  I started skipping school quite often to avoid that scary place where I felt I might die any day.   I lost my top grades and my handwriting lost any semblance of a steady hand, (I used to marvel at my previous writing, it’s like a different person existed in my body).   

My family finally moved again and the nightmare was over.  A new school was heaven to me.   I treaded very lightly around the other students at this new place.  I learned to be more humble so I could get along with people.  The healing began.  My life began again, but I’ll always react badly to bullies in any walk of life.

I have noticed recently there is something out there in this world that resembles the bullies I had to endure as a child.  I really mean this because I recognize their kind so well, they have brought all my childhood nightmares to mind again.  It’s called the Republican “Tea” Party.  They won’t listen to reason and they’ll bludgeon anyone who disagrees with them by spewing idiotic hateful rhetoric and lies.  They’ve got the money to win the Presidential and Senatorial elections too because of the worst law ever passed in history; Citizens United.  Watch out America, the Republican “T’s” are here for your lunch money and belongings, they believe it’s theirs.  Goodbye social security, Medicare, Medicaid and affordable health care.  The middle class might become a memory as the wealthy take everything they can.   I hope America makes the right choices this election cycle because once the Tea Party wins all three branches of government we cannot move to a new school to end the horror show that starts day one.  This might really happen, god help us.