Ihaven’t touched this blog in nearly a month. I suppose that’s due in no small measure to my general state of disillusionment with the direction of the country into which I was born and still hold great affection. Frankly, it’s become hard for me to put words to it, on this site or anywhere else.
Following the widely publicized (but soon-to-be-forgotten) episode several weeks ago in which a ticketed and boarded Asian passenger was violently dragged off of a United flight because he refused to give up his (paid-for) seat for a group of airline employees, this viral article did a fantastic job articulating many of the sharpest grievances I hold against a nation I now often feel ashamed of:
The reality is plain: United Airlines is not the disease. United Airlines is a symptom of an infected country whose institutions of power no longer respect the dignity or the sanctity of the individual life. They don’t care about you…
It is commendable and necessary to direct your outrage at this particular corporation, on this particular day, but keep the larger truth in mind:
You are not mad at United Airlines; you are mad at America.
Exactly right. I needn’t list every one of America’s societal sins to which the article aptly alludes, but many bear mentioning or repeating at least in part:
- Majority Republicans in Congress are talking about “tax reform.” But don’t be deceived: The word “reform” to them — whether in relation to taxation, health care, workers’ rights, or otherwise — really just means taking away what little the poor and middle class still have and transferring it so that the already-wealthy and powerful become even more so. If you’re a billionaire, you probably don’t have to worry if insurance protections for pre-existing medical conditions get repealed. But if you’re almost anyone else who won’t have a steady, full-time job with benefits throughout your life, well, tough shit, I guess.
- Pharmaceutical companies profiteer on misery and suffering. Because shareholders’ bottom lines matter more than public health (or almost anything else) in the United States, there’s no check on price gouging for prescription drugs, which cost more here than anywhere else in the world. Meanwhile, drugmakers are allowed to advertise directly to consumers, so many of whom could never even afford the medications they see in the ubiquitous ads that pollute primetime television. In a particularly cruel twist, at least one pharmaceutical outfit ends its commercials with this PR stunt: “If you can’t afford your medication, AstraZeneca may be able to help.” Right.
- Along with other bastions of human rights like Saudi Arabia or China, the United States still executes prisoners for sport. Arkansas’ death machine ate up four in just a week. Texas…well, Texas. By the way, it’s not the rich or well-connected who populate death rows across America.
- We sanctimoniously scream about aborted fetuses while simultaneously doing everything we can to leave vulnerable women with no other choice. We’re the only country in the world without any kind of mandated paid family or sick leave. There is no universal health care, and tens of millions still lack insurance because, again, corporate profits come before citizens in this so-called “democracy.” Republicans are chomping at the bit to rescind Medicaid expansions, and access to birth control is regularly attacked under the guise of “religious freedom.” Those who aren’t wholly self-sufficient or independently wealthy are branded as moochers or bums. Those who need public assistance of any kind are immediately viewed with suspicion in a dehumanizing way, as though they exist only to game the system.
- We’ve turned guns into false gods. After 20 children and six adults were slaughtered at an elementary school, the U.S. government did absolutely nothing. We did nothing again when 49 people were massacred at a nightclub in Orlando. We have blood on our hands because we’ve idolizedmanmade instruments of death (and, yet again, because certain entities are making lots and lots of money from it). And don’t think for one second that there isn’t a racial component to the debate euphemistically labeled “Second Amendment rights.”
- Corporations and monied special interests are free to spend limitless amounts of money to buy elections and legislative outcomes, drowning out the voices and grassroots efforts of actual human constituents. (Example: Congress recently voted to allow Internet service providers to sell your browsing history without permission. Do you know of anyone — as in, even one single person — who was writing or calling his or her lawmakers asking for this law? Neither do I…of course, I don’t know anyone who owns stock in Comcast.)
- As the world’s polar ice caps melt and the natural environment faces irrevocable harm at the hands of human activity and greed, the current administration is committed to denying the reality of global warming. At the helm is an incoherent, mendacious, pathological narcissist who knows less than nothing about policy or governance and cares little about such petty details as long as his delusions of greatness and omnipotence are maintained. As I write this, concerned citizens are gathered in 90-degree heat in Washington, D.C., to protest the climate policies of this regime. Their concerns will certainly fall on deaf ears, since lawmakers are focused solely on protecting the profits of their monied backers, no matter what devastating costs may befall our natural resources or the people who live near and rely on them.
- Racism today is as real in America as it was during the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 1960s. As an upper-middle-class white male, I’m not particularly qualified to speak to this issue. I’ve never lived in Flint, Michigan, or Ferguson, Missouri; I’ve never been viewed with suspicion at an airport security checkpoint, during a traffic stop, or late at night at a convenience store just because of the color of my skin. I had the opportunity to go to college and eventually graduate school, not because of my intellect or scholastic performance but because I came from a family wealthy enough that I never had to contend with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt. I never lived in a neighborhood where my parents worried I might end up dead on the way home from school or work. So, no, it might not be my place to speak about racism in the United States — but I’d be remiss to not at least mention it.
- This country is ruled by a political party bent on maintaining its power and influence, even if the pursuit of that goal shreds any remaining vestiges of democracy. North Carolina is perhaps the most hideous example of this — but like a malignant tumor, it has spread all across the country. And lest you feel tempted to accuse me of favoring Democrats, consider this: That milquetoast “opposition” party has failed spectacularly at addressing in any meaningful way the issues I’ve outlined. Even with supermajorities in Congress, for example, Democrats couldn’t pass anything resembling universal health care in the United States. As a result, even with the gains made under the Affordable Care Act, Americans still end up declaring bankruptcy because of medical bills. This is a country that still has more wealth, by the way, than any other place on earth.
What did I forget? Undoubtedly a lot — not just as a matter of memory lapse, but as a function of keeping this post a reasonable length. Like I said, it’s profoundly difficult to put words to all of this. The level of corruption, self-promotion, and general malevolence that embodies our society, from the local to the federal level, should overwhelm and sicken anyone who cares about this country, even if we don’t all agree on the solutions to it.
This is not, by the way, a proclamation that America is all bad. Far from it. Indeed, I live in a country that gives me the freedom to speak about these maladies. I don’t take that lightly. I will not be arrested by a secret police force for pushing the “publish” button on this post (at least not yet). Accordingly, I consider it my duty to do precisely that. The sanctity of free speech is derived not merely from repeating talking points that are popular or laudatory.
So we ought to take that responsibility seriously and call a spade a spade: America has become a cruel, self-destructive oligarchy where wealth and power are envied by those who will never have it, only to constantly provide more of both to those who already have way too much. I don’t oppose the idea of becoming rich, or even inheriting lots of money; I oppose the idea of a society where an increasingly tiny number of people are fabulously successful while everyone else struggles just to survive.
We can do something about it now — or reach a point where the opportunity no longer exists.
