Some Say I'm a Dreamer

The question needs to be asked, who are we? Seriously, as a nation, who are we? I find myself with the dilemma of pondering this question every time I hear one of these ultra conservative Republicans speak. They act like they speak for the vast majority of Americans, but I have to hope, that they really don’t.

The reason I ask this question is because of the ping pong game going on in congress over unemployment benefits. Thanks to the wisdom of FDR, social security and unemployment made their way into being. The previous president, Herbert Hoover, thought very little of these programs.

Now, before I get back to my opening question, let’s quickly examine Herbert Hoover, the 31^st president of the United States. Hoover was a self-starter. He’d been born into poverty, he became an orphan. He attended Stanford, and used his degree in engineering to fashion himself into a multi-millionaire.  To use a modern model, he was a business man, not unlike the Republicans fashioned Mitt Romney to be. Hoover, however, won his presidential bid in 1928, and part of his platform was to run the country the way a smart business man would.

Alas, October 29, 1929 brought an end to the countries admiration for Hoover. He put forth tax cuts to big business, attempted weak public works programs, and all the while, told the press that America would soon be on its feet again. However, his staunch view that the government should have little if anything to do with the poor was a fatal view. Homeless people set out shanties called “Hoovervilles”  Hoover flat refused to give any thought to unemployment insurance, or any spending by the federal government to stop the bleeding. By the time 1932 rolled around, unemployment was ay 25%. In the next election, FDR crushed him. FDR’s new deal brought a revival to the nation, and history would rightfully paint Herbert Hoover as the most ineffective president in the nations’ history.

I use that little history lesson to bring us back to my opening question, what type of people are we? I hear about how the Republicans are entrenched in making sure that any extension of unemployment benefits comes with some serious cut backs to the Affordable Health Care Act. That’s right, they still haven’t let go of that one. Now to hold some of the downtrodden people in this nation as hostages in order to deep six a program you don’t like is sickening. I don’t get the logic why not simply use the program as a platform in the next campaign, why this fight to stop it now?

Then it began to occur to me that this could very well have very little to do with the people on unemployment, well, those who saw their benefits end because those they elected failed to help them. And I say help and not take care of them because I’m not going to fall into that trap. There is this misguided school of thought that liberals want a nation of people depending of the government. There is nothing wrong with helping people when they are a little down on their luck. That is what a kind hearted nation does.  I remember learning as a child about a man who went around, helping the sick without charging them a dime, what was his name? Oh yeah, that’s right, it was Jesus. You know, that savoir guy from the bible that conservative are always grasping close in their hands.

There is nothing wrong with helping people when they are down. And it’s rather vulgar that people would paint compassion and caring in a negative light. We claim to be caring people, in the time of tragedy, we’re amazed at when neighbor helps neighbor. No money exchanges hands, just people being humane. I don’t see charges of dependency against those helping to rebuild a home.

It sickens me that there has to be paid programming to raise money for those who served this nation in battle. Those people should always, always receive our best care. They answered the call to defend this nation. Under no set of circumstances should any of their benefits be subject to cuts. There is simply no defense for such an act.

I’m frustrated to see children with cancer. We can make Ipods, picture taking cell phones, and about a thousand other little gadgets but we cannot provide medical care for the ill. Let’s take a step back, and look at ourselves goddamnit! Let’s ask why medical care is so expensive that it prices some people right to the grave! Let’s ask why medical care of others has to be a for profit business. How come those we elect won’t answer that question?

And has I sit here, typing these words, I’m again drawn to the question I posed at the start of this blog, what type of nation are we? How is it that we can so easily turn a blind eye and call names to those that are at their lowest point?

I guess you can say I’m frustrated. I’ve never saw the value in not helping someone. I can never see that point, I don’t look at them as takers, and I look at them like they are people, because they are people.

And that could perhaps be the issue, that these people have been used as a wedge issue for so long it’s become hard for them to be people as people. A John Lennon famous song lyric goes “Some say I’m a Dreamer.” But like him, I hope I’m not the only one.