I've Got Mine, Jack
Sorry to all the Jacks everywhere, although Jack is the recipient of the comment, therefore Jack could very well be one of the good guys. . .
I happen to think that some of us are lucky to have been born in America. Most of us are lucky to live in America. If I have readers who are not citizens of America, I know the jury is out, but, in general, the world continues to look toward our country for guidance and hope.
America is the land of plenty.
Until it’s not.
We are hamstringing ourselves. Shooting ourselves in the foot. Cutting off our noses to spite our faces.
No one likes death. No one likes taxes.
No one. (Okay, maybe morticians.)
I don’t like taxes. But where would we be without them? Where would our country be without the money necessary to keep everything going? And the people hired to facilitate the business of government which, in the end, is the manifestation of our shared interests.
I grew up watching the television show Bonanza. Hell, the Cartwrights were probably the Bundy family of their day, but, from what I can recall, they were inherently good people, even though they had an indentured servant by the name of Hop-Sing. I watched a shit ton of Bonanza episodes. As I’ve alluded to previously, I watched a shit ton of television during my formative years.
Television shows that, in terms of this century, were not ‘woke’.
I’ve rotted my brain on mindless crap my entire life - ask any of my former partners - and I am not ‘woke’, but, at least, I see America for what it is - not perfect, what I hope it can be - a little less not perfect, and its long-term possibility - a more perfect union.
But we need to buck up and quit misidentifying our opposition.
What’s the expression? Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whether he meant to or not, because - after all - he was a member of the moneyed class, championed policies that were good for the majority of Americans. Times might have been tougher then with the Great Depression, market collapse and Dust Bowl, but I don’t know. . .
Compare that to our own economic apocalypse in 2008, the ongoing tragedy of Flint, Michigan, the devastating and reverberating repercussions due to Hurricane Katrina, a treasury-draining never-ending conflict in the Middle East, the current crisis in Texas, wildfires out of control throughout the West. These should be the times we have each other’s backs. These should be the times we are looking out for one another, especially your everyday Americans. These should be the times that the ‘not 1%’ rise as one.
Instead, we are at each other’s throats over nonsense.
We’re being fleeced.
The chaos in Texas reminds me of the cold-blooded under-handed shenanigans surrounding the Enron debacle. It may not have been the same sort of real-time evil intentions, with power brokers chuckling over grandmas not getting heat, but it does fall under the category of choosing the path of least resistance because. . . “Fuck’em!”
The comfortable are indifferent to the masses.
It’s similar to me sending customers down Tumwater Canyon in a raft with one air chamber. (Since I am “shop-talking”, Tumwater Canyon has six miles of butt-puckering Class V whitewater. The scale only goes to VI, and VI is considered not to be navigable.) Your typical raft has up to five air chambers. The redundancy is intentional so that you can lose one chamber and still remain afloat.
The comfortable are content for the country’s infrastructure to be the equivalent of a raft in Class V waters with one chamber because it doesn’t cost them as much as a five-chambered boat, and they think they are insulated from the fallout of their decision.
What sucks is they have convinced everyday Americans that they have their best interests at heart and they’ve played to the folks who watched Bonanza and the only thing they took away from it was that the Cartwrights didn’t need anyone but the Cartwrights to make their way through the world. If everyone would just let them be, they would live happily ever after.
I may be wrong about this but I don’t think it has always been common knowledge what everybody earns doing such and such. That seems like a phenomena of the past four decades.
Yesterday, I got a notification on my iPad from Yahoo Sports, that Fernando Tatis signed a contract for more than $20 million a year for the next 12 years or so. Fernando Tatis - apparently - is very good at fielding and hitting baseballs. Fernando Tatis! One man. One very fortunate and skilled human being is going to receive $20 million dollars a year playing a sport for the gratification of a bunch of fans who wish they were him, and a bunch of people who have no idea who he is and a few people who have gambled that he will make their product more attractive.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos will earn $20 million in the time it takes me to type this sentence.
Meanwhile, Fernando Tatis (not related to THAT Tatis) in Colorado City, Texas, who is working at the local Whataburger, is being paid whatever Texas’ minimum wage might be while being excoriated by his former mayor with a diatribe that says it all:
The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!
I haven’t been to a church in I-don’t-know-how-long, but I distinctly remember that the Christian Jesus I was introduced to when I went through Confirmation was a historic figure I wanted to emulate. How do people who still believe in Jesus’ teachings to this day act like jackasses in their every day lives? How do they square their indifference to suffering, struggle and strife with their love of Jesus? How do they justify behaving as if the only thing that matters is that their bank account is safe and secure and sucking up profit wherever possible?
The common enemy of us all is insatiable, unquenchable greed.
Combine greed with an unwillingness to rectify, or even recognize, the system is skewed, always skewed, in favor of the wealthy and powerful and you get these inexorable tensions.
We voted for Obama because we were looking for change.
We favored Bernie because we were looking for change.
People voted for Trump because they hoped he’d bring change.
People are yearning for change. I think it would be wise that we give it to them before the center collapses. I think we need FDR-type thinking. It’s a time that demands bold, radical change that produces tangible results.
It’s a different era with different and, perhaps, more massive, while less tangible, obstacles, but it’s the only way out. The only way to bring the country closer together.
The “I’ve Got Mine, Jack” mindset has got to be replaced.
AAR Steve Laboff shared this column with me from another writer on Substack and it addresses what you can do if you are without power or water. It has links to several other informative blogs dealing with the same topic. Too late, no doubt for many of you, but something in it might be of use.
Also, Nolan Richardson, former basketball coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks, or, at least, that is how I remember him, tells a tale about the first time he listened to a game that Larry Bird played in. It was on the radio as he was driving somewhere. It’s pretty funny. Note Magic Johnson seated behind Larry Bird - theirs was a rivalry for the ages - and the shot of Bill Russell enjoying the commentary. It’s a nice tribute.
I apologize if this is an incoherent ramble. I got into the Wine Club wine box early tonight. I hope my readers and family in Texas are safely under five layers of wool blankets or something of the equivalent. - JLM
Not incoherent, the truth! And about Nolan, we had just moved here when the Hogs won the National Championship. He was great!