Talk About a Revolution!

Forget the Broom

Copyright © 2005 Bob Persons

March 17, 2005

Don't you think it's time for a new government?

Don't you think it's time for a new constitution?

Aren't you fed up with corporations, executive officers, rich people getting the big breaks, while the middle class gets pittance bones tossed to them and the poor are worse off than ever?

Most middle-class citizens don't mind being tossed bones - as long as the rich and the poor are tossed the same bones. It's the injustice they object to.

Don't you think it's time to remind elected and appointed officials that they work for us citizens?

Don't you think it's time to tell corporations that they exist at the will of the people?

Aren't you fed up with corporations spending exorbitant amounts of shareholder money to pay executive salaries, then rewarding those executives even more when they screw up? And then the ones who suffer are the employees and shareholders and pension holders.

When have you ever seen corporate executives take a pay cut when ordinary worker pay is cut? When workers lose jobs, do executives also lose jobs? Figure it out. How many Delta worker jobs could be saved just by cutting executive salaries by 25%? Why are ordinary workers the only ones that have to bite the bullet when the company screws up?

Don't you think it's time for the people to take back their constitutional right to decide when to make war? Let's return that power to the people's representatives in Congress.

Don't you think it's time to start treating our soldiers like we value them? Is cutting veterans benefits the proper way to "support our troops"? Is sending them into combat without body and vehcile armor the proper way to "support our troops"? Is blaming the troops for the torture of detainees, while ignoring the orders that came from much higher up, the proper way to "support our troops"?

Don't you think it's time to fix our corrupted voting systems? Don't the people have the right to know that the vote they cast will be counted correctly?

Don't you think it's time to stop wrecking the environment? Isn't it time we decided that the natural resources of the earth do not belong to governments or to corporations? that they belong to the people? That the government's duty is to protect those natural resources for all citizens to benefit from?

Don't you think it's time to carve into stone just what constitutes the "commons"? that is, those resources that cannot be efficiently managed except by the people as a group. Shall we suggest to our government that these be defined as part of the commons, and that they shall be managed for the good of, and with full support of, the people?

• The air
• The natural water bodies
• The soil
• The minerals in the soil
• The communications airwaves
• The highways
• The telephone lines
• The electric supply lines
• Mass transportation
• Health
• (Add items here, as needed)

Don't you think it's time for us citizens to take back the nation that was made for us? Isn't it far past time for citizens to care that their country has been ripped from them by power-hungry politiicans and money/power-hungry corporations? Isn't it time we demanded that America be restored to the grand ideal nation that was conceived in 1776? Isn't it time we decided we will no longer tolerate being ruled by an elite instead of being governed by citizen-approved governors?

Is it too late? Have we spent so much on wasted efforts, that we are numb? Have we become so comfortably in our prosperous playground, that we no longer care to ensure our sovereignty over our own government?

As for me, I will not believe that we can do nothing.
I do not believe we are past caring.
I do not believe that all is lost to the greed and power hunger of the few.
But I do believe the structure is close to impenetrable. It has been many decades a-building. It will be a struggle, but it must be torn down and built new.

I have one idea for this world.
Destroy it and start over again.
There's too much dirt for a broom.
It calls for a fire.
It needs the flood.

-- Garabet, in America America, Elia Kazan

- Lone Coyote Calls