If theres one thing I could ask people to keep in mind as they head to the voting booth today (and I hope they do), its that we live in an interdependent society, and that our votes should be used to collectively improve the whole society, rather than to improve our individual circumstances. To wit: Funding education is important, even if you dont have children in schools. Providing health care and housing for people who cant afford it is important, even if you can afford it. Giving immigrants a viable path to citizenship is important, even if youre already a citizen. Making sure people who work earn a livable wage is important, even if youre not personally in danger of falling below the poverty line. These are things that make your society better. Better education, better living conditions and a higher minimum wage will improve the lives of people who are most at risk of turning to gangs, welfare or crime as a means of supporting themselves and their families. They say that a rising tide floats all boats or something to that effect. This is a fairly bad analogy, because it indicates that pouring more water (money) into the economy will somehow benefit everyone. We know today that most of that money ends up in the accounts of the people who have made an art form of acquiring and protecting wealth. A better analogy would be to look at society as a house, the roof representing those at the top of the economy, and the foundation representing those at the bottom. The house of America has an amazing roof, and a seriously broken foundation... yet a huge percentage of our resources continue to go toward improving the roof, which is not a surprise, since the people allocating the resources live in the attic. If no attention is given to the foundation, however, the house will collapse. This will affect the attic-dwellers the most, as they come crashing down... but the rubble and debris scattered on the ground wont affect the huge number of people already living in the broken, flooding, attention-deprived basement quite as much. It will be bad for them, for sure, but it will be the folks falling from their leather-lined, wifi-ready, open-bar loft who will feel it the most. In order for society to succeed, we have to make sure everyone is safe, everyone is fed, everyone is clothed, everyone has the ability to go to the doctor or hospital, everyone has the ability to pursue the realization of their potential. America used to be known as The Land of Opportunity - the idea being that through hard work and ingenuity, you could climb your way out of the basement and get to the middle floors or even the top floor. That was the promise that America was built on, and it was a good one. The trouble today is that the people at the top have (predictably) put as many barricades as possible in the stairwells, locked the doors and all but hired armed guards to defend their exclusive space. They like it up there, and they understandably dont want to share - but their persistent neglect of those at the bottom is the same mistake that has led to the demise of many great civilizations weve seen in the past. We need to use our votes as wisely as we can. The barricades we face are sometimes very literal - today, in many areas, poll watchers will do whatever is in their power to harass, bully, intimidate and otherwise frighten off votes - primarily those of minorities or anyone who looks like they might vote for a Democrat or liberal. If you have the right to vote, vote. Dont let anyone stop you, and dont fall into the trap of voting for the folks who want to send more money to the roof at the cost of further neglect to the foundation. Fix the foundation, and everyone lives in a better house.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 12:31:04 +0000
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