The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –
Watching a brain unravel is a terrible thing.
So is watching a state and a country go down the drain, along with the ideals that created it.
It is torture not only for the person who experiences the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease but also the loved ones who have to watch it happen up close.
It is torture to every citizen.
I imagine it would be pure hell for someone without any health care coverage at all. I’m sure there are many cases of that across the country as well as in my native state since the Republican governor — a doctor who could have given aid to thousands of people with the stroke a pen and a billion dollars in federal money — refuses to help.
Lucky for my 87-year-old mother, she is one of those working moms from the Great Depression and World War II generation who ended her working life with a healthy retirement package and full private health care coverage. Many, many people in Alabama and across the country are not so lucky.
I worry about those in my Baby Boom generation and the ones to follow, the Generation Xers and New Millenniums, who will probably not have it so good.
The 34 year political war that still rages between democracy and capitalism is taking its toll. The so-called “greatest” and richest country in the world cannot spare a dime to help its old people and poor.
On top of that, many of the people who could have voted a different way and made a difference are still blaming all their troubles on a black man who had the gall to run for president — and win.
I don’t care if these people won’t bother to read what I have to tell them or unfriend me on Facebook for telling the truth. I am still going to be right here telling it like it is until the cows come home to the barn and the Christians and the Muslims find out there is no heaven except the world we create for ourselves right here on Earth.
It is not Obama’s fault.
We are responsible. All of us.
That includes union leaders who have not done enough to educate their members. It includes union members who are still blaming Obama and joining ranks with the tea party to support the continuing radicalization of the Republican Party.
It includes environmentalists who are so focused on their own little fiefdoms and limited local issues that they refuse to join the fight for the greater good. You can’t save the world by sharing softball humor on Facebook when the opposition is fully prepared to kick you in the teeth and bury you like road kill.
It includes Democrats who think they can change things by arguing amongst themselves on little blogs and in Facebook groups that only include Democrats. You need to start supporting an alternative Web Press and sharing this wisdom not just with your friends, but by engaging the enemy.
What I see in front of me spread out like a DaVinci vision is a bloody battlefield, and we are losing the war.
I cannot spend my time being nostalgic for the past when the only thing that matters is what lies ahead. Are we going to save this democracy? Or are we going to beat it to death?
I am almost done trying to help the people of my home state. I have tried everything I know to do to try to get through to them. They simply will not listen.
They are like my mother with dementia who acts like a child when I try to tell her to take her medicine.
I am sorry to have to say it it but I am giving up on you, and I am giving up on her. She will be moved to an assisted living home very soon. I am selling off all my earthly possessions and moving back to Washington, D.C., where I hope to find a way to make a difference there to stop this war on democracy.
The government is not the problem, people. Corporate capitalism is the problem.
If enough people do not see that in time, we can kiss this worthy experiment goodbye.
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Why do I hear cheering in the distance?
Well said, Glynn.
I have lived here a lifetime, almost 63 years, and am baffled and saddened by the arrogance of those who would rather burn down the entire city than share the fire-hose with their neighbors.
I hear the anger at anything from our President, but when I ask questions, the answers are the same lines. Not facts, just talking points. Not solutions, just finger-pointing. Not attempts to work together, only to “win “.
I fear our nation is in a deep pit and those who have put us there are still digging. I am pout of ideas to awaken the very people that think they’re being forgotten but put themselves in the situation by their indifference and laziness. Their country is being purchased by a powerful few and they stand by and worry about little things.
I understand your disgust and wish you the best in your journey .
Anybody who would cheer for someone having Alzheimer’s or no health care has no personal class. Not even of the Alabama-Auburn variety.
Excellent commentary – succinct and to the point. Unfortunately, we live in a time that cannot imagine achieving great things for the common good. At the same time, we are seeing every day why we cannot rely upon the private sector/market place to provide citizens with healthcare — those citizens who have made private sector success possible. Corporations’ reluctance to invest in healthcare only further demonstrates the need for a single payer system.
“I am still going to be right here telling it like it is until the cows come home to the barn and the Christians and the Muslims find out there is no heaven except the world we create for ourselves right here on Earth.”
“The government is not the problem, people. Corporate capitalism is the problem.”
Great piece, Glynn! The above just about says it all. There is no telling how deeply entrenched these ideas are and how much they’re holding up any and all attempts to make things better. Carry on! I admire you and all those like you. My gosh, the character it must require to fight on when the prospects are so grim!
I started a bar in Birmingham once. It was called Joe. People seemed to like it, as it had a Liberal ambiance in a sea of Reaganesque conservative malaise. What Joyce and I achieved at Joe may have advanced the Liberal outlook marginally, who knows? What we did do was change the drinking habits of a portion of Birmingham to prefer better beer and better music than what was available at the time.
I remember that many politicians in those days ran as Democrats, and when they won they immediately changed to republicans and were really in it just for the money. The pub burned to the ground one cold night, but Joe lasted quite a while, going through a few different permutations.
I lived in Birmingham for many years and saw it grow into a greater city than it once was, even as the politics of Alabama remained counter-progressive.
Glynn Wilson helped as much as anyone to educate people to resist this trend. Let’s hope the seeds he planted take root and that Alabama lives up to the progress made in her greatest city.
Thanks Rowland. Yes, it was a great bar.
I marveled at the jazz and Bass Ale available in my home state and native city as a young man. Five Points South in those days helped open my own eyes to a different world than the Klan world I grew up in east of Birmingham, where rednecks drank Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Yuck. Now Birmingham has a brew pub that makes some of the best IPA around.
Reading the New York Times and Washington Post and Harper’s magazine in the University of Alabama library also introduced me to an editorial world far removed and much smarter than the conservative Birmingham News read by my parents in the suburbs.
I made it out of Birmingham all the way to the front page of the Sunday New York Times.
I came back here mainly to take care of my aging and ailing mother. Now I will be heading back to D.C. to try once again to help the nation’s capital emerge from the spell put on there by the Fox News and tea party Kool-aid.
I suspect it will take another few years for Alabama to emerge from the spell. Maybe by 2018 or 2022.
I will also be coming to see you in Cape Cod on my way to Cambridge next year, my friend.