Day: May 21, 2013

The True Heroes Of Natural And Man Made Disasters: Teachers, Nurses, Paramedics, Police Officers, Firefighters!

Again, with the Oklahoma and Boston Marathon tragedies, as so many others, it is PUBLIC servants–teachers, nurses, paramedics, police officers, firefighters–who are the true heroes, doing beyond the call of duty to rescue and save lives!

But yet, these public servants are constantly pilloried and condemned, if they demand a living wage and decent benefits, as appreciation for their services, while people in the world of business make outrageous salaries and perks on Wall Street, and think that they deserve what they get, despite having messed up the economy, causing the Great Recession of 2008, as they have in every recession since the Great Depression!

We are told to worship Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, and other bank CEO’s who, by all justification, should be in prison for their actions!

We allow the Koch Brothers and the Walmart heirs to run rampant without any consideration of how they exploit their work force, and these are just examples, not the only ones.

We have Apple and Walmart and Target and numerous other companies which exploit foreign workers, and do not give a damn about safety or a decent living wage for these poor women and men who died in the disaster recently in Bangladesh!

It is time to hold these corporate leaders and companies accountable, and stop complaining about public servants who deserve respect and dignity and better pay for their sacrifices and dedication to the people they serve!

Joplin, Missouri; SuperStorm Sandy; Moore, Oklahoma: Reason To Pay More Taxes To Help Our Fellow Citizens!

America has gone through one natural disaster after another, more so in recent years, at greater cost of life and property.

The climate change deniers say it is par for the course, that nothing unusual is occurring, and that global warming is not the issue.

But even worse is that the same people in government who deny any concept of climate change and the need to react to it, also are the same people who, when a natural disaster occurs, fight against federal disaster aid, as in SuperStorm Sandy.

And if they, grudgingly, give up and say that disaster aid should be offered, they want the least aid possible, and only if there are budget cuts elsewhere to cover for the disaster aid.

So we have the two Oklahoma Senators–two of the absolute worst members of the US Senate at any time in our history—who represent one of the poorest states, but also a state of the oil industry, who take a hard hearted view on disaster aid, and budget cuts to compensate for such disaster aid!

James Inhofe and Tom Coburn have no problem in being “skin flints” on disaster aid, but if such is to be given, then hurt the poor, the sick, the unemployed, rather than make corporations pay fair taxes, make the wealthy pay more taxes, make all of us understand that when natural disaster hits, it is not just the people in the area of the disaster who suffer, but instead we all suffer!

It is the responsibility of all of us to help our fellow citizens, with the corporations and the wealthy being expected to pay more, but all of us need to pay more, and understand the Christian view that we are all our “brother’s keeper”!

What has happened to common decency, common dignity, and common humanity?

What has so sickened the body politic that all that matters is selfishness, greed, and lack of concern for our fellow citizens?

Is this the America that we want to live in? Is this the America that our Founding Fathers believed in when they created the Constitution? Is this the America that people have fought and died for in our wars? Is this the America we want to bequeath to our children and our children’s children?

This is a time to think about values and what really matters, rather than just money and things and possessions, and not caring about people we do not know!

It is a time to come together and strike back at these vicious right wing, narrow minded people who only care about themselves, and no one else!