It seems like an old, all too familiar, story. You begin a new relationship. You have goals that you share, and a whole life ahead of you to pursue and perfect them. You forge a path together. You provide support through the process of gaining an education and establishing some financial security. Then, just when you think things should be running smoothly, and all your work and sacrifice would start to pay off, your partner takes up with someone else. You get kicked to the curb; left with nothing but the bills. Washington, DC, has run-out on the American people.
The affair has been going on for quite some time. You knew it, but you turned a blind eye. You accepted the lines that “everybody does it,” and “it means nothing, you’re the one I really love.” You hoped it was a phase, just something that stroked their ego. You figured that they’d never let it go so far that they’d tear your life apart, your home, your security, and your future. You were naive. You underestimated your competition.
They promised excitement, wealth, glamor and power. You were just the steadfast partner that came with responsibility and accountability. Those responsibilities may have been what your partner’s career was built to deal with in the first place, but things have changed. The new lover wants it all; your partner, your security, your bank account, your car, and your home. They don’t actually plan to wed, that would just look bad, and besides, they wouldn’t be able to hit you up for support payments.
Then there’s the inevitable break-up battle. All past allegiances seem to fly out the window. The partner that you supported and nurtured is now willing to see you live under the nearest overpass with nothing more than old photo albums to keep you company. There’s a mixture of “if I can’t have you nobody can,” with “my new lover wants to make sure that I get all that I can out of the divorce deal.” The combination is a devastating blow. All that you thought you could count on has been ripped away, and the one that you trusted the most keeps kicking you while you’re down, cheered on by their new soul-mate.
Corporations are stealing your life and the home that you built. They’ve become the ‘person’ that only you were meant to be. With the stroke of a pen- or several strokes over a period of time- your EX has transferred all that you had into the greedy hands of this dead-beat gold-digger. They’ve made you a tenant in your own home. They’ve taken all that you have and left you with nothing but the bills. And, if that wasn’t enough, you’re being made to pay support even though you’re getting left with the children to support.*
The honeymoon ended so long ago you can’t even remember. The marriage is dead. As always, you were the last one to know. The damage has already been done. You were so blinded by the shock of losing your partner that you didn’t find out until it was too late that you’re already at the stage where the battle has eaten up most of what you had. You were blind-sided. The corporations have been working their designs for a long time. The ‘lawyers’ are making out like bandits while you’re finding out just how broke you are because your EX has spent everything making their new lover happy.
Adding insult to injury, pretty soon the new lover is going to be in a position to make an offer on the house, the only thing you have left, and you won’t be able to refuse. They have already taken everything else. You have nothing left to pay the mortgage and upkeep since the court ordered your wages garnished. Soon the corporations will be in a position to ‘privatize’ utilities, natural resources, social services, and everything else that the American people have. Americans will be tenants in a country owned by corporations.
This is where the American people find themselves. Their partnership with their government is broken. They’ve been kicked to the curb. Their EX has a new (perhaps not so new, but the affair is now out in the open and they’ve pretty much shacked up together), very demanding, and very greedy partner. The bank accounts are being raided, money is being hidden, properties are being liquidated, and you’re getting stuck with the bill.
The current debt ceiling debate is just another in the long line of decisions, or indecisions, that take more from the American people,and give more to American corporations; More money, more power, and more control over the institutions that the American people built. The prolonged debate has already had an impact. The economy is taking shots when it was barely getting back on its knees. Everything you once owned is being devalued so that corporations, your EX partner’s new lover, can buy it up on the cheap.
Washington politicians, as if to do yet another favor in order to prove their fealty to their new love, seems to be going for broke. If they can force, or simply fail to stop, a default, they’ll be able to serve up all that you built together, as well as the deed to your great-grand-daddy’s homestead (with all the mineral rights), to their new significant other. They will take your birthright and turn it for a profit.
The game is rigged. It turns out that your EX is also the divorce attorney appointed by the court to represent you, as well as the magistrate that will hear the case, with offices, and their own court house, in a building owned by their new lover. Your screwed trying to get a fair shake under these rules. How do the American people seek redress to their grievances when those that should be their advocates have become the adversaries?
The conservatives are yelling “bend over”: the Democrats are yelling “how far?”; The corporations are yelling “faster, harder”; while the American people simply grit their teeth and bare it. How long will this go on before the American people say “enough is enough! I made you who you are, and I can damn well take it all back” …and then slap the interloper down the back stairs into the gutter, where they belong, and send the EX packing with nothing but the clothes on their back that you found them in?
It’s time to become empowered and take back control. What you have now is not anything like what was envisioned in the beginning. It’s time to let the past go and look to the future. It’s time to cut the EX loose, stop pining for their loss, and forget about hoping that they’ll come back to you. You know they won’t, and the longer you let them string you along, the more damage they will do. Use what strength you have left to hold on to all that you’ve worked for, and use the experience you’ve gained to envision the partner you deserve… then get out there and make it happen.
*- There is no intention to label the American people as ‘children’ in this article. It is nothing more than an accident of the analogy. Please interpret this part of the analogy as ‘dependents’, ‘responsibilities’, the ‘vulnerable that require our support’, ‘education’, ‘social security’, ‘health care’, ‘police’, ‘fire and rescue’, etc.
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