A Dream Deferred?
A friend, after reading the previous post, asked me how I felt about what I’d written, about what’s going on out there. Was I angry, he asked? Angry, hmmmm, yeah, I am, at times, angry. Not the rock-throwing, take-it-to-the-streets righteous indignation anger I felt back in the 60s/70s during a previous unjust and unnecessary American war. More a frustrated, tired, disappointed anger. So much of the dream we had back then, so much of the energy to achieve that dream, is gone.
The anti-war and civil rights movements saw tens of thousands taking to the streets, dedicated, defiant, willing to face the consequences of trying to change a system they believed to be deeply flawed. Today I see a dozen people dressed in black standing outside the Federal courthouse here in Albuquerque, protesting a war as heinous, if not more so, than the war I fought against. And while the traffic streams by on Lomas Ave, those pathetically few brave, protesting souls are no more relevant to those self-absorbed drivers than shadows on the street.
A black man and a woman vie for the presidency while our government builds a fence across our countries southern border. Whatever happened to ‘Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free…’? If the Statue of Liberty could weep, her tears would form a waterfall of despair.
The infrastructure of this country is falling apart, children in the richest country on the planet go hungry, the education system is falling apart, the gap between the richest and poorest grows, the middle class is disappearing while our government tries to foist ‘democracy’ on other countries at the end of a gun. A very expensive gun. A gun we pay for, I might add. And they won’t even let us see the body bags of the children who held those guns nor the devastation those guns have wrought on other children.
The pursuit of fear alleviation has replaced the pursuit of happiness. We, the ‘common’ folk, pay the vast majority of taxes and few of us are more than one paycheck away from homelessness. And that paycheck is getting smaller by the day.
Retirement? The Golden Years? Fagetaboutit. If you’re lucky enough to have a job, you’re going to have to keep that job until you fall face down in your Cream of Wheat some morning to be replaced by some slightly younger poor fuck who will have to work until they fall face down in their breakfast cereal.
So, yeah, I guess you could say I’m angry.
Langston Hughes wrote of a dream deferred. Has the dream become the raisin or the sore or a heavy stone sinking below the surface of our waking self? Is there enough left to reach a critical mass, to explode again? I hope so, but I’m not real big on hope these days.
I so know what you mean talking about paychecks getting smaller and paying out more… Pat and I are considering moving out of the country - he is looking into applying through Intel for a job in one of the fabs in China - so that we are not hindered by taxes so we can hopefully save some money and get out of our debts.
Unfortunately, it is hard for everyone to do that… in fact, most people don’t have such a luxury and it makes me sick to think that our families will still be suffering… My parents recently had their land (and house) sold at auction because they were so far behind on their payments… they have lived there since before I was born… Luckily, the man who bought it agreed to rent it back to them for less than what they were paying so they don’t have to move…
Pat’s mom is the only one (besides his brother who lives with them) who is working, she makes around $14/hr working as kitchen staff at nursing home. She recently underwent a surgery for rotator cuff injury and they are fighting with the company for workman’s comp… also, they found out recently that the company is closing the facility she works at because someone - the city I think - bought the land that they were selling. As I understand, they will only be there a few more months. Yet, because of her injury, she will never find another job that pays as well, despite her experience.
It upsets me that all this is happening… that, should Pat get to transfer and we move overseas, that our families will still be caught here… this is supposed to be ‘The Land of the Free’ and yet, we are looking to move to a communist country to be free of all the taxation and oppression that goes on here.
Comment by Sharon Akins | June 14, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
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I saw the film “The Visitor” for the second time last night. This time I went with two girlfriends, both American citizens–one born and raised in Spain, the other born and raised in El Salvador.
We wept through the ending. But, as the only one American born, I was the one who wept for the hope and promise that our country once had.
Like so many other countries, the U.S. is just another police state–designed to keep the wealthy wealthy while the rest of us line their pockets with the fruits of our hard work.
I fear it’s not a Dream Deferred, my friend. I believe it’s a Dream Destroyed.
Comment by Rebecca | June 14, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
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