Friday, April 15, 2011

You Don't Mess With A Lifeline

The older I get, either I am becoming more jaded or apathetic to the class structure we have in America. Here in North Carolina from what I understand the unemployment rate dipped to a level to where extended benefits would have to be terminated. In some instances that's good. However, if you are still among the long-term unemployed, then that's not so good. In theory this means the last check for you will come this week. However, the republican controlled house and senate have said they would make a bill to extend the benefits for 20 weeks under the proviso that the current governor reduces her proposed budget package. Frankly, I dont know what the budget proposal would be, and I don't know if I'd want to know in comparison to if I were going to continue keep my lights on, gas in my car (which incidentally is $4.00 per gallon) or making my health insurance payments. The politicians are really playing political games with the middle to lower class lifeline. I think this is why I cannot stand politics and politicians. You have the 10% (the social/economic elite) making decisions for the other 90%. To me, it represents the politics of disconnectedness. If the folks are so inclined to do the right thing, you do the right thing, no strings attached. You do the right thing because it is the morally and just decision to make for the greater good. I don't see that happening. I don't see it happening in DC, I don't see it happening in NC. The current social climate of the country is that we are a nation on edge. We live in a country where those on edge, are going over the side, in some cases willfully. I never thought I would live in a world where a congresswoman would get shot on a street corner, a mother would kill herself and her babies because of economic anxiety, or a military psychiatrist would go on a shooting rampage on a military base. This is scary and the folks we elected, to be our country's custodians either dont know or choose not to know how to fix the problems. Aloofly, the American political process is white, and aloofly, its stepping on it's citizens lifeline.