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In reply to the discussion: Researchers find 7,300-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada. [View all]Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)I am retired. 50+ years ago I was marching for Civil Rights and getting arrested. How much progress have we really made? We are no longer 'seperate but equal' but racism is still everywhere and politicians are doing their level best to disenfranchise everyone buy older white America. 45 years ago I was demonstrating against Viet Nam and getting tear gassed for exercising my 1st Amendment 'rights' and my right to 'peaceable assembly' and my right to 'petition for redress of grievance'. Today I look at Afghanistan and see nothing has changed. 40 years ago I was campaigning for Bobby Kennedy. We all know how well that turned out. Today I look at our country's first Black President and see him hamstrung by a do-nothing Congress that refuses to do anything to help American citizens, while at the same time Obama is working (in secret) to negotiate the TPP which will pass much of our sovereignty to the multi-national corporations.
I look at climate scientists declaring, in near unanimity, that the amount of carbon we are dumping into the atmosphere is going to cause calamitous global warming. And then I see the multinationals spending obscene sums of money to hire pliable lackys to tell us that fracking is good and coal is good and oil consumption is good and solar is bad and wind farming is bad. And the 'don't worry, be happy' crew gets all the air play from the so-called 'liberal media', which is, of course, owned by the same multinationals. And I see the right-wing hate mongers convincing people to vote against the own self-interest time after time after time just so that lazy no-good down the road doesn't get a penny in food stamps or unemployment. And I see our congress seriously talking about cutting my Social Security - an annuity that I paid into all my life, and cutting my MediCare - an insurance plan I paid into all my life.
And you tell me that I have the power?
Both my wife and I suffer from health issue that preclude taking long walks. We can't afford massages. We are on a low fat, low salt, low carb, fresh fruit and vegetable diet. Very little beef, a little more chicken. We sleep 8 hours a night. I put in a veg garden each spring. We are active in dog rescue.
I am not so much depressed as I am fatalistic. My first 'real job' was working in a lumber mill, where I earned about $15.00/hr. My daughter, who is a Certified Physician's Assistant (and a widow with 3 children), works for a Neurologist and makes $15.00/hr. I shudder to think what kind of life my 12-year-old grandson is going to have.
I feel like I have fought the good fight for over 40 years and frankly all I see is that we have lost at every juncture. We have been thrown just enough crumbs to make us think we were accomplishing something, when in reality we have accomplished bupkus. I don't see that as depression, just bowing to the inevitable.
I have thought since I was in High School that evolution developing a big brain is going to turn out to be one of the most egregious mistakes that nature has ever made and I don't see anything to make me change my mind.