Monday, October 03, 2011

Battling the Hydra

I really acquired my initial interest in politics when Reagan became President.  In even my callow youth I recognized the fact that the man was full of shit.  "Government is the problem," he'd tell us.  I have an inherent suspicion of anyone who says that while pursuing a job IN government.  If government isn't here to serve the people, why the hell would a right-winger want to be IN government in the first place?  Oh... yeah.  To serve themselves.  And their cronies.

As a progressive, I refer to our enemy as The Hydra.  We've got a thousand different causes attacking the different heads, but most of them tend to forget that the beast behind it all is the same.  When you chop of the sewage spouting head and stop it from polluting in one place, another head is savaging a young immigrant worker trying to support a wife and a baby on less than minimum wage.  While we celebrating the victory of the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, somewhere there's a professional holding a pink slip because his firm outsourced his job.  And as much as we'd like to pretend these things are unconnected, they're not.

Air pollution, outsourcing, abuse of labor, debit card fees, usurious interest rates, ecosystem and econo-system destroying oil spills.  Bank Bailouts and State appointed "Financial Managers."  Tax breaks and fee hikes.  Attempted plunder of the National Forests.  Endangered wolves with targets on their backs.

All different heads of the same hydra.

Had this broken open twenty years ago, I'd have been there with bells on.  But now I'm relegated in many ways to the role of cheerleader.  Because twenty minutes standing on my feet will send my back into spasms that, because of my fibro, feel a lot like someone punching me in the kidneys.  I have a job that pays my child support, but besides that I do the majority of the cooking and cleaning around the house, and I've got my writing.  My personal physical presence would do nothing to help the movement, but it would sure as hell kick my ass.  I remember the days when I could sleep on the sidewalk... or under a bridge (which I've done more than once) with no ill effects.  Now I have problems sleeping in a bed.  Or anywhere else.  I have a body that feels as though it's in constant revolt.  There is never a moment in which I am not in some measure of pain.  Damp weather and physical discomfort increase that pain considerably.  My days of abusing my body with no repercussions are long over.

So the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak.  But my heart is with these folks because I believe that it's time we tried to wrest our Republican from the hands of the powerful.

As Megadeth put it:  "It's still We the People, right?"

Saw a tee shirt a long time ago... back during the Reagan era as a matter of fact.  It said "If this is no longer the Land of the Free, I sure hope it's the Home of the Brave."