Every Day

I think we might need to rethink the "American Dream", and try to live our lives in waking moments, suspended in whatever dreams lift us. 

America's War on the Middle Class

I don't know exactly what I did wrong, besides getting three college degrees and then taking a job as a teacher.  I thought I was "doing it right", you know?  Engaging in the world in a productive way, contributing to the economy by buying a house, cars, having kids, sending them to college too, and trying to be a good citizen.

Unfortunately, what I end up with at the end of the day is overwhelming debt and a sense of total confusion about how I ended up fucked by the institutions of this great country.  My mortgage interest rates are too high, but in order to renegotiate them, I have to fork over $2000.  I want a divorce, but the lawyer requires a $2500 retainer.  If I go through mediation, I'm still fucked, because I don't understand the law well enough to protect myself and my children.  I am STILL paying off my student loan bills, and am now accruing student loans payments from two of my three kids.  Oh, and the third one will start college next year. 

How, exactly, do we expect the economy to grow if middle class people live paycheck-to-paycheck?  How do we expect this next generation to engage in the economy if they are saddled with crushing student loan debt?  Middle class families who try to do right by their children (sending them to college, enrolling in sports and activities, and so on) try to endure every day. 

I'm not saying I'm poor - I make a good salary - but it's not enough to pay for tuition, room & board, and living expenses for a kid going to school in my own state! 

Every day, I believe more and more that this system of democracy only works for some people, and at the end of the day, America is NOT the great country of opportunity anymore.  I, for one, am tired of seeing people (and companies) totally take advantage of their positions in society, at the cost of the everyday people who go to work every day and just try to keep up with their bills. 

And as a final thought, I say "fuck the government" when they try to tell me that filing divorce papers (which is only the START of financial fuckery) costs $167, but my marriage license cost $25.  I'd rather stay married on paper than give a single penny to the government for something they should NOT be involved with in the first place.  (Marriage.)

So ... piss off, county, city, state, and federal government.  I will find a new way to survive without your needless intervention.  Thanks but no thanks. 

DJ Trump (aka Joseph Stalin)

I understand, America:  you're delusional.  What's happening in the United States right now is fucking ridiculous.  We have a president who is a total narcissist, a congress which is too scared to take action against an autocratic liar, and a general public which is too self-involved to notice the sucking vacuum of stupidity spreading like an STD across the United States of America.

As an educator, I am embarrassed.  I try very hard to teach young people how to learn and engage in the world, but the world itself is a quagmire.  Do I tell a 16-year-old person to remember literary terms, or do I try to impart a sense of civic responsibility?  And shouldn't those two things work in tandem?  Shouldn't we all know how to speak and listen and communicate, without imparting hatred based on partisan bullshit?

According to the current president of the great United States of America, we should go to a foreign adversary and (metaphorically) suck dick on an international stage.  I am not a nationalist, but I am fundamentally embarrassed by Donald Trump essentially rolling over and taking it in the ass by a Russian KGB member.  I mean, congratulations, Putin; you are the person I always thought you were.  You're a mercenary.  My problem is with the American public who takes DJ's treason and maintains that he is "improving" America. 

Any president of these United States who praises a Russian killer, a North Korean idiot, and a Venezuelan murderer, while trashing our European allies is a fucking traitor.  He has no interest in the lives of average Americans; he is trying to assert that his dick is bigger than everyone else's (something I very much doubt is true).  He is a pushover, only interested in himself and his bank account. 

There comes a line when I cannot support the politics of something called a 'democracy", which is anything but.  I will not support this system of government, nor will I be a part of machinery which helps create more idiots who drink the Kool-Aid.  People seem to be purposefully ignoring the fundamental bullshit which presents itself on TV every day.  As a side-note, I cannot be a part of the machine which turns out under-informed, under-educated citizens every school year. 

At some point, it has to stop.  Who will step up?