A Bit of a Rant

I should start off this entry by saying I am a bit of a news junkie. Might explain why I can’t sleep at night. So I read Chrystia Freeland’s Op-Ed piece “The Lottery Mentality” on New York Times online.

It’s a crazy coincidence because I was just thinking about this Tuesday night. There is this mentality in working class communities that when one talks about retirement plans someone will take out a lottery ticket from their back pocket and say, “got it right here.” Tuesday night I was thinking about that retirement plan, it could have been that Mega Lotto was up to $244 million dollars. I didn’t play BUT I was thinking about that chunk of change. After all, being a poet and making a living solely off that discipline doesn’t come easy. Just a fact of life and in these economic times when government is looking at cutting back on funding for the arts, we, creative types, will have to find new solutions to generate income. So when I worry about money (can’t help the financial anxiety that hits me late at night) my thoughts move to spending $244 million dollars (that I haven’t quite won yet.)

You see, I think of that lottery money and think about the arts organizations that would benefit from some sizeable donations. Non-profits that could flourish. Spread the wealth. Allow communities to prosper. We have so many people in this country starving…and I’m not just talking about the artists. America is supposed to be one of the riches countries and yet we are cutting back support at every turn because people with high substantial incomes do not want to pay more taxes. So where do politicians dig into? The working and middle class of this country.

This working class and middle class have been diminishing with every financial crisis. Americans have to take a cold hard look at what’s not working. And just for the record, this is not Obama’s fault!! In fact, the Bush administrations (both) did so much damage that Obama’s administration has been trying to put out fires ever since. Not to mention, the in-fighting in the Senate against this administration has been ridiculous. Although I disagree with Obama’s decision, air strikes on Libya…I think this presidency has been tied into a straight jacket. He sincerely thought he could make the necessary changes from the inside but this system has long been broken. Just take a look at health care reform.

I was reading through some of the comments to this op-ed and there were a few who go straight to the fact that Americans are stupid. Although my cynical nyc-side wants to agree, I think it goes deeper than that. I think we have bought into this cultural myth that Americans can pull ourselves by our boots straps and overcome all difficulties on our own (singular). And when we can’t quite do that, we self-blame (I can’t get a break) or blame others (it’s the immigrants who are stealing our jobs.) I’m a first-generation Mexican-American born and raised in this country. My folks came to NYC to give us, their children, better opportunities. I get the myth because I grew up with it. However, what I have learned in my travels is that you can’t do this alone.

This lottery dream is crazy unrealistic. Yep, I get that. Instead, we have to really start working within our communities to get through this hard time. I’m not just talking about our friends…who we all love and adore…but rather extending our circles so that we are working cooperatively. We can barter our time, our resources to put energy into common projects. This doesn’t have to be just about the cash in our pockets, we can bring so much more to the table. Why wait until things get worse? What can these co-ops look like? Working garden collectives…we have to start growing our own food resources again especially in cities. Solar energy cooperatives…look to see what the group in DC is doing: http://mtpleasantsolarcoop.org/. Or Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE) in Brooklyn.

The possibilities are endless and I for one want to start thinking of positive changes because the alternative is too depressing. For example, clean water initiatives in NYC. We have amazing water filtration system for NYC but what if we were to lose power for a couple of weeks, what then? With so many people living in the metro area do we have alternative sources of energy to keep the water filtration system going? Or I read another article in Reality Sandwich about how much good produce gets thrown out into the garbage from big food centers like Whole Foods and Trader Joes to make room for incoming product. Anyone want to take up that cause and see if they could get Whole Foods to donate that food to any number of shelters in the area? I mean really we are wasting so much time and energy watching Charlie Sheen lose his s***t instead of creating change in our communities. We can do so much better and I’m tired of waiting for our elected officials to stop bickering long enough to get it right. I may be preaching to the choir here but I needed to get that off my chest. 

"The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders." — Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

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