Walking The Line For More Than Just The Fun Of It

I’m out on the line, carrying a sign, trying to get people to pay attention to what’s been happening around them while they’ve been distracted. I hope for a reaction to my presence. It doesn’t really matter if the response is positive or negative (though I prefer positive). If someone responds, it means that they see me, that they are thinking about my presence, whether they agree with what they think I stand for or not. For me, a negative response is just as much a victory as a positive one.

The ones who motivate me to keep going are the ones who don’t respond, ignore my presence, wear blinders to their surroundings, are willfully ignorant. To paraphrase Don Marquis, if you flatter someone’s intelligence, they will love you, but if you really make them think, they will hate you. So, for me, even their hate is a victory.

My intention is to bring attention to our mutual problems, to the fact that there is something terribly wrong in our country. Large corporations are given the same rights as individuals, but are exempted from the civic and social responsibilities that are expected of any other individual, and they are not held accountable or punished for their crimes, which any other citizen would be.

There is also a huge problem with representation, in that the big banks, corporations, and the super wealthy are overly represented, and the poor and working classes are barely represented, if at all. Policy legislation usually favors those who have spent the most lobbying our “representatives”; and they, in turn, represent the positions of those who contribute the most money to them. Policy is purchased for and by the richest among us. Our legislated policies no longer (if they ever did) serve the majority, or as we like to call ourselves, the 99%.

Anyone who is physically able needs to get out and vote, and at every opportunity. Vote for your own self interests, whatever you perceive them to be. No one has to cast their ballots for the same things that I do, but everyone needs to think about what it is that best serves their own interests and the interests of their grandchildren. And I would hope that some of those interests include education, healthcare, preserving the planet for them, and good employment so they can pursue life and liberty for their families and progeny.

Do we want a country that spends most of our GDP on its military and foreign wars to perpetuate oil conglomerates or on its people? These are issues that need to be considered very carefully. And then we must vote. That is the only way to change anything. It’s not a perfect solution, but the only one we have. The alternative is too horrible to even consider. Recent and ancient history tells that tale over and over again.

Sorry, but everyone needs to really think about the issues because nothing is simple and then commit to action. Your most potent tool is your vote. Your next most important tool is your first amendment right to free speech. In addition to voting, you need to let others know what you think about the way your governments, local, state, and federal are handling their jobs and responsibilities to their citizens, and not just the corporate ones. That right also extends to holding signs and walking picket lines in support of or against issues we deem worthy.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.--Benjamin Franklin

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.--Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, preface, 1758

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.--Friedrich Nietzsche

–LE

PS: I’ve altered my view slightly since writing this. I now beleive that one of our most effective tools will be the nationwide general strike…