“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Fuck Horatio Alger…right up his stupid ass. I understand he just wanted to write some books, but I’m not sure he knows what he helped to breed. Also I’d like to send a mighty middle finger shout out to all of those “up by the boot straps” people. I’ve been having too many discussions with people who seem to be caught up in the Horatio Alger myth. You know what I mean cause you’re probably a little caught up in it…as am I. This is the belief that instead of living out our lives as we are, we will have some breakthrough and strike it rich. We will pay off all of our bills and live in luxury for the rest of our days. Most of us don’t know how, but we believe it will happen. This is the attitude that tends to make people not want the rich to get taxed heavily. The attitude that says “universal health care is the road to socialism!”. It’s not that they really think it’s a such a bad idea. It’s that they don’t want to be like rich people in other countries who pay a higher tax. Countries in which even the working man is a little more content. He knows if he get’s sick that he won’t be driven to the poor house between trying to pay the medical bills off and missing time from work. Meanwhile here, we tend not to want those rich folks to get taxed cause we expect to become one of them. As much as I’m for people making money it seems as though the same people who are proud to be American should be the ones going crazy because of all the outsourcing. Mind you, I’m not only talking about the Indian dude that answers your technical support call. I’m talking about all the manufacturing jobs that have been eliminated. The ones that we have instead moved to places like China. These should be the people bitching that this countries main export these days are jobs. It’s funny to me when I see some of these commericals. Especially that truck commercial with the “this is our country” song playing. First of all cause I never identify with it. Second, because alot of the things people cared about that made a country are being ignored in favor of things we really will never control. Do all the “Made in the USA” folk care that not much is made here anymore? Folks can’t even get good bootstraps anymore, so I’m not sure how the whole pulling themselves up by them thing is going to work out. The real bullshit is even if I could get these issues addressed I’m still feeling like an outsider. When I see people that look like me in the mainstream they’re usually gimmicks. It makes me want to get my Ph.D. and keep dressing the way I dress and wearing shades. The thing is I’d end up marginalized and people would have me on shows to be cool. They’d probably ask me less about my theories than my style. The thing is they know I’ll never relate to “Jack and Diane” If I moved to a small town and started farming and driving a pick up truck, I’d still be the black guy. However, none of that was my original point. My point was people are more worried about Adam being covered by Steve’s health plan than the fact that the economy is going down the crapper. I hear people against raising minimum wage cause it will make prices go up. Despite the fact that most of the people who work and don’t have alot of money simply funnel their income right back…consumerism. Meanwhile prices rise anyway. Baltimore was number 11 on places to have a child last year. This year it’s number 30. It didn’t drop because of doctors or hospitals or anything health realted. It dropped because of money. The cost of living in Baltimore shot up all of the sudden so we’re no longer the most ideal place to try and start a family. Blue collar is becoming the welfare class, the rich are making a killing and we are worried about what Simon is going to tell that girl that couldn’t sing that good but seemed sweet. The whole time we’re busy with scratch offs and trying to figure out what lottery number to play after having that dream about Tony Blair getting bitch slapped by Dick Cheney while Condi did the dance of the seven veils to some Fertile Ground house mix in the background (unless I just need to make sure I don’t fall asleep with CNN on again). Anyway, what was the point, oh yeah…you will probably die in some range of middle class, the odds are very low that you are going to get rich. You will not have a specialist on call that you can fly to whatever part of the world you’re in. When you get hurt you’ll probably be sitting in the emergency room for a several hours. If you get locked up your lawyer will plea bargain your sentence down and it won’t be on T.V. and no one but your family will care. If your car get’s totalled you will most likely end up on the bus and you’ll get a little ass check for what your car is worth - after the accident mind you. To all of you I say this…a little socialism is not bad for you…it’s actually something you should pray for. Well, scratch that last one…work for it. Universal health care is not the devil. The devil is in that bill you get when you go to the hospital without coverage. He laughs from behind the zeros. Gay people getting married will not destroy your lives. Lastly…stop playing those damn American songs in commericals…and take those other ones off BET that talk about you didn’t forget where you came from. That is all.