Because No One Answered (Part Four)

Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are of the earth element. Earth Signs are supposed to blend easily with other Earth Signs but I can tell you from experience that this isn’t always the case. I had a relationship with a Taurus once that worked out about as well as two Bettas in the same tank.

Society has suffered some severe rude awakenings in the past few years and many people who struggle with their true identity in this life have a much harder time of it when confronted with changing times and changing cultural ideals. Their first response to kicks in their complacency is oftentimes an aggressive or angry one. The closer that you evolve toward becoming your true self in life the harder it is to blend with anyone who hasn’t attained something similar in their life as well. People that we thought we knew such as relatives and old friends aren’t necessarily evolving at the same speed. Keep this in mind as you look to find your counterparts in the promotion of change because the desire for revolution can easily spiral out of control when change comes slowly in a rapidly declining world. Know that it will take a balance between all kinds of people to create stability. Tolerance amid intolerance is badly needed. The family that you were born into did not come about by accident, so remember that those you find yourself around in this life were a gift to you to help you distinguish between those who can help and those who can harm. When you have to walk away do so without blame.

Taurus tends to be like petrified earth. Just like a rock. It is difficult to talk them into anything and if you try they usually will just dig their heels in deeper. They may look and act like you have been able to reason with them but at the last minute you might find that this isn’t the case.  Not an easy thing to deal with in a relationship of the heart. Speaking of the heart, do not set your heart on anything with them if they have been initially unaccepting because that is probably going to be what you will get in the end - no deal.  No matter how it may have looked between the start and the finish things can backfire on a dime. This is a darn good trait to have in a negotiator for a cause when you are in a nonnegotiable situation, but it is a gigantic pain in a romantic one.

Thinking of trying to establish a worker’s union where you are employed? Find the Taurus in your group to be your spokesperson. This is the Sun Sign of Karl Marx and he was immovable in his crusade for the working class. Tom Petty recorded a song called “I Won’t Back Down” some years ago and it could have been written for any Taurus who has made up their mind on anything.

Virgos are more mutable than Taurus but you need to have your logic on display up front or you will probably get nowhere with them either. Since Virgo may not even want to be the front person it will be easier to deal with them, usually. They aren’t likely to stay with your organization very long if your goals aren’t sound and reasonable, though. They might suddenly stop showing up for meetings with no explanation as to why. If you ask them why they left it would be smart to hear them out on their reason. Their criticism is most likely worth listening to because what they have to say will not have anything to do with their ego. It will come from pure analysis of the flaws that they have seen in your plan of action. This can be annoying as hell to the insecure or the lovers of themselves, though. Think of Dr. McCoy and Spock in Star Trek. Some of their disagreements were a huge pain for the doctor, but Captain Kirk, who was more sure of himself, always valued what Spock had to say about a situation because he knew that Spock was not taking a shot at him personally. Virgos rarely aspire to advance to the top unless the top person is inept at doing the job. If they aren’t outspoken Virgos the best place for them in an endeavor for change is most likely in an organizational position or in the accounting department. If they are with you at the beginning of your endeavor, they will be very good at planning and executing those plans in ways that include everyone in the group. They won’t let you run out of paper clips or pens and they can tell you where every dollar of your funds was spent. They are wonderful support people for those who cannot be bothered with details.

The Capricorn person is usually very respectable as far as being dedicated and efficient. Like most Earth Signs they are capable and quite independent requiring little if any supervision. They know their job and they get to it without complaint. The Capricorn is a great supervisor of others but they have little tolerance for slackers. Just try to sit back on your assets while everyone else is making the grade when Capricorn is in charge. You will be told only once that you aren’t holding up your end and then you may find yourself replaced. These people are excellent managers and they don’t “half-ass” anything. If they feel like the cause is worthwhile, they are super loyal and devoted. There is always a place for Capricorn if diligence and quiet confidence is required. They are simple and focused and the job is done right the first time.

Ideally, a group or organization made up of Fire Signs, Water Signs, Air Signs, and Earth Signs would be capable of covering all the bases in a unified way when collectively promoting positive change but we don’t always get so lucky. It is no different from our nuclear families. We got what we got and that is that, but in assessing how strong we are when in crisis, it can be easier to get our individual jobs done if we focus on the best parts of the individual family members, we have with us. Everyone must be included and there will always be some who are completely incapable of keeping up, so to stay balanced we have to carry some and nudge others.

We have kicked the can down the road for too long. Life is kicking it back at us. Your best contributions are needed to change the future and they already exist in you.

The next installment in this series will post next Friday.  “Live long and prosper” in the New Year.       

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Because No One Answered (Part Three)

People born within the element of Air are Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini. They tend to be aloof and detached in their relationships with others but can be quite friendly and personable if they choose to be. For most of my life I have found myself in the company of fewer Air Signs than any other element division in the zodiac. Geminis have been the least familiar ones to me with Aquarius following that and Libra being more prevalent. I confess that I tend to feel somewhat uncomfortable with them strictly speaking, but that is possibly because they are a little more difficult to read. If I feel kinship with some signs more than others it is likely because I have had more experience in knowing them personally. So many things go in to who we can and cannot relate to well but in my own birthchart, varied as it is, there was only one planet in the constellation of Libra and none in Aquarius or Gemini when I arrived.

You may already be familiar with one of the most high-profile activists ever, singer/songwriter John Lennon of the Beatles who personified it. John was a Libra. Someone that you may not know much about but have most likely heard of was Groucho Marx. He was also a Libra. I won’t say that he was an activist so much as I would say that he knew in spades how to cut pretentiousness down to size with a biting wit. Groucho once said in an interview that everyone he knew became a Republican once they got money, and he was the only Democrat left in his circle of acquaintances. He was so good at calling out a phony that much of the time his victims did not realize that they were being called out until after they had some time to think about it. It is possible that they never figured out that they had been royally put in their place but it would have been apparent that something had been done to throw them off balance and the joke was truly on them whether they knew it or not. Libra cannot tolerate being thrown off balance themselves. The scales (the ancient kind for weighing things) represents Libra well because they must keep their balance and equilibrium or you will definitely hear about it. This makes them very good at speaking to the world about how unbalanced it is. That is, if they choose to vocalize it publicly. Some do not. They just brood and stay in a snit until they get back in balance.  But you will know that something has hit the fan with them even if they never utter a word about it. Best to leave the room and let them get past it before you come back because they can be impossible to be around until they do.

If you are a Libra know that an imbalance in government or in society needs to be called out as well as any personal one and acted upon or it is unlikely to right itself. You do have to pick your individual battles and use your own personal gifts to make your statements but Libra is usually quite creative in that.  Art, music, and writing are not out of reach for them in some form or another. John Lennon used all of those venues to make his points and they definitely got noticed. Even President Nixon felt the bite from John’s unvarnished truth telling and nearly got himself deported from the US for telling some truths that made our government very uncomfortable. Most of us are unlikely to garner such high-power attention but if you want to make a point, you have some inborn expertise in getting it across. If you are not a Libra but are friends with one, spend some time sounding them out on a particular subject that is a recognizable problem and see how well they can dissect it in a conversation with you. If you have been having trouble finding the right words to call out a troubling issue in the world grab a pen and paper once Libra gets started. They might not ever open their mouth in public about it, but you as their friend are likely to hear some of the best criticisms and pretty good solutions for the problem to put in your next speech about the injustice. Take them with you to the debate. Even if they don’t participate you can bet that they are taking mental notes on your opposition and after the meeting you will be treated to a new batch of comebacks for the next verbal swingfest.

An Aquarius person can be hard to pin down as far as their views on a civic issue. Many of them believe that everyone is very stupid and they see no reason to call that stupidity out unless a problem or injustice is right in front of their face in the moment. They might have to be very angry or offended to say anything about it but the best time to hear their views on anything will be as an issue is taking place. Their opinion will be direct, cutting, and very much to the point. Let them design the protest banners for showing a pointed criticism. If they won’t get directly involved in a protest, they are still likely to show up for your meetings because it might be fun. They do like socializing and while they are there, they might find the fight interesting enough to lend a hand. You will probably be very glad that they are there because their presence is a diversion that can be an indicator of when it is time to take a break and just hang out without being so serious all the time.

I have known very few Geminis in my life but one thing that has always stood out to me when I have been around one is that they appear to not give a crap about much of anything or anybody. Of course, that isn’t true and you will realize it once they start talking to you. Much of the time if they speak to you, it will be after you have been in their presence for awhile. When they do pay attention to you, you will probably have the urge to look around you for the real person that they are talking to because you may feel like it could not be you. It is a “who came in?” moment. If you ever find that you are a person of interest to Gemini in a romantic way expect to see some incredibly written texts or emails or actual letters/notes of epic proportions. They might even remind you of a Shakespearian sonnet. Gemini can write! I am suprised that they all aren’t romance novelists or songwriters with emphasis on love songs. Paul McCartney is one of the more out there and prolific ones. Ask Gemini to write for your protest group’s newsletter or come up with a protest song. They will spare no words and will leave out no important details.

Many air signs prefer to just be “Blowin’ in the Wind”, which is the title of one of the most famous protest songs of all time and was written by Gemini Bob Dylan. They may not formally attach themselves to any issue of what is wrong with the world but do not discount them in your efforts because they can be a tremendous help and support in out of the ordinary ways that can soften the public perception of what you stand for and make it more appealing to the masses and keep you from just preaching your message to the choir.

The next installment in this series will post next Friday. Until then, have a safe and happy holiday.

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Because No One Answered (Part Two)

In part one of this series which I posted last week I spoke about the Fire Signs in the zodiac, Aries, Sagittarius, and Leo. Fire brings high energy and drive into their psychology. It makes them great advocates for change in the world. Many people do not realize what they can contribute to the betterment of humanity but we all have something if we are willing to use it. This time I will speak about the signs in the zodiac that represent the element of water; Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.

Water signs are the most sensitive people in the zodiac. They feel things more acutely. Some people born in these signs may develop a hard-shell around themselves to prevent their emotional vulnerability from showing. Cancer is probably best at this because they represent the adolescent in the zodiac who is just beginning to learn that life can be very frightening and very tough once you get past childhood innocence. People can be mean and cruel and there is the true realization then that you are a separate entity from your mother. Many Cancer people are very good and efficient at cooking and keeping the home in order. They develop the skills associated with comfort and security.

Cancer is symbolized by the crab who lives in its shell but can poke its head out and walk around if it doesn’t feel threatened. When a threat is there, it is convenient to be carrying your shelter around with you. Because Cancer knows fear and insecurity very well it is easier for them to spot a threat to others before many of us do. They never forget what it is like to be a child and the fears associated with that no matter how old they are. Not all of them venture into child advocacy but they all have great empathy for hurt or abused children. There are always exceptions to this if the Cancer adult suffered abuse in childhood themselves or if elements in the rest of their birth chart have a heavy influence in key areas of their emotional make up but even then, the capacity for protecting others is still within them. They can be moved to tears or greatly angered pretty easily by injustice and will look for a way to intervene when children are threatened very quickly. If you were born in the sign of Cancer, you may deny your empathy to high heaven around others but if you can pull yourself out of your protective shell long enough to admit how you feel, you can bring out your innate understanding of the need to protect others and the will to actually provide that protection in many ways.

So much of the time Scorpio gets a bad rap and is misunderstood for having the ability to sting like hell when they are riled. Try to think of that as in the behavior of a skunk. That word is often used to denote a reprehensible person, but skunks are actually docile creatures unless they are afraid. The only defense that they have is the ability to spray. The sting of the scorpion need not be feared generally speaking if you haven’t offended them, so give Scorpio the benefit of the doubt before you brand them evil. As in most of the problems in this world our ability to help solve them has to come from a place where ego and selfishness need to be put aside. Scorpios are maybe a little better than other signs at setting aside ego because doing that is essential for people who are extremely affected with respect to how deeply they feel things. Pointing out how vulnerable they really are might get you on their bad side for sure if you are deliberately making light of it. I would not recommend messing about with their personal feelings on any subject that is dear to their heart. Look to find them involved in benevolent ventures that are going to maintain a status quo rather than shake up the ground. This might be boring for people who like to stir things up but still waters are important in holding a strong center base. Invite the Scorpio if you prefer peace, and be grateful that the center can hold with their presence.

Pisces represents the last of the 12 signs in the zodiac. It is said that their character reflects what one would be like after all of the lessons present in the previous 11 signs have been mastered or at least experienced. Theoretically one has learned to set aside ego, care selflessly for others, walk away cleanly from bad situations without looking back, and look to the spiritual instead of the physical to make choices in life. These are likely to be the people who truly mean it when they ask “What would Jesus do?” before making a decision. Now, forget every bit of what I just said about Pisces. All of those potentials are still there, but as soon as you expect them you are not likely to get them. In the endeavor to make the world a better place Pisces understands how badly unity and solidarity is needed. They probably will feel supportive about any cause that eases the suffering of people. They will serve coffee and listen to your plans for accomplishing all of your goals, but I doubt that they will support the cause as much as they will support the ones who are advocating for it. Pisces loyalty is with people. It is not with driving ideals. They will be there with you because they like you and believe in helping others but they don’t have to believe in what you are doing to stand by you. They only have to believe in you. Few things in life are as helpful as someone believing in us and believing that we have worth when we have trouble believing it ourselves sometimes. Even though he was a Sagittarius and not a Pisces, Friedrich Engels had a Pisces like faith in the way that he supported Karl Marx and stood with him to the end of Marx’s life and continued to carry on even after.

Whether or not we will actually be effective in what we wish to attain is difficult to predict, but with Pisces there to mirror belief in what we are doing back to us, we are more likely to charge onward with confidence. Pisces will not tell you to pack up and go home because your cause is a losing battle. They won’t tell you how full of holes your theories might be, but they are the crutches that you can hold yourself up with while you learn to stand tall. TV personality, Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was a Pisces and few people represent the kind of belief in and support for others that he showed children and adults alike. Pisces believes in magic and believes in dreams. This kind of care and support can also be found in people who do not have the Sun in Pisces at their birth but have it present in their natal chart such as having the Moon or Rising Sign there. It is highly likely that this was the case with Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx had Saturn and Pluto in Pisces. It is a powerful element and can indicate the propensity for psychic ability if the fish swims in the chart in key places. It also can manifest as true belief in the best potential for others. It can be an unshakable belief if they can see behind the outward bluster of people and into their heart.  And most of the time they can.

Pisces wants no discord with those they are loyal to and will usually bend over backwards to keep the peace. Remember this when you are in conflict about something with your Pisces friend. They are genuinely there for you but the emotional pain of conflict is twice as difficult for them to get past. They will try to move mountains to avoid it, but conflict will leave a mark upon them. Pisces is extremely loyal to those they care about but too many chips at their emotion will eventually cause them to abandon you because their pain can be intolerable to them. If you don’t cross the Pisces tolerance limit, they can set it aside and devote themselves to you when they know that you need them, but do not pester them because they never really forget being badgered about anything.

We are incredibly lucky if we have a Pisces friend. Invite them along to your protest rallies because as long as you can see them in the crowd you can hold on to your belief in yourself.

The next installment in this series will post next Friday.

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Because No One Answered (Part One)

In 1967 singer Ed Ames recorded a song called “Who Will Answer?”. The lyrics tell about the many problems of the time that people were experiencing that seemingly had no answer to. The song looks for hope that someone (most likely he was telling us that only the creator was capable of answering, but it does not specifically say that) will come forward and save us from ourselves. More than 50 years later, no one has. Why is that? We still have the same problems that were pointed out in the song, and quite frankly they are much worse and there are more of them. No one knows how to save the world and even if someone did know how only a fraction of the population would be willing to accept that they did. Humans are full of insecurities and contradictions that make it very difficult for them to put those things aside and make a concerted effort to fix the problems that never go away. Another major complication is the fact that too many people are fine with the fact that we have them. So for those of us who still want to resolve the human conflicts that plague us it is necessary to go alone on that road to the solutions and hope that while you travel there others will join you in that commitment. Until they do, the problems are yours. How do you begin to make a difference?

From where you now sit in your little corner of the world, what are your strengths? Don’t think that you have any? You are wrong. As an advocate for Astrology, I would say to first look at your Sun Sign. Let’s say that you were born in the sign of Aries which is the first sign in the zodiac. I already know that you have the necessary drive and commitment to take on a challenge that is important to you but do you know it within yourself? I have studied it and have known many people born in that sign. Introduce yourself to what you were born with.

If Aries wants something it isn’t likely that they can be talked out of going for it. It usually doesn’t even occur to them that they aren’t capable of getting it. Aries represents the newborn baby in the zodiac. They haven’t learned that they can’t do something so they aren’t going to know that they can’t. Maybe sometime later if they fall on their butt several times they will rethink that but until they find themselves on their butt it isn’t an issue. This is the sign of the go-getters. The rest of us will watch them start a project and wonder why we didn’t know that you could do it. Want to move across the country but you see no way to do it? Aries can tell you how. Want to start a business or change careers? Tell this to an Aries and they have probably already done both at some time in their life. So, this is the go to person if you want to start a movement for change or take a stand for the betterment of people because they love a new challenge and will work hard to help set that change in motion.

Speaking of taking a stand, nobody knows how to do that better than Sagittarius. What issue is troubling you? Human rights? Animal rights? Women’s rights? Most likely all of them are if you have more than one planet in this constellation. My daughter has multiple planets in her Sun Sign Sagittarius and she has multiple opinions and beliefs on many issues and puts those beliefs into just about every aspect of her life. The issues closest to her heart are caring for and fostering cats - 22 of them in the past seven years, and in producing short films. Her films are always visually motivating even if you do not think that you care about her subjects because they are usually geared toward making you laugh, helping you see something that you might not notice otherwise, or scaring the hell out of you with monster makeup and special effects. Sagittarius can take feelings and emotions and turn them into art. They can also take a hungry and frightened animal and give it a place to come home to knowing that it is welcome and loved. I have seen her turn feral cats into caring and appreciative little animals capable of love and empathy. They can be vicious little creatures when they first show up and evolve into the most devoted of companions. Sagittarius has a way with animals and with people to encourage the best from them. They make great advocates for a cause and can persuade with just their example.

If you are a Leo, I won’t lie to you. This sign tends to be a crusader only if it actually affects them in some way either personally or affects someone that they love deeply. It isn’t that they don’t care or don’t see that something is broken, it is just that this sign represents the eternal teenager, and the teenager is busy learning what they want to do in life and just experiencing it. What is important comes later. They are in the right now and if the right now is unfair to them, they will definitely see it, but otherwise they will be focused on those things around them that look like a happy time. If they don’t see any happy times in the now, then you will see a very vocal and determined advocate for change.  Things are so bad at the moment that Leo is definitely paying attention because they cannot help but be affected. If this is your Sun Sign, we need you. No one is better than Leo at spotting an alternative to the crisis at hand and they will share it with you.  Most likely with humor. They may try distraction in such a way as to encourage you to step away for a moment from the problem long enough to gain a different perspective, but they are with you as long as they see the need to be. Leo’s are often the comedians who help us through by humorously trashing the perpetrators of our problems by way of poking fun at the way they look and talk and pointing out how utterly ridiculous they actually are. They will point out all of the reasons that you shouldn’t be intimidated by “big shots” because they are as flawed as anybody else and they will name off a list of those flaws for you.  No one is on a pedestal that Leo cannot knock down. They can keep you in stitches even at a funeral by telling you about all of the times the person who has passed was great fun to be around. They might not be able to do that if they were extremely close to the deceased but they can do it for you if there is at least some detachment for them. They know pain and grief but they want you to be able to survive it. You may not realize it but during the worst of times they are carrying you so you won’t fall.  This is a skill that is so valuable that I hope more of you Leos will get out there and let your sun shine in the darkness.

So do not tell me that you cannot be a person who can answer the call for help now when times are so dreadful. I have described only the Fire Signs here but we all have a unique gift to give. I hope that you will see yourself as an individual and integral part of the world family that is very much needed and has much to give to our time on Planet Earth when you embrace the best parts of the real you.

Know Your Candidate and Know Yourself

The US midterm elections are behind us now except for a few that were too close to call. Did the candidate that you supported win? I hope so. Have you ever voted for someone who was elected and discovered after a time that they were not what you expected them to be? Unfortunately, many people lie and cheat when they want something badly. Nowadays they feel little guilt or remorse for this because it is acceptable character in some circles and even expected by some others. Another problem that we have is that many voters will pick a candidate to support based on one ideal that the person has put out there which has little to do with whether or not the candidate is a sound and reasonable person who is capable of doing the job that he/she is running for and more to do with their promise to do away with an influence that people find personally objectionable. This is a selfish and lame reason to do anything, but it is an acceptable one for a person of one dimensional thought. Once you allow yourself to get caught up in a fear and hate based mentality you are not capable of making choices other than selfish ones. So, the rest of us carry the burden of trying to elect someone who is sincere and focused in their beliefs and has some sort of proven record to support the claims that they make regarding how to repair a broken society. But even if we think we know a person to be reasonable and true to form in their decisions it is still possible that they are lying through their teeth. Since you cannot be sure of anyone until they prove that they are what they say, you take an uneducated guess most of the time. Unless you know Astrology.

In two years, we will have another general election for the Presidency. God only knows who will be running for that office this time. Many will throw their hats into the ring and the BS will be flying for many months before we actually know who the final contenders will be. I actually expect to be disappointed in who will make it to the finals. This is not cynicism on my part. It is just facing the reality that my point of view is unique among Americans and what I see as someone who truly means to bring change to a fallen society has different aspects and criteria from the majority point of view. Since I became old enough to vote I have seen few people enter the White House that I had any faith in to make a real difference. The way that we conduct elections and politics here is not conducive to bringing in anyone that I could really believe in. The one exception to that is Bernie Sanders.

I truly believe that Bernie could have won in 2016 and in 2020. But he was sabotaged by his own party both times because reform is not what they want. Maintaining the status quo is. Bernie made an excellent showing in both primaries, and though I do not always agree with everything that he says and does (I usually do, though) I have studied his natal chart and it is evident from knowing what he was brought into this world with that he is true to himself. I have watched and listened to him since I first became aware of him politically and he has never wavered in what he presents to us as what is needed here. I cannot say that about any other career politician that I have ever seen.

I have heard people who actually like Bernie say things like, “He is just not everyone’s cup of tea.” and “He doesn’t show enough of himself personally. He only talks about the issues.” These people are showing the shallowest points of view regarding Bernie. It is not surprising that they can only skim the surface. If you don’t know his inborn nature you will likely misjudge him, as you will with anyone. In 2016 and in 2020 I wrote about Bernie on this blog. He is a Virgo. Do you know anything about Virgos? Probably not. So, I will tell you this as something to ponder upon.

In the 1960’s there was a tv series called “Dragnet” starring Jack Webb who played the character Sgt. Joe Friday. He was a no-nonsense police officer who was famous for saying the line, “Just the facts, ma’am.” That is pretty much how a Virgo operates. They are precise and have little time for or interest in side issues and telling the world about their personal lives. It has nothing to do with “the price of potatoes” or the fact that America is in the outhouse, so in Virgo’s view it has no bearing on “the facts, ma’am.” If being focused and direct is not something that you like or understand then you will never “get” someone like Bernie. To truly know a Virgo, you would have to make the effort to be their friend. They mostly do not have any burning desire to tell their story. If you prefer the more “stand out” types or the folksy “regular guy” types there is a reason for that and you are entitled to your opinion, but the problems that we have now will not be solved by anyone who craves attention and love, and needs a constant ego boost. Nor can they be solved by the phony “I’m just like you” types.  Anyone who cannot set aside ego and transcend the need for admiration cannot be effective when we are in such dire circumstances. I have heard people say many times that we need a president who will run this country like a business. We had that kind of leader for four years and we will be trying to untangle the mess that was made in those years for many more years to come. High profits, competition, and the need for worship from people are traits for the entertainment industry and private businesses. We aren’t making a movie here or trying to sell yachts. The entire world is in crisis and like in any family in crisis it will take an adult who can set aside their personal ego to get down to the real business of keeping the family together and disregarding what the neighbors think. I have seen a few politicians who could do that but they are in a minority.

I have considered writing a book or a series of posts here about the Presidents that we have had in the last 30 or so years by drawing up their natal charts and comparing what traits they were born with and what they actually accomplished when they were in office. It might be quite an eye opener of a read. I do think that it would be a troubling read. So many of us have no idea what we were meant to be like. Our world has evolved in ways that make knowing our true selves difficult in the extreme. Most people are doomed to fail in the endeavor because of capitalism. It takes an Aries-like determination on our parts to even make the attempt but it could be made a little less painful for us if we had parents and teachers who believe that this is an essential goal. If you have that in your life, count your blessings.

Before the next election, take some time to find out when the candidates were born. Look on the internet for an Astrology website that can calculate a chart on their birthdates. This is a very elementary way of doing it and I would not normally recommend it, but you will do far worse in trying to understand what a person is about if you rely on what they say or rely on news that cannot be trusted because it isn’t news, it is profit driven entertainment. You may be greatly surprised by what you learn. While you are there, take a look at your own birth information. The revelation of what you brought with you into this world can be felt on a soul level when you see it. It can also be vehemently denied if you have never been allowed to express it. But a staunch denial is extremely telling in itself. Take what you learn and use it to the best of your ability. It may change your life.

Seen But Not Heard

The term, “Children should be seen and not heard” is something that I was told frequently as a child. Many times, when I entered a room where people would be conversing about who knows what, this was said to me if I tried to participate in the conversation. Oddly enough, it was never my parents who said this to me. It was always my older sister, though my mother never contradicted her. I only had to be told this a few times before I stopped trying to engage in their socializing.

My sister was always snotty and condescending in her interactions with me and that didn’t stop until she got married. After that, she mellowed a bit, but not much. She told me once after we had both become adults that she was sorry that she had been so hateful to me when we were growing up. She cried as she admitted that she failed at being the “big sister” and how she could have and should have been kinder and more supportive, and as the older sibling she should have been there for me and been more caring. It is a fact that she never was but as a child I just saw it as normal behavior on her part. She was a mean-spirited person and that was just the sister card that I drew, but that didn’t make her cruelty hurt any less. I truly did not know what to say to her after her admitting that she was unkind, but it seemed to me that her admission was pretty irrelevant by then. I responded by brushing it off somewhat and chalking it up to kids will be kids, but mostly I just wondered “what the hell brought this on?”

Actor, Ian McKellen said in an interview once that his older sister was the same way, refusing to let him play with her and her friends and hurting his feelings constantly when they were children. He said that he forgave her and she grew up to be a lovely person. That is wonderful, but this was not the case for my sister. She became tolerable - if I didn’t have to be around her very much. So, I wasn’t.

This is the way that I used to feel about politics and social injustice. As long as I could stay out of the fallout from political and social inequality, I did. It is what it is, was the view I tried to take on it. Even though I experienced more than my share of abuse, misogyny, and unfair treatment, I worked around it as there was little else that I thought I could do. It was less troubling than trying to analyze the why of it, but when I began to see people in politics and local government that I knew gain power and authority and use that power to disenfranchise those least capable of fighting the tyranny I began to see things differently. Few things get your attention as quickly as working with the poor and being the poor, and I did both. It was around this time that the Universe came calling with influences that were too compelling to ignore as well.

It is much too easy to believe that charities will solve the problems that exist in this country. Former President George W. Bush tried to start a movement toward expecting churches and charities to take care of the needs of the people and therefore shift the responsibility of rampant poverty away from the government being obliged to do something about it. This was very popular in many states who quickly started dropping or cutting existing help programs for the people. To this day, many of those programs have not been reinstated and many more have been lost since then. What these lame-brains don’t “get” is that charitable giving cannot “fix” a problem that is rooted in a society that sets us up to fail so that capitalism can prevail at every turn, as profit is always the bottom line with “big sister”. It is designed to lift them up as they keep us down. It isn’t an accident that poverty exists. It is intentionally built in to the system. They cannot maintain their exalted status without taking us to the cleaners.

I saw recently that billionaire Jeff Bezos gave singer Dolly Parton 100 million dollars in recognition of her charitable work. What Ms. Parton has done as a philanthropist is definitely worthy of noting, but I am appalled that a billionaire would give money to a millionaire when Mr. Bezos could never be bothered to recognize the efforts of thousands of Amazon employees who once worked for him and made it possible for him to become a multi-billionaire, while they received inadequate salaries, intolerable working conditions, few if any Covid protections, and many were fired or penalized for daring to try to unionize. Charitable giving sounds very admirable on the surface, but deduct the salaries and administrative costs for operating said charities from the amount given to them and see how much of the money actually goes to the cause. Then realize how much of a tax deduction the donors receive for their generosity. Who really wins here? Not the Amazon workers or anyone else in this country who must survive on substandard wages which are considered acceptable by far too many people. 100 million dollars could make a substantial difference in the lives of a great many people if it was distributed to the citizens fairly. Charity would not be necessary in a world where classism and favoritism did not exist.

For all the things that our government does that never solve the problems of poverty and inequality, they aren’t responsible for how employers treat the people who work for them or how unequally resources are distributed and sold to consumers. They are however, complicit in perpetuating the problems.

Just like my Mother never stopped my sister from bullying me. She would just sit there and allow her to exclude and belittle me, and wouldn’t make eye contact with me while it was happening. This is how our government reacts. They can see the effects of not paying a living wage and ignoring the difficulties of the people but they do not intervene to stop it. So, the “big sister” employers continue to bully and abuse the “little sister” employees as long as the “parent” government says by saying nothing that it is acceptable to be this way. So many things are learned by the employees when they are treated as underlings and 50% of it results in depressed, burned out, and defeated workers with the other 50% becoming angry and aggressive toward everyone except the very people who are responsible for the injustice. We are a culture that admires and aspires to be like the wealthy capitalists who gorge themselves on what little resources that the people have. Anytime that people can manage to elevate their status to a higher level they many times forget where they came from and are just so proud of their achievements that they never look back because this proves that they have always been worthy of their new status, and the people who never get there just don’t deserve it.

Giving back to the processes that have helped us achieve a better situation should be as normal as breathing when you understand that no one makes it to the top by themselves. I believe that this is the place where Dolly Parton’s charitable giving comes from and I commend her for that, but being that she is a wealthy person now, I find it difficult to believe that she needs a benefactor like Jeff Bezos to continue doing what she does. The biggest kindness that anyone can do is to raise the standard of living for all of us with a living wage, healthcare for everyone, and a fair say in what happens in our world. Little can be done by a society that lives from hand to mouth and lives in fear of never having enough to get by on. We have been seen but are not being heard as to what will resolve the multitude of problems that we have. It is extremely easy to dismiss us as just unworthy because God didn’t see fit to bless us like he blessed them. We didn’t choose a lucrative career path or we just aren’t smart enough to do the jobs that garner a higher income. There are hundreds of excuses for why we are just unfortunate people but the only true reasons are greed and elitism, which are actually glorified and admired traits by many.

Our “big sister” capitalist employers are rarely held accountable for their crimes and abuses of the people. Our “parent” government refuses to be bothered with the system that never stops being thoughtless and lacking in empathy. Why should they? Toughen up “little sisters” because we have earned the right to lord over you by virtue of our superior status. You will be “seen” as a resource and nothing more. You will not be “heard” because your protestations of unfair treatment are irrelevant.  Breaking this cycle is possible if the “parent” government calls a halt to it, but few of them are inclined to do so.

Trickledown economics does not work. They know this already but they feel no responsibility for changing the prevailing warped mentality that exists in the world. Too many of us also feel that they are probably right about us not deserving better.

“Big sister” may grow up and learn to do better if there are enough voices out there to reveal the real cost to society as a whole when dis-ease and a simmering resentment toward them breeds a breakdown in the culture that has had a devastating effect on everyone. An apology down the road means little when the basic behavior stays the same. Crime, hate, loss of respect for others, and a perpetuation of egotistical and status seeking behavior that we see in profit driven pseudo role models becomes the norm in all areas of society. A set of values that disregards people as being people has evolved into what we are reaping on a massive scale right now in this country. This is the legacy of a “Me First!” country and family dynamic.

The United States is very much like a highly dysfunctional family that has many secrets, faults, and delusions which they continuously sweep under the rug and blame others for the fact that the rug is now too lumpy to walk on. We have arrived at this point in time by them being too arrogant and guilty of ludicrous choices to backtrack and repair the damage. The children must lead us out of this because the representative parents and the older siblings will not budge if we don’t make some noise and barge into the room with a determination to be heard. Many times, it truly is a child that can lead to a truth that was unnoticed before. The child may be an adult now but when people are used to not listening to them it is often necessary to cause a commotion to get attention. The hard part is getting a seat at the table with the big people. You won’t get an invitation but you have the power to be heard on social media and many other forums that were never available to the generations that came before you. To assume that your expressions have no worth in the eyes of the ruling class is an easy assumption to make but remember that they have made some major screw ups from where they sit right now that look pretty damn dumb to the rest of us. Ridiculous statements and insane comments have come out of their mouths on national television. To say nothing gets you nothing because it will be assumed that you either agree with what they have given us or you agree with their assessment that you have no right to be heard.

Say something. Give them a shake up, because you are very tired of the shake down that they keep giving to you.

On one occasion when my sister was spouting off to me I unexpectedly pushed over the chair that she was sitting in and she slammed into the wall. I got reprimanded severely for it by my parents but it was worth getting in to trouble for because the shocked look on her face when she hit the wall was priceless. She picked her battles a little more carefully with me after that and I felt a little more empowered after showing her that I had a limit to how much crap I would take from her. We have never really been able to become friends in this life but I have never felt guilt or regret about that. It was a necessary break from a dysfunctional relationship. She had to go, and so does Capitalism.

"An End To Need and The Politics Of Greed."

 -from the Tears For Fears song Sowing The Seeds of Love

In the late 1990’s my cousin won $175k in the Florida Lottery from a scratch off ticket. She and her husband were a young married couple who lived very modestly in three rooms of her parent’s house which had been converted into an apartment. After collecting her winnings, they were very smart and frugal with the money. This was a time when their money went a lot further than it would now. They were able to buy and furnish their own home, and decided that they could now afford to start a family. I was so happy for them.

Something like this should happen for every young adult. To receive enough money to start your life and establish a secure base before you have to face the many adult struggles to come would most likely keep you from having to compromise so much of who and what you are as a person in trying to attain a sense of security. While the US spends a great deal of money to support other countries with their individual issues, people young and old here could use a grant in a comparable amount to jump start their lives again now when loss is and has been for some time the only thing that we see on the horizon for us. But it would not be enough to just give the money/resources to the people and expect that to stabilize them. You would also have to call a halt to the capitalist/corporate invasion that would immediately follow the distribution with their hands out raising prices and withholding the necessary goods and services that we need to make sure that they profit enormously from what the people receive, rendering it impossible to benefit from the help as well as they ought to.

Author and Journalist, Chris Hedges said in a speech once how the money our government gave to US banks in 2008 after the housing debacle could have been used to help and support the American people by establishing a national health care system, giving all citizens a basic income and offering tuition free college plus many other systemic changes that would make a stronger society for a fraction of what they gave to bail out the rich. Why they never understand that stronger citizens make this a stronger nation makes absolutely no sense. When there are 1500 vacant properties in San Francisco for every 1 homeless person in that city it is ludicrous that anyone should ever be homeless here. I am told that the situation is very much the same in New York City, Toronto, Canada, and many other places.

It is only greed and ignorant public policies that make something like this possible. So how do we change the selfish and incompetent policies toward our people? Some would tell you that only public protest on a large scale would change it, but I truly do not believe that it has to come to civil unrest or civil war. What we really need is a change in prevailing thought and government representatives who can put ego aside and understand that we have been breeding fear and ignorance in this country for far too long. A few representatives have already come to that realization but they are in the extreme minority.

This country needs to be re-educated in the basic decencies of human rights and the benefits of strengthening the people who live here. It isn’t rocket science. It is only coming to understand that each country is a family and how you manage the family has to be for the benefit of the entirety. You would not feed and house a few of your family members in luxury and throw the others out to starve and die. In the 1970’s tv miniseries Centennial, this actually was shown to be the way the Arapaho Indians dealt with a woman in the tribe who had lost her husband. In their culture this was considered to be the best way for the entire tribe to survive without having to care for individuals who were deemed to have no more worth once the family patriarch had passed on. The children were taken in by others in the tribe as they assumed they might still have some worth in the future. This is basically what we have allowed to happen in America. It would seem that it doesn’t happen here if you don’t look very closely, but our policies toward humans who don’t look like they can produce wealth or create a façade of superiority are being allowed to live on the streets and in dangerous homeless shelters. Many have children with them. Many others, such as immigrants are put in to virtual prisons rather than try to place them somewhere safe and help them establish a decent life. We are not being taught or learning not to act in inhumane ways anymore.

Who will write a new Bible for the 21st century? Who will write the primer for the processes that will bring us out of the cesspool that we have created for ourselves? The Holy Bible was written centuries ago as a guide for balanced living - at least the New Testament was. Much of the Old Testament is a telling of history and the prevailing laws at the time. What we are experiencing now requires updated thought and laws that can be applied today in a world with a much different mentality. Who are the Scribes and Prophets in modern times with the knowledge and the expertise to advise and reach our people with a message of what needs to be done and how we can accomplish it?

It could not be written by one person. There would need to be many writers, just as it was for the Bible. Experts from many different fields would need to collaborate to assemble volumes on psychology, economics, civics and political structure, history, and sociology. It is a tall order but we have gone beyond the simple answers on how to restructure into a workable society. Thousands of books have already been written on these subjects, but separately and individually they are not capable of speaking to the masses as a whole. A Netflix movie dramatizing the information would also be a tremendous help. Distorted values are already out there and making a mockery of all that doesn’t suit selfish purposes.

The Bible has never been embraced by the entire world, but it has resonated with enough people to make a huge difference in how we came out of dark times to do better. Many people have forgotten or discarded the principles laid out there. Hence, the need for an updated system of thought and action is sorely needed. Can such a book go viral again as the Bible did? I believe that it can.

Most of the struggles that we have are born out of doing our damnedest to avoid fixing anything and, as any neglected house would, it is coming apart at the seams. Will it take a deity coming down to earth and separating the good from the bad as the Bible says to call a halt to the tragedy that we have become? Will the makers of chaos and inequality have to be cast into another dimension such as a hell to save us, or can we as thinking human beings make it so on our own?

At a time when some Americans are frantically doing their best (actually, their worst) to eradicate books that they object to on the grounds that their little darlings are troubled and being corrupted by truth telling regarding whitewashed history and alternative thinking, we desperately need a new and updated accounting of what it will take to break down the walls that we have built in to our society to divide us into a class system that is choking the life out of America. I don’t think that we need more of the news that we are in the crapper here. If you are paying attention, you have already figured that out.  Now that the truth is out there as far as what we have destroyed, there needs to be a step by step guide as to how we can fix up “this old house” and make it livable. We are at the point where you either bring in the wrecking ball and level the place to the ground or you bring in a Bob Vila and some contractors to assess the damaged structure and draw up the plan for remaking the house. I see a lot of “home inspectors” who are telling us that the house is no longer inhabitable but I see very few who are proffering a real set of blueprints for starting construction. In the film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,  Tina Turner sang a song called We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) during the end credits of the film. In the lyrics, she sings, “We don’t need another hero. We don’t need to know the way home. All we need is life beyond Thunderdome.”  If you have never seen this film or the precursor to it, Mad Max, I would recommend that you do so because you will see how a society that does not give a damn about its citizens can evolve into something so terrible that the people become savages fighting for every scrap of resources and decency that they are being denied. At the time that these films were made, it may have looked like pure fiction and an impossibility for us, but look around you now. We need a life beyond what we have created here. And we must have leadership that will help us bring it to pass. When you realize that there is a hole in the roof you cannot just sit there and say, “Yeah, there’s a hole in the roof.” Somebody has to get up and get a bucket, because the rain is coming in! And we are drowning in the deluge.

***

I would like to include here a thank you to Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, Tears For Fears, for calling attention to the many problems that have plagued humanity as far back as the 1980’s in their songs such as the one I cited above. We may have been listening but I wonder how many of us took the messages to heart? One of my favorite songs of theirs was called, Change.  In the lyrics, they say, “When it’s all too late, you can change.”  Too often, this is the case. Pray that it isn’t now. With their music to remind us, it may not be. Listen to them again, and remember how to care.

The Voice of a Friend

The internet radio station The UK 1940’s Radio is a great listening experience if you are looking for calm in a chaotic world. Even my cats love it. There are no ads, except for vintage ones from that time period and nothing to anger or annoy you is ever heard there - except for a few mean-spirited critiques from a few listeners, which I will talk about shortly. All of the music that they play is from a time long before I was born. It is the music of my grandparents but if you are a fan of vintage Warner Brothers cartoons you have heard many of the songs that they play before. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd sang many of them, and Carl Stalling who did the music for thousands of these cartoons played a multitude of them as many were current during the golden age of Warner Brothers animation which was at its best in the 1930s and 40s. It is also a great station to listen to if you are a history buff with an interest in World War Two. The music and news of the time in Britain as well as the US gives you a fascinating glimpse into a world that is made more real for those of us who have never experienced anything even close to what it was like for the people who lived through it.

Until recently, there was a show on the station called Songs From Grandad Bill’s Gramophone, which I loved. It was hosted by Dave Adams, who played songs from his Grandfather’s time and told bits of interesting trivia about the songs, the artists, and the year in which they were recorded. One evening, not too long ago, Dave’s show did not air. I thought this was peculiar but I assumed that it would be on the next day. It wasn’t. And I kept thinking for days that maybe Dave was on vacation. But the show never came back and neither did Dave. We sent an email to the station to inquire about Dave’s absence since he was our favorite personality of theirs but their response was very nonspecific and only said that he no longer worked for them. I couldn’t help but wonder if his being gone had anything to do with a comment that he read on air from a listener just prior to his leaving. It was a very hateful comment/critique about him that was painful to listen to and I can only assume that he felt obligated to speak to and address the listener’s grievance since he often read very complimentary comments that he received and felt that he should give equal time to the bad as well as the good. I wish he hadn’t. It was painfully obvious, even though he spoke very professionally to the hate speech, that it was deeply hurtful to have been talked to in such an egregious manner. It was a thing that was so uncalled for but it certainly is not an uncommon thing nowadays. Dave’s absence from the station took something away from my listening experience. Not that the others personalities on the station aren’t good. They truly are. But Dave’s voice was the first one that I heard when I discovered the station and he was so likeable that I kept on listening and even felt moved enough to make a donation as they are strictly supported by listeners and have no advertising. I could be completely wrong in thinking that the listener’s hateful comment had anything to do with his leaving the station but I cannot help but wonder if it was the catalyst. This is something that happens all too often, and it is so unnecessary.

Dave Adams was a volunteer at the station as are all of their hosts. His working there was a kindness on his part and a valued community service, I am sure. The programs that he did were fun and informative to listen to. No one should be trashed and insulted for doing their job when they are only there to entertain and try to give people a few moments in time to forget all the bad that we have in the world and experience what life must have been like for the people in our history who were going through devastating times themselves but wanted to have hope that there would be a future for them during a time when it was possible that they wouldn’t. There could be nothing in what Dave said or played on his show that could ever be misconstrued so much that it would require such a damning response from a reasonable person.  Please remember that.  If you ever think that it would be cool or clever to trash someone for the work that they do, consider that it is most likely a person who is doing their best to make life a little better for others. When this is not the case, I would ask that you refrain from making a comment unless their behavior or speech causes harm to you in some way. Simply stop listening to or watching their program if you are not happy with the content.

We were fortunate to have Dave to listen to. I hope that he has gone on to another venue where those of us who liked him might find his voice again. It was a voice that was like a friend, and he is missed very much. I would love to be able to tell him that he brought many hours of untroubled happiness to us, and even to our cats. Music lovers, the lot of them.

To Change a Life. To Change the World.

 “…she’ll live up to just what you demand of her and no more." -Annie Sullivan, to Helen Keller’s Mother, in The Miracle Worker

The task of educating and retraining a human being when the human has already become an adult is a monumental undertaking. The education process is slow and repetitive at any age, but an adult is an especially difficult pupil if they are steadfastly against the lesson to be learned. This is what we are up against in our need and desire to change our way of life in the US away from an economic and social system that has become unsustainable.

If you have never seen the 1962 film called The Miracle Worker it is well worth looking for. It is the story of blind and deaf Helen Keller as a child and Annie Sullivan, the young visually impaired woman who becomes Helen’s teacher. Helen’s parents seek out a teacher for her as she is becoming more difficult to manage as she gets older. The Keller’s also have a new baby in the home, and they are fearful for the infant’s safety as Helen is completely undisciplined. It may not seem as if capitalism and a blind and deaf child have any factors in common on the surface, but I can assure you that the task of educating a populace that has grown up a certain way, as Helen had been growing up with no rules for behavior, have much in common when you understand that Helen had no frame of reference as to what Annie was trying to teach her any more than most Americans understand the concepts of sharing power and authority when all we have ever known is capitalism.

In the film, Annie’s attempts to gain Helen’s trust and get Helen to accept her authority are hampered by her parents who do not understand Annie’s methods of teaching and want to protect Helen from the difficult lessons that she must understand and have respect for or it will not be possible for her to make the connection that the things Annie is doing all have a meaning and a useful purpose. Each new experience has a true benefit for Helen, but to her, it only seems that there is a new person there who is taking her freedom away. It has been a freedom that literally allows her to bully everyone in the household and get whatever she wants whenever she wants it. The capitalist mentality does not differ very much. Capitalists pay large amounts of money to get their own way such as offering it up to lobby political figures and paying for perks and incentives to assure that things go their way. This is acceptable to the capitalists because they spend all of their working lives in the pursuit of high profits which guarantees them the ability to buy a situation that suits them. Money is gladly given away to assure them the comfortable position that they can only hold by buying it. What socialism wants to teach them, which is sharing and a rethinking of the balance of power in the world, is fought against tooth and nail because rank and entitlement keeps them from having to consider how their desires affect those around them. Empathy has no place in the high stakes pursuit of profit. Superiority is the only barrier between them and the miserable masses who have no choice but to do what they say. Anything less means that you are subject to truly human experiences which are pain, fear, want, hunger, loss, illness, etc. which can be bought in to submission if you keep a tight-fisted control over others. At the bottom of everything is the ability to pretend that you do not have to be human.

At the center of The Miracle Worker is a very lengthy scene at the family breakfast table in the Keller home. Annie is horrified to see how Helen is allowed to walk around the table taking food off everyone’s plates to eat. Annie refuses to let Helen take food from her plate. The chaos that ensues as a result of Helen not being able to help herself to Annie’s breakfast becomes a gigantic contest of wills which goes on for hours necessitating the removal of everyone in the room except student and teacher and all the doors to the room being locked. It is shocking to see how hard Helen will fight in order to keep her power to get what she wants and believes that she is entitled to. Make no mistake, this is what we have coming when the transition comes. Those who have no desire to share are going to be infuriated and uncooperative as hell. Nobody likes to be told that they cannot have something that they want, especially when they have been allowed to take from everyone to suit themselves for a very long time. Strong willed and determined teachers who know the importance of changing what has been for far too long have the task of showing what we must now understand is the way that we reform a corrupt system so that no one is cheated and left out of what is fair. It is our only hope if we mean to guarantee these human rights for the entire family/society. We can expect that there may be no peace until the lessons of how we must now function are learned and understood and put in to practice.

We hope that all of the lessons will eventually be absorbed, as they were with Helen, and we will see order and a peaceful coexistence come from the struggle and pain that is always required of us to adjust to a new way of being, but the rules must be clear and strictly enforced by those who are tasked with teaching them. They must be laws or too many will continue to believe that the rules do not apply to them. Ironically, we already have many laws that should have stopped or curtailed the rampant gorging on the masses that we are experiencing right now. Antitrust laws were put into place many decades ago to stop the “Robber Barons” such as railroad owners and others who made fortunes on the backs of everyone until the Government called a halt to their unfair practices. After that, there was a period when the middle class in this country saw opportunities for better jobs, better wages, and the ability to buy their own homes. People prospered for the first time in a long time. It did not, however, reach all our citizens equally. People of color and many immigrants were not necessarily the beneficiaries of the newfound prosperity. Those laws did not cover everyone and are not being enforced now. It was probably the closest that we ever came to Socialism but it did not last, and as a result we are being taken for just about everything that the corporate fascists can get their grubby hands on from our plates. It is no different from what Helen Keller was doing, but Helen was a child who was never taught not to do it. The corporate masters know full well what they are doing and they know the devastating effect that their behavior is wrecking in our world, but if no one steps in to stop it, it will never change. Many people are fed up and angry about it but without calling in the Annie Sullivans to correct and redirect the behavior this is what we will always have. A set of rules for some and a complete lack of them for others has gotten us to the point where we now stand.

It does not help matters that most of our political leaders come from corporate/capitalist backgrounds. They are well versed in the profit over people mentality that governs just about everything in America, so even though their job is to represent all the people in their states and in the country as a unit, they seem to forget about those of us who are not from their own peer group. Forgetting is easy when you want to keep your position and you depend on the rich influencers to make sure that you do. A total revamping of our political system and a revamping of how we vote for these people is desperately needed as well as in our judicial system which has in many cases turned away from the scales of justice in favor of the few who can afford to tip the scales off balance to favor those who strictly speaking have a minority view but have the assets to stack the deck against the majority view of the citizens. These are situations that prevent any real change in where we now stand, but they must be addressed or the Annie Sullivans coming in to teach will be severely limited in how much they can accomplish as the real Annie Sullivan was in trying to breakthrough to Helen. Helen’s parents were a severe barrier to that breakthrough because of their lack of understanding about their daughter’s needs and how her learning process had to take place. Annie had to move to a separate household to get anywhere with Helen, because as long as they were there to undo whatever successes were built, there was never going to be a true and lasting change in Helen’s behavior. The possibility for a relapse in all that Annie might accomplish with Helen was always a threat as well if Helen’s parents allowed any laxity in the enforcement of the new situation.

To achieve our goals of balancing this country into a place that works for all of us we desperately need a  Miracle Worker. It remains to be seen whether or not we will be able to find one. Valiant attempts at this are being made right now but too many times those who are chosen to lead and to teach are ultimately revealed to have feet of clay or they are sabotaged quickly to prevent them from getting a stronghold on the problems. Annie Sullivan devoted her entire life to the care and teaching of Helen Keller, and as a result Helen went far beyond just learning how to communicate and behave with others. She is remembered and revered to this day because someone dedicated their life to helping her achieve great things. Without that dedication and selflessness, we might never have known about the miracles that were Helen and Annie. Who among us now will try to create such a miracle for America, for the world, and for the planet? It has to be a way of life that is brought to life by those who “recognize a badly spoiled child when they see one”. Capitalism at its core is actually no more than that. It is behavior that was allowed to continue to the point where the household/country could no longer function in peace.

The Tobacco Road

“My compassion for someone is not limited to my estimate of their intelligence.” - Dr. Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

My grandfather was a very young man in the 1930’s during The Depression.  He lived about the same way as many others did during that time, possibly worse, but he was living in the rural south where things were pretty tough even when it may have been better in other parts of the country. He picked cotton and did odd jobs to support himself and his teenaged wife, my grandmother. As bad as things were, he was still able to afford one leisure time activity; smoking. This is not the case for his descendants.

In the 1980’s the cost of a video game cartridge for a home gaming system was about $60.00. In 2022 the cost of a video game disc is still $60.00. A VHS movie for home viewing cost a whopping $95.00 in the 1980’s. I couldn’t afford them. I had to either rent movies or join a video club to buy them. The cost of a DVD or Blu-ray movie now is between $15.00 and $24.00 on average. That is a substantial price drop. When you factor in that the technology, expertise to create games and films, and the cost of producing both has risen sharply, these things are much more of a bargain now than they were 40 years ago.

In the 1960’s the price for a carton of cigarettes was about $3.00. Thirty years later, in the early 1990’s, the price for a carton was around $10.00 in the mid-south region of the US. So the price had risen seven dollars in thirty years time.  Now after another thirty-two years the cost ranges from $80.00 to $100.00 or more per carton which is a jump of seventy to ninety dollars or more depending on what region of the country you live in. A seven dollar price hike in thirty years time is not unreasonable. A ninety dollar price hike in another thirty years is not only unreasonable it is also price gouging and downright robbery. My nephew who lives near New York told me that 20 years ago cigarettes were $80.00 per carton there and are double that now. I have listened to all of the reasons/excuses for why the cost of this product has risen so much but none of them really hold water in a country with no national healthcare to use as a scapegoat. The healthcare excuse doesn’t even hold water in Canada, the UK, or any other country that does provide it when the healthcare costs for illness related to smoking is no higher and, in many cases, less than the costs for automobile injuries, eating meat or high carb junk foods, drinking carbonated beverages, alcohol consumption, or gun violence. I understand that a pack of cigarettes cost appx. $28.00 in Australia and in Pakistan a pack costs $0.82.  These are the highest and the lowest prices in the world and only Pakistan has a reasonable price. Good thing for Pakistan when you look at the devastation there right now. As cigarette smoking is considered to be a stress reliever those people need all of the help they can get. We in America are being squeezed to death on absolutely everything that might make our lives a little more bearable with everything that has been put upon us. In one of my previous posts about housing I quoted Theodor Adorno with respect to the elites taking everything that the poor have left away from them. This is yet another example of that and the whole world apparently believes that is acceptable. Except Pakistan.

Since the tobacco excuse is illogical when compared to any one of the above mentioned health related problems, and these are not cited as an excuse for charging an exorbitant amount for their purchase, the outrageous prices that we now pay for tobacco products appear to actually be a penalty for being either poor, or of non-white ethnicity, or they are just using us as convenient victims for the manufacturers and sellers to pay exorbitant salaries to their higher ups. It is also possible that it is the ease of levying massive taxes on a product that has been demonized and vilified for decades. I have to wonder if there is a simple economics answer for this that I do not know about but as I learn more and more about the mechanics and philosophies in economic theory it seems that capitalist economics are whatever capitalists want them to be at any given time.  Whenever those who make the economic rules decide that they want to make more money, and there seems to have been a decision of this kind beginning in the 1970’s which has doubled and tripled and quadrupled in the decades since, you find yourself dealing with monumentally inflated prices on housing, healthcare, automobiles, gasoline, and yes, cigarettes.

So, after one has already given up other things that one might enjoy doing for the sake of spending less money so we can hopefully, continue to buy food and still pay the utility bills, is there a good reason for placing an incredible hardship on people who are already banned from smoking in public and in our cars and in some places that we might want to live? There was a video a few years back of a supporter of Senator Rand Paul who was holding his foot on a woman’s head because she was not in agreement on his political choice that was so appalling it hurt to see it. I do get tired of feeling like this country has it’s foot on our heads for daring to have a pastime that some others may not agree with or might object to. A smoker having a cigarette is not going to clog up your arteries or eat a hole in your digestive system or send you to the emergency room with a bullet in you. I do not agree with or subscribe to many of the activities that other people may enjoy doing but it is not my place to fold my arms with a smirk and say that you deserve to have to pay 10 to 20 times more than a product is worth because you have no right to the privilege when I do not approve of it.

One of the saddest things about what has been done to people who smoke is that few people other than smokers care about it. If it isn’t a problem for you then it isn’t a problem at all. A friend of mine who was a nonsmoker previously told me, “I cared about this issue even when I didn’t smoke because I know an injustice when I see one.”  This is a rare thing to hear because it is a rare person who actually gives a damn if it isn’t directly affecting them.

Smokers are not to blame for the lies and deceptions of the cigarette manufactures yet we are vilified for using their product as if we are responsible. Using a potentially harmful product is done by anyone who drives a car, drinks alcohol, uses power tools, takes prescription drugs, or buys a firearm. These things are purchased by choice and it follows that one understands that most things on the planet have a potential for harm even the foods that we eat, and in far too many places, the water that we drink is so dangerous that it can and has caused brain damage. When you think of a smoker try to remember that our use of tobacco products is not an indicator of anything more than it is something that we like to do. There are no other factors involved in it. It should not be viewed as a luxury item that one should be charged an arm and a leg for. Its potential for harm is no greater than many other products which are sold in this country. It has just been selected as one that can be conveniently used to spread some more capitalist wealth around and create a subset of people to victimize.

The ingredients used to make a cigarette are neither rare nor difficult to obtain. It is tobacco, paper, and a fiber for the filter. These things do not have to be imported and obtaining them is not difficult. I understand that tobacco companies have been sued many times over non-disclosure of the possible dangers of smoking but that is not the fault of the consumer.

To be fair to the consumer, a cap needs to be put on the retail price of cigarettes. The price of a pack of cigarettes should be no higher than $2.00 per pack and $20.00 per carton. This is reasonable. It is double what the price was 32 years ago but still affordable. I see no reason other than greed for the current cost. We aren’t buying gold or diamonds or Teslas.  Whatever the manufacturers of tobacco products have done, the purchasers of their products were not participants in it. Forcing the consumer to pay the penalty for their wrongdoing is anti-democratic and amounts to thievery.

Having Fallen from Grace

 “From each according to his ability. To each according to his needs.” -Karl Marx

When I was a teenager my best friend Jean had a sister who lived with her boyfriend and his family back when this kind of arrangement was still looked down upon as an immoral thing to do. They were a friendly and cheerful lot with a lifestyle that I had never seen before in that Jean’s sister and her child were welcome there with no moral high ground issues that I could see.  One of the family members was named Al, and he was a Vietnam veteran who never left the house.  He was a bit socially awkward but he was almost always smiling as he sat watching television for most of the day.  The only time that I saw him look any different was if someone knocked on the door.  A look of fear and sheer panic would come over him and he would freeze in his chair until it was determined by others in the house who was doing the knocking, Once, Jean and I went to their house looking for her sister.  No one answered the door so we waited.  Jean said that if we waited long enough Al might answer the door.  We waited a good ten minutes and finally the door slowly opened and It was Al who answered it.  Only one side of his face was visible to reveal one eye for which he could see who was there.  When he recognized us, he began to grin and he told us that everyone had gone grocery shopping.  He didn’t offer to let us come in and wait but that was not unexpected.  There are many more people like this now who have served in the military and came home with severe PTSD.  My next-door neighbor is one of them.  I have lived here six years and in all that time he has only spoken to me twice.  Once to just say “hi” and another to tell us that he liked our Halloween costumes and decorations.  You will not see this man outside otherwise.  Months after the Halloween hello his sister-in-law told me that he had been so thrilled to see our holiday festivities that he could not stop talking about it for days.

The same friend who introduced me to Al’s family also introduced me to a young woman who had a much different way of living that I found to be very troubling to say the least.  This woman was living with her lover and his wife and children.  The man was probably in his mid to late 60’s, the wife looked to be probably in her early forties.  He was a large man, bald and very obese.  His wife was painfully thin, hunched over and was very plain. She seemed to be in another world as she shuffled slowly around the house doing small amounts of housework. The young woman was a friend of Jean’s sister-in-law who had driven us to their house to pick her friend up and take her to her parent’s house to see her child.  Her parents had gone into court to get custody of the child having proven that their daughter was an unfit mother.  I did not hear any of the details of how she might have been unfit but she did talk a bit about how she and her baby had been dragged to a hospital by police prior to them taking her son away and how her baby had been examined by hospital staff in a rough and rude way with the baby terrified and crying the entire time. She also talked about what the situation was like in the household where she lived.  I don’t remember her having anything bad to say about her lover’s wife except to say that after the woman had given birth to her last child her “butt” had gotten longer.  She said she had heard of people’s “butts” getting “wider” but never longer. She said nothing about her lover who was a lump of a fellow that she had to ask permission from to visit her child.  When we arrived at her parent’s house, we stayed in the car and she knocked on the door. Then a woman came outside with a little boy who appeared to be about three years old.  He walked outside and hugged his mother. They stayed in the front yard and she played with him and threw a ball for him to catch.  Sometimes he was able to.  All of this was under the watchful eye of the grandmother.  We only stayed there for about 15 minutes and then I saw Mother and Daughter exchange a few sharp looking words, then the woman came back to the car and we started the drive back to her home. She was tense and a bit agitated on the trip back and said a few things about how she was going to try to get her baby back if she ever found a boyfriend who would help her do that.  After we bid her goodbye, I felt slightly sick at heart for some time.  I could not imagine how someone could find themselves in a situation such as this.  Being thirteen I had never been exposed to anything like that before.  I guess I led a much more sheltered life than I thought I did. I cannot remember the name of this young woman but I will never forget her story. My friend Jean was no stranger to being exposed to unfortunate people and situations like these. I met her when I went to a new school upon entering the 8th grade and my education well and truly began with that friendship.

Jean came from a large family who had many problems of their own such as alcoholism, infidelity, criminal behavior from one of her older brothers, domestic abuse in her sister’s first marriage and other situations that I had never been witness to before. They kept a loaded pistol on top of their TV set. I never saw anyone pick it up except Jean’s older sister once, when she was making a joke about having to tell someone to “f**k off" and leave her alone. How Jean and three of her other siblings managed to keep clear heads and still have genuine goals for themselves was amazing.  It is even more amazing to me when I look back on it now.  One trait that they all possessed, which is rare in any decade, is that they did not pass judgement on others easily.  They had more tolerance than most people and did not fall into the same troubled behaviors that those around them did.  Even now I have a lot of respect for what I learned from my association with them and I can’t help but be grateful for my friendship with Jean because it was instrumental in giving me a strong empathy for others that I cannot say I would have developed to the degree that I did without having known her.

There was an elderly woman who lived in a town in Arkansas where I used to live.  Arlene used to walk down the Main Street of this small town wearing several layers of clothes in winter and summer.  She would slowly shuffle along with her head bowed looking for cigarette butts to pick up and smoke.  Sometimes she would walk to my husband’s grandmother’s house where she was always welcomed and was given something to eat. Arlene spoke very little except say “hi” and thank my grandmother-in-law for giving her lunch. I was told that Arlene lived with her son and daughter-in-law and she did receive a Social Security check every month but her son would take it away from her and give her only $25.00 of it for cigarettes and food that she would buy at a small drive-in restaurant. He would then send her off to roam the Main Street alone.  When her money ran out, she would visit my husband’s grandmother. Some days she would sit there for hours watching television but appearing to not really comprehend what she was seeing and occasionally she would soil herself.  No one ever got in a twist about this.  They would just clean the chair after she left.  I have no idea what happened to Arlene after I moved away from there but I cannot imagine her life ever being any different until she passed away.

I used to know a woman who lived in the town where my grandparents did.  Her name was Anna May, and she had only one eye and the lower part of her left arm was missing. She was always friendly and upbeat and my grandmother liked her a lot.  Anna May made her living ironing clothes for people in town and my grandmother was one of her customers.  Anna May would come to people’s houses and pick up the clothes and she would bring them back when she had finished.  Many women in town let Anna May iron for them although most of them did not need the service.  They just knew that she needed the money and could not get a job anywhere else. The clothes that she brought back were always neatly folded and they looked as good as any professional dry cleaner would have done. It was pretty amazing how beautifully she did her work with only one hand.  Anna May was “struck,” as my family would say, on my grandmother’s brother.  He was a truck driver who would visit frequently when he was not working. He was friendly enough to her when she came over to pick up or deliver ironing but you could tell that he only viewed her interest in him as a joke.  I always felt bad about that when, after she would leave, he would laugh about the very idea that she might think he could ever be interested in her. I have often wondered what happened to Anna May when she got too old or too disabled to do the ironing.  There were no other options for her at all.

It is impossible to say whether the lives of these people would have been different if we did not live in a Capitalist society, but a society that prides itself on expecting everyone to uphold an ideal of self-sufficiency and praises only those who are able to manage it typically shows little tolerance for those who cannot. The few people who do show tolerance for those who are unable to fit the ideal are by and large not much better off themselves. As long as the majority of us don’t have to see those less fortunate it is unlikely that these situations will ever be effectively addressed. In the 1950’s film Giant, there is an extreme prejudice against the Mexican people who work for the family central to the film. The patriarch of the family discourages his wife from helping a Mexican family with a very sick baby, saying that “these people have a way of taking care of things themselves.” Translated this means we don’t bother with them.

Prior to the 2020 Presidential election, Democratic hopeful, Andrew Yang, said during one of the debates that we need to rethink what is considered to be work in this country because many people do a multitude of work for no pay here in America, and these contributions are highly valuable in society but we look down upon them as useless because they garner no wages and they proffer up nothing to Capitalism in the narrow view of too many people. He believed, as many do, that we need a basic income for our citizens, and it needs to be one large enough to cover a decent standard of living.

How we treat other people is a choice that we make, but I do believe that Socialism and Marxism have built within their structuring a more humane approach to dealing with the people who fall through the cracks, in ways that Capitalism never has.  I once heard Noam Chomsky say that animals and elderly people are not entitled to rights in this world because they contribute nothing to society, as in they do not work. I beg to differ. I have always thought very highly of Chomsky but I have never stopped being troubled about this statement from him.  It is the one thing that I heard him say that I could not disagree with more.  He said that it is up to people whether or not they want to help others who cannot or do not contribute to a society by having a job outside of the home.  Women like Arlene and Anna May are usually much worse off here than the men who at least had some coverage for their disability from having served in our military, with the exception of an elderly man named Rob that I knew.  I do not know his situation as to how he became so destitute, but if I had to guess I would say that he was probably a farmer who fell upon hard times in the rural south and there were no family members who cared or he lost everything at some point and no one bothered to help him. He lived in a shack next to some of my family members and he had no electricity or running water.  The father in the family used to take a plate of whatever they were having for dinner over to Rob every evening.  As far as I know, that was the only food that he ate all day.  Yes, helping others is a choice that we make but I have seen the choice to do so become less and less prevalent by the day. And I do not see this improving unless our social and economic structure makes an enormous change in how we take care of our own.  As many people have decided that they are not their brother’s keeper in any way I see nothing improving without a stable government ideal that would promote a mindset of caring about the welfare of its citizens.  The stories that I have related here were things that I witnessed as a child but in truth I do not remember ever hearing about anyone being homeless back then, even though what passed for a home was sometimes pretty substandard, the current statistics on the amount of homeless people in our country now are staggering.  We have made a choice to do very little or nothing at all about this issue, and it follows that we are doing little or nothing about the situations that create homelessness, such as the kind of  problems of the people that I have talked about here which I believe will only be solved by involving all of us in the processes which go into making the lives of people less terrifying when due to some unfortunate circumstance the people who have “fallen from grace” cannot see a way to get and keep the things that make the continuation of life possible. We are today denying millions of people a standard of living that should be their right to have. Basic necessities to sustain life should not be considered a privilege for only those who are still in the good graces of Capitalism.  As a society, we have proven that we cannot be bothered with those who are unable to keep up with the status quo so it will absolutely take a government and social structure that demands that we must be bothered. It is much too late for Al and Arlene, Anna May and Rob, but it is not too late for the people who need help now.  It will not happen though, unless we manage to redirect the current mindset of not hearing and not seeing and not believing that this is a failure of the people of the United States.  I had to see many things first hand myself when I was very young by being friends with someone who saw them every day to realize that comfort and wellbeing are not afforded to everyone like I assumed they were from where I stood.  We will have to make sure that someone like Jean or someone like the three spirits who visited Ebeneezer Scrooge come to us and make these tragedies impossible for us to ignore any longer. Why is it taking so long?