Already, the oil spill isn't on the front page. Can we really forget about this, so quickly?
I know that it'll be hard to transition off of oil. I can't afford a smart car and I'm currently commuting back and forth over a 162 mile stretch. But you can bet your bottom dollar that once I get somewhere that I can physically commute, I will. Or I'll get a horse. Then I'd get transportation AND fertilizer. BP has a lot of fertilizer too, but it's all metaphorical bullshit. Not useful for anything, not really.
I'm just so tired of all of this capitalistic machine. It works really well, for rich people. Too bad there aren't very many rich people.
I remember, I had this one friend. He was gorgeous and played the piano. He was sweet on me, a little bit, I think. But he had no idea what life was really like for real people. His parents get lots of time off, he never had to say "oh, I can't afford that", and he hasn't ever really had a job.
My family is a little bit more normal. Both my parents work, and they work hard to barely keep their finances afloat. My dad goes to hard, physical labor (with his diesel engineering degree) every day with two herniated disks in his back. My mom works a desk job, through a migraine she's had for nine months and a boss that continually adds to her workload (with no reward) because she's a good worker and gets it done. In twentyfour years, they've never had a vacation together that lasted for more than three days. I started working when I was twelve, doing under the table farm work to bring in a little extra money.
And we're the people who keep the country running. The mechanics and the truck drivers who deliver the fancy products to whomever it is that can afford it. We're the accountants that play by the rules and pay the right taxes. We're the people who get our pensions cut and take 15% pay cuts while these inglorious CEO's get their million dollar bonuses. We're the people that train the Vice- president's kid to do the job that he only got because of daddy's money, and then the people that have to put up with an incompetent boss. We're the people who bear all of the cost of the capitalistic function of society, and who reap none of the benefits. We don't own our houses, we're losing our jobs, we can't retire, we can't buy good food, we can't even regulate our government because we don't have the money to run against someone doing a terrible job that can take time off to campaign and to buy marketing analysts.
(At least we finally have health care, sort of...)
And we're losing hope. We're losing faith.
We're tired of corporations buying off the government. We're tired of shipping your products. We're tired of the continual inventory, of being nothing but numbers in your system, of having to look you in the eye while we serve you food that we can't eat. We're tired of your yacht races, of your ferraris and your private clubs.
And now, we're getting restless.
What you're doing to the world, to the people, to our minds- it's not sustainable.
We're going to have to change a few things.
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