Once People Feel the Bern... The Fire Will Not Go Out
Well, today I am supposed to be writing about all sorts of critical issues like opposition to the TPP, ramping up efforts on climate change concerns, and support for the People's Budget in the House that stands as such a great challenge to the terribly damaging budget resolution the Republican majority supports. Any one of those issues is worthy of a great deal of ongoing attention, and I will get back to them in due time. My mind is on being working class or poor in a nation full of economic bullies who make it part of their daily lives to behave themselves as if they are superior and more deserving than all the rest of us.
Bernie Sanders reminds people often that it is expensive to be poor in America, and so it is. Goods and services—especially necessities of life—are much more expensive for those who live paycheck to paycheck. Smaller quantities cost more. Deposits are required and held. Credit is withheld. In every way you could think of and some you may not have, those who don't have healthy bank balances are penalized in advance of actually having reneged on any financial obligation. I know. I've lived it. And I live it still.
Today as I traveled to attend a meeting in DC, I was reminded over and over again about how different the world feels and responds to those without sufficient cash and/or credit cards. I feel blessed to have meaningful work and blessed to be at all a part of the work to elect Bernie Sanders. It makes the trauma of that past several years as my husband and I have fought the healthcare system a lot less painful. But discrimination against the working class is still alive and well—and if I could make only one point this election season to other working class people of all races, ages and cultures, it would be that what separates us most is not the color of our skin or our religion or our age, sexual orientation or gender, it is our wealth or lack thereof. We are being worked and played by so many of the candidates.
Have you seen all the photos of the Trumps, the Clintons, the Bloombergs, and others in their economic classes on the golf courses, at one another's weddings and social gatherings, and doing business together in every way? That is a world in which most of us are not welcomed unless we are sweeping the floors, scrubbing the toilets, serving their hors d'oeuvres, or servicing their many needs. The only time most wealthy people want much to do with the rest of us is when they must. And during the election season, they must. They need us. Because until they can fully and completely own this democracy with their money, our votes are still enough to really screw things up for them as they move in ever increasing numbers into the roles that elevate their own wealth and status and damage ours.
more: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/08/once-people-feel-bern-fire-will-not-go-out
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