Who "owns" America?

[SoCalDem]

When I say "owns", I mean this. All Americans claim this country as theirs, but at every step of the way, there are multiple roadblocks to navigate to participate.

If you lose your job, you lose your home, your ability to feed yourself, your access to medical care for yourself and your family.

If you are born into a poor family, your access to an advanced education is less likely.

Even the particular state you live in, can determine what rights you have, as opposed to another citizen who happens to live in another state.

Did the framers intend for so many inequities to have developed?

Their lofty goals of unification and equality, seem to have jumped the shark somewhere along the line.

There are many things that humans just need...in order to live..at the very basic level of existence..

Food, water & shelter are the obvious ones, but even those basics come with "problems" attached to them.

No money.,..no food... for starters. There are charities, but can we expect ENOUGH charities to crop up to actually fill the gap? Should we?

Charities are not self-sustaining, just by the virtue of having good people who want to help, as their members. It takes money to run charities, and that money has to come from somewhere.. Where? From ordinary people who give, as a sense of responsibility, AND from super rich who are looking to burnish their reputations (and for the tax relief).

Ask yourself this.. Where does all that "charity money" of the rich & famous COME FROM?? Could it be that we, as their "customers/clients/flunkies" are giving them more than their due, to start with? Is the fact that they have so much EXTRA, part of the problem most of us live with every day?

And then there is water..

The water bill is not a biggie for most people, but the very fact that we have to PAY for water, might be.

Our country seems to be lucky, in that we HAVE lots of water (okay maybe we HAD it), so shouldn't the citizens of this country be entitled to water, and maybe only pay for the building of, maintaining of water treatment/delivery facilities? The facilities necessary to get water to us, and make sure it's safe should be OWNED by the municipalities who use them, and once the physical property is paid for, the salaries of the people working in them, should be what we continue to pay.

Perhaps the people who waste water could be fined or made to pay for the extra, but if "our" country HAS water, and it's a basic necessity of life, shouldn't WE have a right to our fair share of it..without having to enrich an already-rich person by paying for it?

Which brings me to shelter...

When a working person spends half or more of their income, just to put a roof over their heads, that alone is cause for concern, but when a person loses a job, and gets put out of that dwelling, where DO they go? Does their human need for shelter go away with the paycheck? If they forfeit their belongings and live a homeless life on the streets, they become a vagrant, a bum, a loiterer... a lawbreaker.

Homeless people in America, the beautiful .Land of the Brave..


Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness.. What does that even mean anymore?

Life:
needs food, water, shelter

Liberty:
needs a way to support oneself sufficiently so there is TIME and energy to remain free

Pursuit of Happiness:
that's the kicker..

happiness could mean a person gives you a $5, instead of a dirty look as they pass you on the street
it could mean a new iPod
it could mean a shiny new car
it could mean a lab report with the word "benign"
It could mean many things to many people.

Being secure in your own life, in your own country seems to be the key to everything worth having.

The security at the bottom of it all , turns out to be the ability to provide the basics.. That's all most of us really want or need. Most of us do not fear seeing bin Laden in our hedge, waiting to jump out and kill us.

I think that most of us have rather pedestrian goals for ourselves:

We want a decent place to call home
We want to be warm in the winter and not super-hot in the summer
We want to be able to afford to buy food
We want safe water
We want a safe & secure old age
We want to be able to educate our kids ( and do it well enough so they don't fall behind us)
We want medical care when we are sick or injured

Our country HAS the ability to provide access to ALL of these things. If America is "ours", why are so many of us unable to have these things?

[DemocratInSoCal]

1. Where To Begin

China

The Saudi's

The Arab's

The Corporations

The Corporate WHORE Media

The * Administration

The only time when we have even a semblence of "owning" this country, is ever other November, when the candidates come begging for our votes.

But even that game is rigged, and all we get are promises, platitudes, and LIES, about how they give 2 shits about our situation.

THEY CARE ABOUT THEIR SITUATION, AND LITTLE ELSE.

Obama & Clinton care about becoming President. To think they care about it so they can fix the problems the 100's of millions of Americans face, is naive at best. They just want the perks and prestige of office, and will do whatever it takes, and say whatever is necessary, to attain that.

[Donnachaidh]

7. THANK YOU!

"Obama & Clinton care about becoming President. To think they care about it so they can fix the problems the 100's of millions of Americans face, is naive at best. They just want the perks and prestige of office, and will do whatever it takes, and say whatever is necessary, to attain that."

This needs to be SAID, as many times as possible. NEITHER side is truly committed to do anything more than get into office, and then we'll get the same old treatment. Ignored, marginalized, and thrown to the gutter.

[DemocratInSoCal]

But Where Does That Leave Us?

The honorable people in office, are fewer and more far between.

Either Obama or Clinton are 10,000 Times Better than ANY republican, especially McLame.

Unfortunately, that does not reassure me that they are "different" enough, to believe that enough will change. Or that they're the 2nd coming of JFK or RFK.

What really, really, really bothers me, is that instead of doing their jobs as SENATORS, all 3 of them spend 99% of their time campaigning, and pop in to D.C. every few weeks to vote, and act like they care about their CURRENT JOBS.

They have their eyes on the prize, and little else is important. Say whatever will get them to it, and worry about changing their minds later.

[DemocratInSoCal]

8. But Where Does That Leave Us?

The honorable people in office, are fewer and more far between.

Either Obama or Clinton are 10,000 Times Better than ANY republican, especially McLame.

Unfortunately, that does not reassure me that they are "different" enough, to believe that enough will change. Or that they're the 2nd coming of JFK or RFK.

What really, really, really bothers me, is that instead of doing their jobs as SENATORS, all 3 of them spend 99% of their time campaigning, and pop in to D.C. every few weeks to vote, and act like they care about their CURRENT JOBS.

They have their eyes on the prize, and little else is important. Say whatever will get them to it, and worry about changing their minds later.

[DemocratInSoCal]

9. Delete

Dupe

[Deep13]

2. I guess if we need to ask, it ain't us. nt

[niyad]

3. k & r

the chinese?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. The Wrong Sort of People.

It is owned by The Sociopathic Class.

[drmeow]

5. This is a very thoughtful

and thought provoking analysis.

I don't think the founding fathers ever really thought about what life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness meant when they wrote those words - at least not about how they applied to anyone who did not belong to the privileged class.

I think there are so many variables which existed or didn't exist in 1776 compared to now. I mean, debtors were sent to prison ... meaning they weren't homeless but they also didn't have any liberty. Orphans were put in foundling homes (run usually by Churches and related charities) where again, they weren't homeless but they also were not free. Individuals and families could pack up their belongings and go west to homestead where they build the homes themselves (with the help of neighbors) and didn't have mortgages to be foreclosed on. People grew a lot more of their own food. People hunted and raised their own animals (the whole concept of a village green was a place for the villagers to allow their personal animals to graze). The rich had servants and life needs were often provided by the employer but in exchange for almost 24/7 on-call availability of said servants.

Women who found themselves without family and/or money were forced to prostitute themselves either literally or through marriage to the highest bidder. Men in the same position would often only had the option of highly dangerous pursuits (sign on to work on a merchant ship, for example). Many, many, many people lived in poverty and were unable to feed and cloth themselves or find shelter. People begged. People stole. There was a pretty big gap between the haves and the have nots. For all the noble and lofty goals of the Founding Fathers, people who did not belong to the church were left to fend for themselves if things went wrong and individual's failure to thrive was viewed as a personal moral failing. The rich had a sense of noblesse oblige but only for the "deserving" poor.

[blm]

6. Always confident in recommending your threads.

Today more than ever.