‘MEB4U’ License Plate Says It All

Mike & Friends Blog

Donna Smith

Donna Smith, American SiCKO, is executive director of the Health Care for All Colorado Foundation

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March 20th, 2011 11:43 PM

‘MEB4U’ License Plate Says It All

I was on my way home when I saw it on an SUV in front of me at the light. “MEB4U” on the license plate was the message this Maryland driver wanted everyone to know she paid extra to send. She was indeed ahead of me. And I had no doubt that she embodied the message of her license plate.

“MEB4U” might as well be the rallying cry of millions of Americans who believe they are ahead of the rest of us in every way. Funny. They are, like this driver, in my neck of the woods – an area not populated by the rich and powerful but by the working class stiffs who go to work every day and hope they’ll have the bills paid at the end of the month. The wealthy folk don’t co-mingle in my area. They wouldn’t be caught dead or alive there.

But that license plate said so much to me about why we have so much trouble pushing for change for the working class in this nation. We have too many “MEB4U” club members who think somehow if they are arrogant enough and snobby enough and willing to show it, somehow they’ll inch ever closer to the ruling class, the wealthy who find most of us too disgusting with whom to associate.

The attitude is clear and the message clean. “MEB4U” said it loud and clear. The plate may as well have said “shove it” to all those with older cars and simpler needs. This driver was claiming superiority and proud of the claim. How do we achieve a single standard of high quality healthcare for all if me is before you and before me? Clearly some educating must occur.

When we finally get it in America that the wealthy and powerful don’t give a rip about the rest of us, for the most part, and that we have a greater chance of getting ourselves into heaven than reaching the nirvana we suppose it would be to be rich -- when we truly get that, maybe we’ll reach out to our neighbors who do not buy custom “MEB4U” plates and gain some community solidarity and strength from our shared position. On that day, we will gather crowds that will dwarf Madison’s tremendous rallies of late and rattle the cages of those too comfortable in their high houses of power and influence and money.

More people are closer to the gutter in America than are supping with Donald Trump and Sarah Palin and their wealthy friends tonight. We are not welcome at the trough of the entitled wealthy. We are not “B4” any of them in any way in our society.

If we could do one clear and simple thing to begin changing our dialogue and challenging power, that one thing would be in embracing one another in the vast majority of Americans who work hard, play when we can, and dream of a better world for our children. The wealthy have their own clubs and dreams – and we are not a part of them. I personally do not want to be.

We’ll have to teach each other and reach each other on this most basic of levels because when it’s all said and done, me is not before you or me or anyone else. Me is we. We is all of us. And we won’t make things better for each other as rivals. Come together. I am beside you and you are with me. Our united power is beyond what any of us might imagine and more than enough to topple empires.