Why Not a Generation of Graft Dodgers?

Mike & Friends Blog

Donna Smith

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

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July 11th, 2011 6:36 PM

Why Not a Generation of Graft Dodgers?

If ever there were a crime being committed on a massive level in which many of us are being forced to participate, this is it. The funneling upward of money from those who need it most to those who need it least and the gutting of our social safety net programs in order to further enrich the rich is every bit the robbery and brutal assault on our bodies, our families and our homes as any of those featured in Nancy Grace’s wildest imagination.

It seems not to matter how many of us or what percentage of us say do not cut Social Security and Medicare to cut the deficit or fund more corporate welfare – the lies just keep coming and the threats have now reached the point where our own President, watching his people suffer massive unemployment, foreclosures and death at the hands of corporate health giants, is now himself suggesting cuts to Medicare and Social Security as his bargaining chip in order to fan out his feathers and make a huge display of leadership, apparently.

I am not sure where we will end up with this – I know many good people are fighting still. But the reality is that we live in times when our lives are fodder. If it serves someone in power to protect us, then they might. If it serves someone in power to protect those who would harm us, then they might do that. The grounding points in which we all believed in terms of being a caring and just people have been stripped away to make room for nothing but raw power and raw profit and often the two are one in the same.

I think back to how many young Americans fled to Canada as draft dodgers during the Vietnam war (oh, sorry, we’re supposed to call it a conflict as it wasn’t officially declared). And I think to some of the reports out of Canada this week.

Canada actually saw job creation last month in excess of our own. Canada has one-tenth the number of citizens we do and they also have a truly universal healthcare system. It seems that has not bankrupted them or turned them into Communists – as so many would have us believe. They are rather proud of their job growth – 10,000 more new jobs than we managed. And much of the job growth is in the public sector. Read about it here.

We on the other hand are shutting down states and public parks and programs, because the wealthy here just want more and more and more. And we are standing on the verge of giving fewer health benefits to our people not more – with the blessing and the full force of both major political parties, unless a lot of so far mostly compliant Congressional members and a lot more of us stand up to this horrible criminal trend. This is our money and our country, or at least it was until the wealthy corporations bought it. We do not deserve to see a further decline in our standards of living when those at the top are profiting so wildly.

Anyone up for a little graft dodging?