Further Rants

I woke up this morning, turned on my laptop, and started browsing through my usual sites. I think I'm gonna quit doing that. Then again, maybe not. What happens is my paranoid thought processes get a little tweak each time I read the news, look at political cartoons (I love cartoons), or listen to NPR. I know I should stop doing that. All it does is elevate my blood pressure, fire up my ulcer and in general make me sad.

These things that I see and read make me sad because I love this country, what she used to stand for and the people who live here. I love the dream of America, the one that tells us that all people are created equal, that we all have an even chance in the pursuit of happiness, health, life, education and wealth no matter our beginings. In school I was taught that this country is a meritocracy as well as a democratic republic. Life has taught me that this country is a republic in the Roman form. The wealthy few rule the land and create the laws that keep the poor majority poor and in debt while distracting them from the leaderships outrageous behaviour with bread and circuses. Empirical observation; So long as the food keeps getting to the tables and the TV keeps working, no-one is going to storm the palace.

We worry more about Michael Jackson than we do about legislated insurance. Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien take up more attention span than health care insurance reform. American Idol means more than American justice and it's application. We listen to the pundits on the TV and radio tell us what a lousy job our current president is doing while allowing ourselves to be deflected from the truth of who is actually running the country. Presidents come and go. Senators, Supreme Court Justices, and career bureaucrats are for life. We see, by design, only the huge face above the throne. Very few ever get to see, or even know about, the "man behind the curtain".

Layers upon layers. The President serves at the sufferance of the Senate, House and Congress. The Senate, House and Congress serve at the sufferance of Big Banks, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Agri and Wall Street. The banks, pharmaceutical corporations, insurance companies and agricultural interest are driven by Wall Street. Wall street is driven by the investors that drive the corporate board members who make the policies that protect the profit making machinery that drives Wall Street. The majority of the investors are foreign. Observation; this country is under financial attack from without and within. The guards are either asleep, absent or paid off.

Cameras at every traffic light and in every commercial doorway, cell phones and cars with GPS tracking, Organised Religion and banks influencing government, private contractors supporting our combat troops, corporations with private armies, persecuted minorities, dumbed down public schools, falling wages, off-shored jobs, guest worker programs...........

I'm doing my best to get Avalon outfitted, prepared and stocked for long distance cruising. I know for a fact that I cannot do anything about anything except my own attitude. I know that my attitude is the only thing on this Earth that I truly own. It is my hope that I will have enough time to get Avalon ready so that I may take my attitude and head to sea where I will be able to choose how I live or die. Emiliano Zapata said that it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. My knees got sore years ago so I chose to live on my feet. I chose poverty over slavery. No credit cards, no job working for someone else that I can loose to a less expensive worker or merely by being myself, no land, no house, no debt.

For years I have listened to guys brag about how they got 100% disability from the VA having never once set foot in Vietnam or any other area of conflict while I wondered where my next meal was coming from. I served six months of direct combat and refused all but medical help because I volunteered. I made my choices and lived with them. Now I know I need to escape or my rage and anger will own me. I'm going for the VA's money, I'm going to outfit my home Avalon, and then I'm going to go away. I'm running from this situation while running to a new life while I still can. Fix my boat, fix my body, fix my life. Soon.

If life is a dream then it behoves us to live the dream. Dream and live, live and dream. One is no good without the other.