Thank You, Mr. Edwards...
Are We All Germans, Now?
By bobbolink
I remember as a kid.... junior high, we called it in those days, having endless discussions about "How could the German people allow that horrid mess to happen?" "What were they doing?" "Why did they ignore the suffering of so many people?"
Questions that still, for the most part, have no answer.
Without those answers, we keep thinking that it's "THEM"... it's the GERMANS who let it happen. We're different.. we're much more kind, we're much more aware than those awful Germans.
Yet, here we are, in the richest country in the world, plenty everywhere, and yet people right here are starving, people right here are dying of curable and preventable illness, people right here in front of us are suffering and dying of homelessness.
"How can we allow this horrid mess to happen?" "What are we doing?" "Why are we ignoring the suffering of so many people?"
We always thought that we, Americans, and especially we, Democrats, were DIFFERENT. We have more soul, we have more compassion, we have more spine.
Yet, where are we?
Why, when we are so anxious to win back the Blight House, are the two remaining candidates NOT DISCUSSING PLANS TO END POVERTY?
Why, here on the leftist of the left, do we see people posting hostility towards poor folk? "Many poor people aren't good people."
"Poor people don't vote." RIGHT! So, who, pray tell, were the people standing in line to vote for 3 hours, 5 hours, 7 hours and even more? Were they rich? Were all you middleclass people standing in those lines? Who were THEY?
Would we quietly allow this kind of ignorance about people of color on DU? Would we allow this kind of ignorance about gay people? Would we stand quietly and allow talk like this about Jewish people? WHY??? Why are poor people the outcasts of the Democratic party?
There is so much snobbery about those "who don't vote their own best interest", as if we as so pure as to never get fooled. Yet, when a poor person says "I won't vote for a Dem if s/he won't stand up for me", then we're castigated, and called a RW shill. (How's that for silliness, and yes, I've gotten that, too!)
Over and over, threads here on poverty sink like anchors. We ask simply for a phone call, or an email for an upcoming vote, which would take, at most, 1-2 minutes. IGNORED. Yet, when we mention that, we're given all kinds of excuses to brush us off. "How do you KNOW that nobody called?" (right, and yet you can spend hours on silly polls, or posts on Britney, for the goddess sake!)
If we have the temerity to complain that we aren't even mentioned in debates or speeches, we're told we're selfish whiners.... "Just because *your* issue wasn't mentioned, you're going to have a tantrum?" So, was Martin Luther King having a tantrum all those years by demanding that Civil Rights be an issue?
"It isn't the right time... you'll have to be patient." Kinda the same thing that was said to Martin, isn't it?
What will it take for my suffering, for the suffering of millions of us, to stir your heart?
By bobbolink
I remember as a kid.... junior high, we called it in those days, having endless discussions about "How could the German people allow that horrid mess to happen?" "What were they doing?" "Why did they ignore the suffering of so many people?"
Questions that still, for the most part, have no answer.
Without those answers, we keep thinking that it's "THEM"... it's the GERMANS who let it happen. We're different.. we're much more kind, we're much more aware than those awful Germans.
Yet, here we are, in the richest country in the world, plenty everywhere, and yet people right here are starving, people right here are dying of curable and preventable illness, people right here in front of us are suffering and dying of homelessness.
"How can we allow this horrid mess to happen?" "What are we doing?" "Why are we ignoring the suffering of so many people?"
We always thought that we, Americans, and especially we, Democrats, were DIFFERENT. We have more soul, we have more compassion, we have more spine.
Yet, where are we?
Why, when we are so anxious to win back the Blight House, are the two remaining candidates NOT DISCUSSING PLANS TO END POVERTY?
Why, here on the leftist of the left, do we see people posting hostility towards poor folk? "Many poor people aren't good people."
"Poor people don't vote." RIGHT! So, who, pray tell, were the people standing in line to vote for 3 hours, 5 hours, 7 hours and even more? Were they rich? Were all you middleclass people standing in those lines? Who were THEY?
Would we quietly allow this kind of ignorance about people of color on DU? Would we allow this kind of ignorance about gay people? Would we stand quietly and allow talk like this about Jewish people? WHY??? Why are poor people the outcasts of the Democratic party?
There is so much snobbery about those "who don't vote their own best interest", as if we as so pure as to never get fooled. Yet, when a poor person says "I won't vote for a Dem if s/he won't stand up for me", then we're castigated, and called a RW shill. (How's that for silliness, and yes, I've gotten that, too!)
Over and over, threads here on poverty sink like anchors. We ask simply for a phone call, or an email for an upcoming vote, which would take, at most, 1-2 minutes. IGNORED. Yet, when we mention that, we're given all kinds of excuses to brush us off. "How do you KNOW that nobody called?" (right, and yet you can spend hours on silly polls, or posts on Britney, for the goddess sake!)
If we have the temerity to complain that we aren't even mentioned in debates or speeches, we're told we're selfish whiners.... "Just because *your* issue wasn't mentioned, you're going to have a tantrum?" So, was Martin Luther King having a tantrum all those years by demanding that Civil Rights be an issue?
"It isn't the right time... you'll have to be patient." Kinda the same thing that was said to Martin, isn't it?
What will it take for my suffering, for the suffering of millions of us, to stir your heart?
