Revolution

Revolution. Revolt. Why don’t we revolt? We haven’t been oppressed enough. Well, we have, but the American working class hasn’t fully caught on.

There are families who are living paycheck to paycheck. There are families standing in line at the local soup kitchen, trying to end the hunger that their job(s) won’t end. New Mexico has one of the best minimum wage rates, yet it is still not enough to pick our poor citizens up off the ground.

By the time I am 65, Social Security will be a mere memory; a memory of my youth. I do not feel Medicine is my calling; I feel law enforcement is, or military service. Living on the paycheck of a police officer, I will live hand to mouth. I am not bothered by that; that is the life I choose. What bothers me is that when I am old, I will have little retirement pay, and no Social Security; and I will have to choose between food and medication. I know I will need medication; I already have arthritis in my hands, neck, back, knees, ankles, and toes. It gets worse with moisture and/or cold. There are many people worse off than me. We have an elderly family friend who pays $1000/mo. for her medications. Even when she goes outside of the country she is still paying $500-$800/mo. She is living off her late husband’s retirement, a small amount of Social Security, but is also supporting a lazy child who refuses to move out.

I have a few young friends. I don’t suffer from ageism. I read one of their texts recently. I didn’t see a single word in it that was spelled properly. I was curious, so I asked them to write out, in proper English, what they had just typed. They couldn’t. I didn’t make them feel bad, why should I when it most likely isn’t their fault. When I was growing up I was fortunate enough to attend a Catholic school during my formative years. They taught me everything I needed to succeed. I was the epitome of a lazy student; I did my homework, but rarely paid attention to it. Yet, with my lax attitude, I still managed to learn what they were teaching. So did my fellow students. I am still in contact with some of them. When they leave me a written message, everything is spelled correctly; even the correct word is used. I also went to public school for one year. I made one friend while there. I still talk with her. She went to public school all of her life. I see many spelling errors in her messages. I don’t humiliate her; it’s not her fault. I know this because I know her; she is smart in many other ways, and she works hard to understand things that she needs to know. No Child Left Behind? I know several children who have been left behind. I’d bet my right leg there are many more in America; millions probably. I don’t think it’s just the kids being left behind though too; I think our teachers are being left behind also. They put up with arrogant and potentially violent students, for less than $30,000/yr. only in some areas are their salaries equal to $30,000/yr. More teachers are being murdered senselessly each year by students who are being left behind by our government and who are also being ostracized by other students. If they don’t kill themselves, they will probably kill fellow students and their teachers. With what I’ve seen so far, if I want my future kids to have a decent education, I need to work my ass off to pay for them to attend a private school. Do you see this happening on a police officer’s salary? I don’t either.

The queer community is the largest group of people in the workforce to be discriminated against. Women get it bad too, don’t get me wrong. However, they cannot be fired for just being a woman anymore. The queer community is subjected to unfairly delivered pink slips due solely to their sexual orientation or sexual identity. Ah, you say what about ENDA? Yes, you’re right; ENDA or the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ensures that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals cannot be fired due to their sexual orientation. What about that other part of the queer community, transgendered people or just transpeople? In the original ENDA they were included, but Senator Barney Frank and various others, cut them from the act, saying that they would only ensure the certain death of the act before it even reached the floor. What would they trip it as it walked down the stairs? Give me a break. Transpeople are the most discriminated against in the workforce. Not to mention the physical threats that are faced by many transpeople, who can’t even find justice by filing hate crimes charges. This will be the only time you hear me say “thank God for Bush.” Yes, you’d heard me right, I thanked God for Bush; more specifically his right to veto. He guaranteed to the public that he would veto the bill immediately after it hit his desk. Which means its still up in the air, it can still be altered to include transpeople for the second time. By the time it comes up again, there will be a Democrat in the house, and all of the current leading Democratic candidates have said they support queer rights. Sadly though, when it does arrive on the Senate floor again, if it doesn’t have transpeople included in it, they most likely won’t step up to defend their inclusion. They are the most silent of the queers because many try so hard not get read, or discovered for fear of discrimination. There are some transpeople who are “transwarriors”, like Leslie Feinberg, author of the awesome book Stone Butch Blues. Hopefully, by the time ENDA reenters the playing field, transpeople will finally have a voice, and a loud one at that.
So what is necessary for Revolution? Oppression. Is oppression current in our culture? Yes. So, why isn’t anything being done to overhaul the system? Because the masses of the Working Class haven’t been educated in the ways of revolt against oppression; they are led blindly, taught that “this is just the way it is”. They need to know that there is more to politics than democracy; there is Anarchy. We need to mass-copy the Anarchist Manifesto and throw the leaflets out into the streets for passersby to read, so they are enlightened. We need to reach out and grab the hands of the poor and the children that are being left behind, lift their burdens, and teach them the values of Anarchism. We need to step up, or more accurately, step onto the factory floor, and preach our most powerful word: Revolution.

~Guardian~