Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Tired of Tragedy


Tired of the tragedies, big and small, coming across my radar screen every day. The young men being killed by police. The young men killing one another. The students graduating with huge loans and minimum wage jobs. The people  locked into minimum wage jobs for life. The prisoners wasting away in jails which have now became
a prime target for capital investment. The children being deadened and demoralized by relentless testing. The teachers being demonized and driven out of their profession by billionaires pretending to be educators. The people being forceclosed into homelessness or forced to double and triple up with friends, relatives or strangers. The people laid off after or twenty or thirty years who will never find another job in thier field or a secure job in any field. The tens of thousands of adjunct instructors teaching in universities for McDonalds pay. The millions of people being criminalized because they choose to make or sell drugs to supplement minimum wage incomes or because they can't find legal work at any wage.  The hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Sandy and other climate related natural disasters who still face significant hardships.  And those who go through life, because of race, gender, religion, or other personal characteristics, never knowing whether they are going to be searched, harassed or stopped and frisk

And that doesn't include all the people around the world being killed, saddled with dictators, or prevented from exercising their right of self-determination because of the actions of our government.

I may be tired, but not tired enough to stop fighting.  The fires inside me burn hot with indignation, love and solidarity.

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