[THS] !! Cindy Sheehan: Two Americas

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25446.htm



Two Americas

As I sit here at a Socialism conference in Seattle, I am reminded of a recent
humiliating experience that I went through.

By Cindy Sheehan

May 14, 2010 "Islam Times" -- To make a long story short—this past February, I
received a letter from the DA’s office of my county. For the first time ever, I was
informed that I “knowingly” passed a “worthless check” and if I didn’t immediately
send a money order to pay for the check, the store fee AND $130 to pay for a “bad
check writer’s class,” that I would be prosecuted for a FELONY!

I immediately did send a money order and a letter saying that I felt that be
threatened for a felony for something that I didn’t know happened, and for a first
offense was a little over the top.

So, instead of taking a Saturday out of my life to take the naughty check writer’s
class, I had to pay $35 to take the audio course that comes with a “text” book and a
workbook.

This audio program was completely humiliating and degrading. I was told that
writing a bad check was comparable to dealing drugs, because I “knowingly” stole
from the merchant and there is NO excuse for passing a “bad check.” And to get my
finances under control I should shop at thrift stores and not grocery shop when I am
hungry, etc.

One of the “tips” that I was told, also, was that I should never buy my son “designer
sneakers” because he can do with shoes from a discount store or a thrift store. Of
course we want to be able to tell the rich kids from the poor kids.

I was instructed on how to balance a checkbook and to make a budget. The more I
listened to this program, the angrier I became because it just reinforced to me the
intense class divide that we have in this nation/world.

If you are in what I call the “Robbed Class,” on one hand, we are force fed a daily
dose of Madison Avenue propaganda and we are made to feel less than human if we
don’t have brand new and brand name consumer goods.

Also, even though the Robber Class mortgage companies and banks enticed and
deceived millions of people into their “high risk” low-interest (adjustable) mortgages
that were then chopped up into a million pieces in Mortgage Backed Derivatives—and
of course people were able to be led like sheep to slaughter for these loans because
we are also mythologized of the “American Dream” of home ownership as the
pinnacle of American existence.

Even discounting that our currency is mostly based on magical thinking/credit—the
Robbed Class lives on credit and bases prosperity on hardware that is visible but
purchased on credit that is invisible. So, the Robbed Class gets in a virtual cycle of
debt slavery to try and keep pace with the American Dream. We work (if we are lucky
enough to have a job) real hours to make phony money to pay off our credit
obligations to pay for real goods. However, I am convinced that many people are
now using credit to buy essentials such as gas and food, not luxuries.

What happens when the credit dries up, like it has? How do we in the Robbed
Classes feed our families and purchase gas to get to work? Many people go into
further debt by using these check cashing facilities. I recently saw a commercial for a
“signature loan” from one of these places—it’s a great deal—you can borrow $2500
and pay only 139% interest! Some people are so desperate that they will
unfortunately go for it.

So, I finished my bad check writer’s course, and in my evaluation, I said that there
are worse things than writing a bad check: war and economic exploitation being only
two of those things.

I want to share my recent exercise in humiliation to make a point. There ARE Two
Americas that John Edwards (former Senator, VP Candidate) knows nothing about.

There’s the America that I belong to. The one where mothers often have to miss
work or send their children to school or day care ill, because they CANNOT AFFORD
to miss work. There’s the America where some families and especially seniors have to
choose between buying medicine and buying food.

However, the America that I belong to also buys into the Myth that we don’t deserve
to have healthy food, education, health care, a warm and non-leaking roof over our
heads, without living as debt slaves, because we don’t belong in the privileged “elite”
class.

My America sends our children off to fight and die and kill innocent people in wars
that the other America profits off of.

We need a Robbed Classrevolution, but before we can have one of those—our class
needs to come to the conclusion that there is something deeply wrong with this U.S.
system of out-of-control crony Capitalism.

This Capitalism not only leads to war, but economic and environmental devastation.
The gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is happening because of backroom deals between
the companies involved and the U.S. representatives that are purchased by oil
companies.

Capitalism has brought this world to the brink of disaster, now it’s up to the people to
bring it back.

© Islam Times