Muddle on Through

I’ve gotten used to the rain
Now I don’t need so much sunny sky
No need to whine or complain
Or ask why everything’s gone awry

Sometimes I try to find reason
In doing the things that I do
Typically I cannot find one
I simply don’t have a clue
So I just muddle on through

I find that I misplace years
They pass me by and don’t say a thing
And when the smoke finally clears
I have done nothing worth noticing

Sometimes I try to find reason
In doing the things that I do
Typically I cannot find one
I simply don’t have a clue
So I just muddle on through

Looking around I can see
So many things that are beautiful
I think that you might agree
Life in itself can be wonderful

So when I try to find reason
For doing the things that I do
I really don’t need to find one
I simply change point of view
And happily muddle on through

Rush is Right

I heard Rush Limbaugh say yesterday that “President Obama is trying to destroy the institutions that made this country great.” And from his point of view, he’s absolutely white... Um... I mean right. The institution of white racism that gives him (and admittedly myself) privilege in America is under attack, and rightfully so.

This notion that the U.S. was made great by a handful of visionaries (typically portrayed as white guys) is a crock of shit. America was made great by the scores of people of all colors who worked hard to scrape out a meager living, not by the few who got rich on the backs of the workers. I grew up in a union town. Almost everyone in my family was a union member. I know first hand the benefit of a healthy working class. The truth is that when the working class prospers, the country prospers. It is no coincidence that when Reagan all but destroyed the union system back in the eighties, the economy collapsed.

But I digress.

Right now the battle is over health care. The health insurance industry has found yet another way to get rich on the backs of the working classes; charge them for health coverage and then deny their claims. Obama said that insurance executives are not bad people. I strongly disagree. To profit from others’ suffering without giving aid to those suffering is evil. Plain and simple. But I’m no politician.

We need to break down this institutional norm that a few people get rich from the hard work and suffering of the many. This is the institution that Limbaugh believes made this country great. And he’s right, we are trying to pull it down.