These are the best of times, not the worst of times

While doing Genealogy I have come to realize that my generation must be the luckiest ever born for my family suffered on the low end of Society for at least the last three hundred years. There were many branches of the Family Tree that go back to Ireland were they were probably Tenant Farmers living at the whim of their lord. Some moved on to Scotland to work in the factories and mills. There is plenty of evidence that until the latter part of the ninth century many of them couldn’t read or write signing their marriage certificates with an X. at least on my father’s side I think my grandparents were the first one to go to school for it wasn’t considered necessary for poor laborers to be educated until factory owners need them to be more skilled. Even after they were sent to school most only went to school until they were fourteen reporting the next day to the factories, mills or mines. My Mother told me that she left school at nine years old first working in the fields picking strawberries then in the wool mills of Alva Scotland. When she was about twenty years old her mother arranged for her and two of her cousins go to New York. The year was 1929 so they left one depression for another. They worked as Maids in Brooklyn, her two cousins getting home sick went back to Scotland. My mother stayed only because she met my father who had just arrived in New York himself. My Dad left Scotland because he was an Irish Catholic in a country that hated both and let my father know it. My brother, sister and me have had it easy compared to the generations just before us and I am sure the whole family hopes for a even better future.
I think most work class people have similar stories one generation trying to improve the lot of the next and our generation. Certainly we lived through best economic times due to the “cold war” and the industrial complex built up since just before World War Two. Now since the beginning of our nation the wealthier class has tried to keep the lower classes in check feeding them just enough to keep them quiet. We have been feed well enough in my life time to make a lot of people think they are middle class, but that was by exploiting working class people in other nations. The improvement in commutations first with Radio, then with Television and now with the Internet it is getting hard for the upper classes to control the information flow between the working people of the world. It is always hard to forecast the future, but if history teaches us anything it is that the lot of common people is very slowly getting better. It may not seem like at any one moment in time, but the working people of the world are more aware today than they ever were, they only have to listen to all points

Money Talks, People Work

The latest ruling by the Supreme Court 5 to 4, that Corporations have the right to overshadow middle/working class Americans access to their government. This is misusing the First Amendment as they have even before the ink was dry on the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Framers our Government were all rich land owners who wanted to make sure that they always held the power over the working class Americans. They even kept the vote to themselves for to vote you had to be a Rich, White, a man and a land owner. Over the last 234 years the class warfare between middle/working class activist and Rich land owners/corporations, the activist have little by little gained the rights for different groups among the American people. The battles are between the weak and the powerful so the progress is slow taking generations and sometimes it may seem hopeless like after the big losses we just took, but if you look at history you see that we are gaining ground. We can gain more ground if we don’t stop for Tea Parties.

2009 a year that started with hope that wasn’t realized.

This year 2009 started out with a lot of hope with the election of our first African-American President, of who I have to say that I had my doubts I supported Hillary Clinton thinking she as well as John Edwards were more for Universal Health Care than Obama. Obama even then seem to be for too much compromise, I think the Obama took the saying “Politics is the art of compromise” too much to heart. The first issue that came up was what was called “Tarp” a 700 billion dollar bail out of the economy. So right from the start the bill had 40% Tax Cuts because the Republicans want only more tax cuts for the rich who they say will invest it in creating American Jobs, even though they same rich people spent the last decade investing the money in Chinese jobs. A lot of the rest went to Bailing out Wall Street with very little going to rebuilding the Electric grid, Transportation system, and renewable emerge which would put American to work doing jobs that needs to be done.
Then there was the Health Care Bill, Now do you think they started with Universal Health Care with a single payer system which would not only cover all Americans, but relieve businesses of having to providing health benefits to their employees there by again providing American jobs. I don’t think that Obama was ever really for Universal Health care so he and the Democrats start with a Compromised Health Care bill with a watered down “Public Option” instead. The only reason they even had that into in the bill was to play the Progressives along, they always intended to pull it out at the last moment.
The Stock Market recovered from 2008 somewhat, but had it’s up and down ending up around 10,000. What with Wall Market investors reacting to every rumor proving once again that Wall Street investors don’t know any more than anyone else. When Tiger Wood got into trouble the investors started to sell all the stocks of Companies he endorsed as if the only reason people buy their products is because Tiger Woods endorsed them.
America got more deeply drawn into Afghanistan while still occupying Iraq and eyeing Yemen and Iran there by keeping Military Complex going.
One good thing that happened in 2009 is that Yankees won the World Series

Looking forward without looking backwards?

In the Vice-President debate Gov. Palin said “we that the McCain-Palin Administration would look forward to the future and not backwards to the past”. Now how can you going forward without knowing where you came from when you go to the food store it is because you know it had good food in the past, but you are buying for the future. When you are hiring someone you want to hire you look into their past to know how they will perform in the future.

Paulson Plan

I don't think I understand this plan at all, I think the Government meaning the American Taxpayer will buy all the debt from large Corporations that no one else would even touch there by freeing up money to ship more jobs out of the country, but has it been decided that the plan will pay .40 on the dollar or will they pay the whole dollar and the taxpayer will be the big loser? Another question is how are we going the pay for all the bail outs plus the war debt. America has better start cutting the fat military budget and let some companies fail. We can not avoid all the pain and save the patient.