Good Wednesday Evening, Miriam. And good evening to any others
following this discussion.
Sure, at one level we 99% are being victimized. But simply saying
that we are victims is not going to move anthills much less mountains.
How is it that so many average, hard working, conscientious, law
abiding Americans have come to be victims?
If we don't like talking about who is responsible, at least let's talk
about how we begin a process to take control of our lives and of our
nation's resources. It's been many years since I decided that I was
not going to be a victim. Certainly this has not made a big
difference in my material success. But then I no longer measure my
success by material stuff. It's hard to be a victim if we don't play
their game. When we get together and decide that even though we are
different looking, speak differently, and have different sorts of
Faith, we are more similar than dissimilar. We can learn together
that we do not need to support the posh life style of the Super Rich.
We do not need to base our happiness on wealth. We can learn to say
that we are not able to carry the load alone, but need the help of our
neighbors. We need to learn to trust one another. We need to sit and
listen to just who our neighbors are. We need to respect one another
for our differences, and we need to begin practicing today, right now.
Start by saying, "I am not a victim! I do need help to pull myself up
by my bootstraps. I am ready to accept my neighbors as my equals,
embracing them for their differences as well as for their
similarities. I will listen with an open mind, and speak with an
honest tongue."
Remember, practice makes perfect.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/11/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
My response is, Don't blame the victim. We, the average Americans, whatever
name you wish to give us, working class, middle classs, the common people,
the silent majority, we are victimized by power and the wealthy. I just
posted an email about what I'd just learned today, May 11, 2016, about
something Bill Clinton did, or tried to do, during his Presidency. I wasn't
a disinterested or an irresponsible citizen in the 90's. I was very busy
and
my access to information plus the time I had to delve deeply into political
matters, was limited. We do not have ourselves to blame. We have no idea of
the manipulations that are used in order to limit and control the
information we have about how our government works, about how our media
work, about what our laws actually say. Have you attempted to read a legal
document recently? We are purposefully kept ignorant. As our bureaucratic
systems have become all encompassing and more complex, we have less and
less
control over our lives. Because each of us is unique, some of us are more
curious or less passive and accepting, and we, therefore, question more.
But
please don't say, If only we were more alert or better in some way, these
terrible things wouldn't be happening. It is not our fault. We are the
victims, not the perpetrators.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 10:51 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Virginia Jarvis
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: WV Primary
Roger writes that in West Virginia, some sources contend that, "forty-four
percent of the Sanders voters intend to vote for Donald Trump in November
if
the Democrat Nominee is Clinton". That's pretty consistent with what I'm
hearing from other sources. People who feel disenfranchised, ignored and
used strike out at what they perceive to be the cause of their oppression.
So, if Bernie Sanders can't give them relief, maybe Donald Trump can. Many
observers blame the Mass Media for fanning confusion and mistrust among the
Working Class. But we have only ourselves to blame. If we are so brain
dead that we don't realize that Corporate America uses Their Mass Media to
promote their interests, we have earned the right to be screwed.
Sure, it's easy to go with the flow, and hard work to swim against the
stream. But isn't it odd that we are taught that it takes hard work and
persistence to "get ahead" in the world, but to disconnect when it comes to
politics. Our lives are filled with distractions and we spend more thought
and time on who we think will win the World Series or become America's next
Idol than we do on exploring the record of those candidates begging for our
vote.
So long as we are feeling just fine being Consumers rather than First Class
Citizens, we will continue to work and serve at the pleasure of the
Corporate Ruling Class.
Very frankly, if we are voting for Bernie Sanders, expecting him to bring
about a political revolution, we will be sorely disappointed.
Of course the Democratic Party's leadership will not allow that to happen.
But if, just if, Bernie Sanders got the nod, the nation would go on just as
it has been going. The government will continue serving the people it
serves, because that is what they're paid to do.
No, real change, the kind that will put a new roof over the dream houses of
Working Class Americans, the kind that will give a job to everyone seeking
employment, the kind that will provide wages on which Working Class
families
can live, that kind of revolution will happen only from the ground up.
That
sort of new world will come about when we Working Class Citizens turn off
the constant pounding by the Empire's mass media, and begin to build a
Community, listening to one another, questioning why things are the way
they
are, wondering how we came to put Profit before People? Why do we think
it's proper to measure success by our material possessions, rather than by
our Human Compassion? Why do we hate our Masters, but then turn around and
lust after their life style? How do we begin to create a World of Peace?
First we must begin opening our ears, eyes and minds to those about us.
Understanding is the beginning of Peace.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/11/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wanted to make this post last night just before I went to bed, but a
thunderstorm kept me off the computer. So I decided to do it first
thing in the morning. I have seen no news this morning, so this is
based on the eleven o'clock news last night. It appears that Sanders
beat Clinton in West Virginia with fifty-three percent to Clinton's
forty-one percent. There was no mention of Keith Judd or Martin
O'Malley, but after adding up the other percentages I suppose they
split less than one percent between them. Candidates who have already
dropped out and candidates who do not campaign or take any positions
on any issues usually get a low percentage, but this is unusually low.
They usually get at least between one and two percent. Keith Judd
seems to have suffered a precipitous decline since 2012 when he got
forty-eight percent of the vote against the only other candidate on
the ballot, Barack Obama. Anyway, I said it would be interesting to
see how candidates who did not campaign or take any positions would do
since Sanders poll numbers had declined so much since last month. One
of them did do rather well. There is a lawyer from Huntington West
Virginia who put his name on the ballot. The filing fee in this state
is two thousand dollars, so I suppose he just had a couple of thousand
dollars lying around to throw away. When he filed he said that he did
not expect to win; he just wanted to give West Virginians a choice. In
other words, his candidacy was just a lark. I keep forgetting his
name. I think it is Howard something. Well, he got six percent. That
is unusually high for a lark candidate. I suppose that represents the
anti-Clinton/anti-Sanders vote. Even so, Sanders did much better than
the latest polls before the election predicted that he would. He also
did much worse than the polls indicated that he would do as of last
month. I still maintain, though, that his win in West Virginia was not
because of a pro-Sanders vote, but, rather, because of an anti-Clinton
vote. I heard another poll figure last night that backs that up. It
seems that forty-four percent of the Sanders voters intend to vote for
Donald Trump in November if the Democrat Nominee is Clinton.
