September 14, 2016 "Information Clearing House" -  ‘You poisoned my sweet waters, you tore down my green trees; the food you gave my children is the cause of their disease. My world is slowly coming down and the air’s not fit to breathe, and those of us who care enough we have to do something! ’ Interesting how that song lyric from ‘ Whatcha Gonna Do About Me?’  was recorded over forty-five years ago by a rock group called Quicksilver Messenger Service. History does have this strange way of repeating itself, doesn’t it? 

Americans surely have this superiority complex that scholars define as American Exceptionalism. We really do think that we not only know better than the rest of the world, but that we are better! Well, every empire before us, whether it be the Romans, Dutch , British or short-lived Third Reich, all felt the same way. Look where they are now? Look where we are now for that matter. We have military spending that surpasses any other in our history while our states and cities collapse. Millions of homes are underwater or foreclosed, pulling down the values of the rest of American housing, while the crooks and scoundrels who initiated this mess give themselves bonuses! ‘Your newspapers, they just put you on; they never tell you the whole story… ‘ . We have a mainstream media that would make Pravda proud. Talk about embedded; these so-called journalists wouldn’t know the truth if it bit them in the ass!

  What’s it going to take for folks to get off their duffs and onto the street corners? What I am suggesting is not revolution, rather evolution. When can we evolve as a people away from the consumerism, militarism, celebrity worship and servitude mentality? When can the 99.75 % of us who are not mega millionaires & billionaires stop defending people like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton ( to name but two), who are? You know, I hear it wherever and whenever I broach the subject: ‘Oh, the rich deserve what they have. They earned it through hard work and risk ‘. Well, tell that to the cop who takes home well less than 100 grand a year and has to walk through that doorway, not knowing who has what pointed at him in the dark. Tell that to the fireman, earning the same as the cop, who rushes into the smoky apartment to save some poor soul. The fireman, like the cop, takes home in one year what the hedge fund manager pulls in one week!! Ever go to a nursing home to visit your relative? See that aide who wipes the **** off their asses and washes and cleans them? Well, that aide earns maybe a FOURTH of what the cop and fireman make. School teachers, librarians, school psychologists, mental health counselors… folks who nurture or heal young and old minds alike- they are the first to be laid off in this depression called a recession. Yet, the paradox is that many of us turn a blind eye and deaf ear to what really causes our economic misfortune. That being the ridiculous fact that over half of the federal taxes we all pay goes right into the troughs of the Military Industrial Empire and not back to we the people. Isn’t it time for that figure to be cut drastically and we close the  800+ overseas bases and bring the  troops deployed worldwide home? Nixon himself, in a moment of candor to a young college protestor, referred to this American empire for what it had become: a beast! We can go on feeding the beast by doing nothing or we can starve the beast with continuous protest, economic boycotts and simply educating our friends and neighbors with truth. It is later than you think!

‘I’m a fugitive from injustice
But I’m goin’ to be free.
Cause your rules and regulations
They don’t do the thing for me’

Philip A Farruggio is a semi retired baby boomer born and bred in blue collar Brooklyn NYC. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen, and educated at ' free tuition ' Brooklyn College, class of ' 74. Philip has written over 300 columns since 2001 and his work is found on many fine progressive sites like World News Trust, Nation of Change, Information Clearinghouse, Intrepid Report, Sleuth Journal, Dandelion Salad, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net

Quicksilver Messenger Service - What About Me -