Land of the Impotent

Does anybody remember Woody Guthrie? Or Pete Seeger? Does anybody remember the time in this country during the great union movement of the thirties when these guys organized the disenfranchised worker all across this country? Does anybody remember when men actually shoved their heels into their turf and told the massa, “Enough of the s**t, we ain't gonna take it anymore!”

They sang their protest songs, they took their beatings, they stood together with nothing but ball bats as hired company thugs attacked and beat them mercilessly. These men, mostly uneducated, mostly dirt poor, mostly afraid, had within themselves the gumption to stand tall against the established rule and ultimately they kicked his a*s. They chose to fight back rather than sit and watch as the ribs appeared in the sides of their children.

Thus began the rise of the worker unions all across this country. And as they grew they became more powerful till at the height of their rein in America they had Boss Hog shivering in his boots at the first sign of a walkout and strike.

Of course history played the game out and the union, once the hero of the working class, has by now become an impotent side show because of their own version of back room dealings and capitulation. The generation of strong men who fought for justice retired on their hard won pensions while the spawn who followed grew lazy and complacent. They began to use the union as their own department of “Get all you can while giving as less as you can” and ultimately destroyed it.

It seems in todays world we are back to square one again, except this time it's actually worse. This time Boss Hog has merely shoved his middle finger up our noses and with the help of his friends in Washington moved to Mexico. He bought labor from China, India, and had a zillion other ways of getting us back to walking on our knees. He even has us thanking him for his benevolence.

We have in essence become a very large and expanding bunch of winers that no one seems to have much respect for. We don't even respect ourselves. We complain about the bullshit happening all around us, but are afraid to stir the waters too much cause well, you know, we don't want to make the man angry with us. We put up with being robbed, suckered, punched in the face and kicked in our a*s until we find a soft spot on the hard porch and just sit there complaining into our wine bottle. (why do you think they call it wine?)

Why do our women disrespect us? We don't deserve any. Why do we send our kids off to fight George Bushes war in some patriotic rush when it was obvious from the very beginning the dope didn't know his a*s from a hole in the ground and the whole world warned us of the fact?

Why did we listen to the bullshit and downright lies that ultimately got them blown to bits in some desert swamp amongst a people totally foreign and uncaring to our way of life or what we were supposedly doing for them? Maybe they just understood all along why we were there in the first place. Something a lot of people in this country still seem to have problems with understanding. Why did we allow all this to happen?

We were willing to fight for Boss Hog, willing to look the other way when he robbed us, even willing to bail him out. When he got caught going to far in his greed we said, “Oh we need Boss, we must bail him out.”

For this we get a peck on the cheek and the privilege of watching another mom and pop store bite the dust as a Chinese Walmart grows in our neighborhood. The impotence and ignorance of the men in this country today is astoundingly pathetic.

Where are the Woody Guthrie's of this generation? Where are the people willing to take a stand against the robber baron, to take a ball bat to his face and tell him to f**k off, he don't get no bailout.

Man, I am getting old. . . and discouraged. What will this country look like for my grandchildren after this generation of knee knockers gets done with it is anybodies guess, but I'm betting it won't be pretty.

As to your personal survival in all this. The very first thing you must do if you plan to survive any of the stuff thats coming down the pike is to search within yourselves for the manhood that your forefathers bequeathed to you . . . and use it.

Quit with the whining and get on with the New Revolution. The pendulum needs a swing to the left again because in all life there is a waning and a waxing, nothing is stagnant ...nor should be we. Life is breathing through the chaos. Don't be afraid, you can too.

 

Reviews

[Lizanne]

You state so well all that is going on in our country today. We bailed out big business and they are going to thank us by raising our interest rates even higher. And you know what? We are will be dumb enough to float them another loan, then bemoan that prices are higher, jobs are more scarce and we have no way to put anything back for future generations. Grandma and Grandpa's pictures will not grace the coming generations tables or walls. They will be known as the suckers that got that plunged the world into financial darkness and no one can find the switch to restore light into their lifes. With our actions, we are condeming future generations to the graves of poverty and more rampant disfunction. Thank you for making your voice heard!

[bob, small b. aka invs]

i may be nit-picking, but guthrie and seeger were not union organizers. they were musicians and writers sympathetic to the union causes. pretty much the same as in the next generation peter, paul and mary, phil ochs, tom paxton and many others were voices of the peace movement, but not organizers of it. i may be wrong on this, but i don't think so. what i do agree with you on, and i believe this was your point, is that we are in need of a conscience in our society. a voice calling for fairness and accountability. and that, for the most part is missing. we have voices shouting from one particular political viewpoint or the other, but no voice that simply wants truth and accountability. i'm with you in missing that voice.