http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6171239Oh my.
One has no idea what to make of this; one suspects the truthful primitive has been trying out some new recreational drugs.
Either that, or the truthful primitive's a mole, and not a very good one. Good enough to fool the primitives, but not good enough to fool decent and civilized people.
Truth Talks (91 posts) Tue Jul-28-09 03:50 PM
Original message
I love this depression!
I spent the best years of my life in public education, where I was mauled daily by corporate powers, the media and my own union (the National Education Association). I didn't make a lot of money - and then I got laid off, not long after 9/11.
The painful part was the separation from my students; they were the closest thing I've ever had to my own family. I was carrying a lot of baggage.
Yet getting laid off was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Once I was free of the endless political intrigue and tyranny, I began to recover. I'm now working just part-time (night shift), yet I feel lucky just to have a job - with benefits, no less.
I do have some complaints about my health insurance. For example, you can get billed if you see a doctor for anything that isn't covered. I was given a phone number to call to find out if a particular procedure is covered. Of course, all I get is a busy signal.
Fortunately, I'm a veteran, so I went back to the VA hospital. Because I haven't been there in a couple years, I had to reapply. I expected to get hit with a wall of bureaucracy, after I'd discover the VA in shambles, a victim of the economy.
To my amazement, I was whizzed through my "application" process in record time and even got some treatment on the spot. For example, I said I wanted to get something X-rayed, and they just gave me a note, and I went and got an X-ray. As I understand it, they more or less reorganized the hospital, making things more efficient.
So I'm in a strange situation. For over a decade, I felt like a pariah, endlessly screwed by Bill Gates, jerked around by politicians, slapped around by derelict principals and libeled by the media. When I began fighting back, getting politically involved, I was variously ignored or attacked by my own colleagues and parents. But I never gave up - I became a teacher with an attitude.
Now the shoe's on the other foot. Even as the economy tanks, life is slowly improving for me, while many of the people who spit in my face are now unemployed, or at least feeling the heat. I've come to appreciate the saying, "Misery loves company." I feel their pain.
I can't afford gasoline, let alone a new car, but it's nice knowing that cars are much more affordable now, as are new homes. Apple slashed the prices on the next computer I want to buy; it will cost about half what I paid for a similar model three years ago.
I still carry a lot of scars from the classroom, and I'm not really happy with the muddled masses who would apparently die before they'd fight back against Corporate America. I sometimes find myself cheering when I read about another 10,000 idiots getting laid off. The only sad thing is the knowledge that their children are going to go through a lot of pain.
But this is America, home of the Great Society that screws its children regardless. I still can't believe some of the things I saw in the classroom. I remember a kindergarten class I worked in (as an assistant teacher) that I'd characterize as child abuse. But I couldn't get any help, because no other teachers or parents cared.
So here I am, all alone, detached from this society I've come to despise, savoring my job and benefits and the string of good luck that began last holiday season. Latest episode: I want to go home to the Midwest for my vacation. The roundtrip airfare cost me $400, which is a lot of money for me. Just a couple days after I bought my ticket, I was invited to donate blood - for exactly $400! (I enrolled in a blood donation / research program a few years ago, but they haven't contacted me since last November, so I thought the study was over.)
I'm looking forward to getting a new computer this fall. If I can scrape together enough money for a car and a social life, then maybe I can be truly whole again. I'm even wondering if I could save enough money to get married some day. But am I too old to have children, and would I want to raise them in a country that shits on kids?
For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm almost living the Amerian dream, working nights, when all the street kids, con artists and homeless are invisible and wondering if I should pity the destitute or despise them. Where the future was once a wall of gray, I'm once again dreaming about exciting possibilities; it's kind of like being back in college.
I'm grateful that I was born with a brain and backbone, and I'm proud of myself for fighting back. I will never forget my students, my children, and I will never end my war against Bill Gates, the world's biggest phony philanthropist and education reformer. Most people consider me radical, but I consider them stupid - and they do a good job of proving it every day.
Viva Chavez!
Whatever.
A couple of obscure primitives welcome the truthful primitive, and then:
Truth Talks (91 posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:13 PM
Response to Original message
3. Thanks.
I've browsed DU for years. Though a lot of intelligent people post here, I was turned off by a lot of attitudes (or lack thereof).
Maybe it's just my imagination, but it appears to me that DUers have become a little angrier and more focused on the enemy. Of course, there are still people who think Hugo Chavez is evil incarnate whle worshipping Bill Gates as the reincarnation of Mother Teresa.
But what would a political forum be without different ideas?
teachableseconds (79 posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:16 PM
Response to Original message
5. LOL @ how you ended this (Gates) but I admire your high spirits. Even in the Great Depression, there were successful people. No matter where we are at this moment, it does not mean we are destined to stay there. I can attest to this; I made a move into better conditions after many years in one place and where I did not wish to be. I really believe that we can affect our destiny.
Of course, one's destiny is the
only thing one can change.
When compared with the powers of Nature, one can't change the climate, not the least little bit, for example.
When compared with ironclad laws of economics, one can't change human nature, for another example.
And so on, ho-hum.
Merlot (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:17 PM
Response to Original message
6. Good for you. I'm glad things are looking up. Nice to hear for a change.
I hear that people get laid off, and can't spend money and don't have health care. I say "welcome to my world." I've been here for a long time. I know how to cope better than they do, small comfort that it is. At least I was never used up by a corporation, or got used to having oddles of money and a steady income. In fact, this "downturn" hasn't changed my life much.
Now that things have changed, people are waking up to a lot of things. This current heath debate would probably be tuned out by the employed and insured in good times. Now everyone is facing up to just how close to the edge they live.
Although to be honest, I don't enjoy the company...and I'm not really miserable.
The bobbling primitive, who never has anything nice to say about anybody:
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:19 PM
Response to Original message
7. You're wondering if you should despise me????? I reread that, and figured....
**** it, you're not worth it.
The always-effervescent Rita Hayworth primitive:
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:19 PM
Response to Original message
8. We never know where change will lead us. That's why it's so scary to some.
But your changes are working for you - plus, you sound lucky, and well aware of that luck, too - and for that, as well as for this lovely post, I applaud you.
Change is scary to all, not just some, primitives.
Primitives don't like change.
Truth Talks (91 posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:31 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. Luck.
It seems like I had nothing but bad luck for a stretch of nearly twenty years, but now it's suddenly reversed.
And lest I sound too self-pitying, I should point out that I'm a baby boomer. I grew up in the 1960's, listening to Herb Alpert and Glen Campbell and spending lots of time on a really beautiful ranch. In the Navy and as a civilian, I visited the four corners of North America - Key West, San Diego, Newfoundland (a fairy tale place) and Barrow, Alaska. (My introduction to global warming came in the 1980's when it started raining on us as we stood on the ice of the Arctic Ocean.)
I spent a couple months in Kenya - another fantasy place - and I've also visited Paris, Mexico and Hawaii.
Yet some of my fondest memories are of recess duty, one of life's joys. It just bums me out to think that many of my students never had a decent childhood to begin with, and I doubt that many of them will ever spend time on a West Dakota ranch or visit another country.
Americans long prided themselves on the fact that every generation of children was better off than its parents. The current generation of young people are screwed, betrayed on so many levels. I think we should draw a line in the sand. Anyone who doesn't believe in a cause bigger than themself should rally behind children. It gives life a whole new meaning.
safeinOhio (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:24 PM
Response to Original message
9. I've been in a pissy mood all day, until I read your post.
sallylou666 (132 posts) Tue Jul-28-09 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
12. No bitterness
As one of those abused children growing up, I can tell you that bitterness is not the place to go. Don't hate others. Not for others' benefit, but because of what bitterness does to you. Move on with your own life. I'm glad that things are looking up for you.
Truth Talks (91 posts) Tue Jul-28-09 05:14 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Anger rocks!
"As one of those abused children growing up, I can tell you that bitterness is not the place to go. Don't hate others. Not for others' benefit, but because of what bitterness does to you. Move on with your own life."
Your words sound logical - but they're also selfish. If I forgive the people who stomped me and my students into the ground and move on with my life, who's going to fight for my students, and for those that follow?
No, I HATE Bill Gates, George W. Bush, an army of media whores and my local school board, and I'm proud of it. I hope they all burn in Hell, and I'd love to put'em there.
There's a time and place for forgiveness and civility, but this isn't it. We're at war with our own country, with Corporate America - I am, at least - and I can't afford to be muzzled by the gospel of civility.
A little more philosophy: Are bitterness and hate really bad for people? If so, I still wouldn't let go. Again, it's simply selfish to be so wrapped up in myself that I abamdon the children.
But I'm not convinced that hatred is such a bad thing to begin with. Emotions like anger evolved for a purpose. Anger and hate are obviously complex and voltile. People certainly have to learn how to control them and use them carefully.
But I feel empowered over the bastards who used to treat me like an insect. I have blown up in people's faces - school principals, supervisors, etc. - and I've seen them back down. In this world, nice people get eaten for lunch. The people I work with me know that I'm a nice person - but that I can also be a real SOB.
AnotherDreamWeaver (434 posts) Wed Jul-29-09 01:51 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. Forgiveness never made sense to me until the "apology and amends", so I think I'm with you. Trying to forget the trespass and carry on with a life may be the option if there isn't an "apology and amends" too. It's like "to carry bitterness sours the personality". But beware going off too Pollyanna. That's where I feel the "just forgive and forget" promoters are. I want some resolution.
tomreedtoon (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 09:27 AM
Response to Reply #13
16. Thank you, Truth Talks.
I was laid off and am facing tough times. But the fact that things are turning around for you give me hope.
More than that, you agree that anger is good and appropriate. I heartily agree.
I still hate the man who fired me, a sociopath kept in a high position in my former company because being heartless is a Republican family value. Everyone at my former job hates and fears him. We are all wishing for him to get that final heart attack; it might be proof that he has a heart somewhere.
I am angry at people here who think namby-pamby, letter-to-the-editor-writing, voices-raised-in-mild-disagreement advocacy will do anything. Or that Ghandi-like passive resistance will make protesters anything but targets. The people in power are sociopaths, and have no human emotions to be affected by appeals to the soul.
I honestly believe there will have to be violence done to the rich and powerful in this country. They will only treat ordinary people well if they realize their egotistical lives are actually in danger, and if they see a few of their fellow CEO's strung up on Wall Street with piano wire or shot like dogs in the street.
Many people here shy away from that violence. I am certainly not capable of doing that violence myself; I'm just as much a weakling as any New York Times columnist. But I will not flinch when it is done, and I will not criticize the people who do it. As Thomas Jefferson said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." There's an awful lot of tyrants in America these days.
Anyway, thanks for an honest and heartfelt quote.
handmade34 (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 02:18 AM
Response to Original message
15. as someone who taught those kids - Welcome Truth!
your's is a complex story, like many are. Your last sentiment reminds me of a meeting I had with my brother once. We were older, hadn't seen each other for years and in reminiscing, he stated that same thing, "..grateful for being born with a brain and , because it was the only thing that got us through our dysfunctional childhood."
...and now we have to use our brains and backbone collectively to get us through this nightmare that the U.S. is experiencing.
