Different Slants

This is an exception for me.

I really never write about politics, economics or the whole circus.

I guess I don’t feel smart enough, or think who gives a damn what I think and other self-deprecating emotions.  When Rick Munden asked me to write this blog with him, four years ago, I figured he had some political thoughts to express and I’d write poetry and non-fiction stories. 

 But now is now and I feel like there’s something to say from a guy on the edges, who watches the crowds.  I’m a Jew and Jews tend to get run over in the juggernaut of massive political change.

We are and have been the “Canaries in the Mine” of political & social change.  The Canaries never fare well.  So, yes, I’m beginning to feel the first sense of fear that the ground is shifting.

So, here is how I, one person from a very old and despised people who have traveled the world for millennia seeking refuge from chaos and murder…see what is happening all at once:   

This is an amazingly slow motion crashing together of continents.  Maybe nothing will come of it and cold weather will kill it. 

Or, just possibly, it is something big, very big, which will crush the ignorance and prejudice of  the Tea Party mentality in America  and squeeze out the nationwide selfishness that allow the truly wealthy to disregard the crushing misery of the poor.  No one ever really recognizes the triggers of social change until after they’ve been pulled.

When the rich begin to experience fear–especially in this country–and there is no safe harbor for them anywhere in the world, all they can do is throw money at the poor and plead with them to stay away. This isn’t a Hooverville in the Great Depression.  Too many smart people far too well-connected all over the world. 

Truly the whole world is watching.  I think what’s happening is unsurpressable.

(Read on …)