Nice France
Baton Rouge Louisiana
Dallas Texas
Terrorism, Racial Inequality, Fear.
I wish I had some profound insights to share but I don't. I'm just a normal guy trying to make his way in the world. So aren't we all.
I'm sure you've felt some of the same frustrations as the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes but you dare not express them lest you be labeled a radical sympathizer.
Is Western society far too enamored with money and power? Does it elevate the inconsequential above social responsibility?
Of course it does.
Do we judge others based on what we know or the rhetoric we find most convenient to our own bias.
Do the people we trust with our safety view us as their wards or potential adversaries? Sadly your complexion has an effect on that judgement.
Too many labels: Black, White, terrorist, racist, capitalist, rich , poor, smart, dumb.
We become prisoners of our cultural indoctrination. Threaten the construct at your own peril. The wrongs of the world are caused by the other guy. The one that doesn't look like us, doesn't pray to the same god, doesn't see the world the way you do.
It stokes a fire of frustration that becomes a blinding rage.
I'm no better than you. I have my own biases and prejudices and I confess I don't know as much about the world as I should.
What I do know is that the more you try to control the world the looser your grip on it becomes.
When you create a culture of denial your reap what you sow. When you disenfranchise others for your own benefit civil discourse becomes impossible.
This is how Dallas, Baton Rouge, Nice and Paris happened. This is also how 911 happened.
I shed no tears for Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein or Micah Johnson. I see them as bloody opportunists seizing the message of the disenfranchised for their own ends.
It's what politicians do just without the guns and bombs.
When your message is one of exclusion and your world view narrow and unyielding you create an incubator for terrorism and violence.
Yes, the perpetrators are guilty of their own crimes but we have to take some responsibility for the environment that created them.
There's always a catalyst, a spark, something that lights the fire. Ignorance and indifference only fans the flames.
Even Adolf Hitler didn't rise alone like some biblical Anti-Christ as some would have you believe. He too was an opportunist taking advantage of the disenfranchised rage of a country on the verge of collapse.
We're far too content with the superficial. We want a bad guy to blame so we don't have to take any responsibility for creating him.
Worse, the world we live in thrives on the superficial. Social media, 24 hour news cycles, news delivered by "personalities" without even the suggestion of objectivity.
The message is controlled, massaged and pre-packaged. We're spoon fed copious amounts of useless information.
We think activism is best accomplished by a Tweet or Facebook like.
As though a click will end hunger, oppression, and economic disparity.
People are not being heard unless they make it into the news cycle and then only the most radical. Is it any wonder with such low information that we think every Arab is a terrorist, Every Black man a criminal, Every Latino an illegal immigrant.
We caused this. We created this environment and it will continue unless we acknowledge our complicity in it.
They say we should create the world we want to see. Creation requires knowledge. Unfortunately, what we consider knowledge is often little more than packaged diatribe.
The way to fix it?
Ask the uncomfortable questions. Challenge your mental status quo and see if there isn't a whole world you've been missing.
You can't escape the experiences your life has shown you but you can escape the ignorance.
Hey, make no mistake, I'm positive the country is in far better shape than it would have been with anyone else in office the past 7 years.
It's an undisputed fact that given a largely hostile congress over 3/4 of his presidency, great things have at least been attempted.
- I don't deny that getting healthcare for those that didn't even have the option because of a pre-existing condition or lack of an employer sponsored plan is a good thing.
- I don't deny that throwing a lifeline to the American auto industry saved the last vestige of American manufacturing.
- I don't deny that because of programs like HARP and mortgage lending reform families are still in their homes.
- I don't deny that there's been some improvement in how student loan programs are administered.
- I don't deny that some people that didn't have work after the financial meltdown have managed to find something.
But let's get real here.
There's a lot of fuzzy math and hollow declarations of victory to consider. Let's start with the thing that makes everyone's world go round, money...
Banking reform has been largely toothless and your money can be just as much at risk as it was before the crash. Worse, many of the people who caused the financial crisis are still holding the reigns and are even richer today than they were 8 years ago.
It's no secret that the top 3% hold more than 1/2 the nation's wealth and that's not going to change anytime soon. The tax rate isn't going to move if you're a billionaire and in spite of claims to the contrary there's little desire on either side of the aisle to change that when campaign coffers are frequently filled by that top 3%.
Many of which made their billions on subprime lending, oil futures and predatory credit and collection practices. The rest made their money on Wall street which favors those businesses that keep their overhead low ( AKA Wages) and profits high. So what has the Obama presidency done about all this inequity?
The "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" or CFPB. Look, the old dogs haven't changed their tricks. The best that can be said of the CFPB is that your credit card statement is a little easier to read. Oh yeah, and they win "symbolic" lawsuits against defunct diploma mills.
BUT...
It hasn't stopped abusive junk debt buyers from hounding hapless victims over debts long past any statute of limitations. The only defense, an expensive legal action or bankruptcy.. With millions still in financial distress due to the financial meltdown, look for this to only get worse over the next few decades.
Speaking of money, don't get me started on student loans. There's been a lot of flowery, happy talk over President Obama's tenure but unless you're a newly minted high school graduate don't expect much relief.
Yes it's true. Under this President Federally backed student loans are now administered by the Department of Education not greedy "servicers" who made billions by fleecing borrowers. A practice that was often in collusion with private schools with shady reputations charging more per credit hour than Princeton or Harvard.
But if you're not 20 something, things aren't much different. Yes, your payments may be tied to your income and not exceed 10% but that's been available for over a decade. It was one of the options you had when you consolidated your school loans. Which many did mostly because their interest rate was higher than they were paying for their mortgage and frequently so was the monthly payment.
Still, nothing's been done or even mentioned about the last remaining loophole that all those "servicers" milk. That being the scourge of capitalized interest which over time can swell a $25000 loan to $40000 over a decade. If your student loan originated sometime around Bush 2's second term or before then you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Of course the reason most people go to college is to get a better job. Nobody wants to be relying on Walmart or Burger King to support a family. Yet that's the bulk of all those "new" jobs out there unless you count the dead end $10 per hour jobs that have sprung up in call centers in all of those "right to work" states.
Every State of the Union address uses fuzzy math. Speech writers pick and choose the most favorable of statistics to present a glowing picture. Only once in the past century has a sitting president had to admit that the state of the union wasn't so hot. Say what you will about Gerald Ford but at least he was honest about it!
So when I keep hearing about that magical 5% unemployment rate it drives me insane. Much like President Bush 41's clueless V.P, Dan Quayle pointing to a Help Wanted sign at a Burger King as a sign of economic recovery on the 1992 campaign trail I don't see the substance in the numbers. It's still harder than it should be for talented people to get the kind of work that they not only deserve but in most cases went into substantial debt for.
What those numbers don't count are the millions who've given up not because of laziness but rather due to a lack of opportunities. It's a common practice in technical fields, for example, to post positions with no intention of filling them in hopes of importing cheaper talent through work visas. A practice nobody has addressed in any substantial way. CEO's decry the lack of skilled labor pools while simultaneously dismissing experienced but "expensive" talent.
Lest we forget those who've long since fallen off the unemployment 
rolls. 2008 was almost a decade ago and many still haven't recovered. Nor are they counted.
More fuzzy math. According to the White House's own website the current rate of Americans without health insurance has dropped to 8.8%. An attractive number to campaign on but just like the unemployment figures, largely meaningless.
The Affordable Care Act was supposed to get everyone medical insurance at an affordable rate. Thing is, the only way the government can possibly know how many people are covered with any degree of certainty is through tax filings. It asks you right on the form and if you answer in the negative then you get to figure out your penalty.
But if you're making less than $11000, chances are you're not filing taxes 
and considering many people are only finding low wage part time work that number could be huge.
More fuzzy math. Worse, many of those who've signed up for the ACA have found that their premiums and co-pays have in some cases doubled.
Regardless of claims to the contrary, the only thing the Affordable Care act has done is to swell the coffers of insurance companies and punish those who often find the penalty cheaper than the insurance premiums! It's a plan the Insurance companies love. And why not? It was their lobbyists that influenced the legislation and effectively killed any hope of a single payer, nationalized health care system. Add a profit motive to a government mandated program and a whole lot of nothing happens. Sure there's a few who benefit, good for them but most of us haven't.
The saddest part of the whole speech came near the end where the President essentially told working age people in their 40's and 50's, tough luck. Too bad if you found your personal economy destroyed by a few greedy people peddling mortgages to Burger King employees. If you're over 40 your best bet is to just wait it out till Social Security kicks in. So much for hope and change.
It's not that I think President Obama is a bad president. In fact I'm confident that he was the right guy at the right time. Anyone else would likely have seen the "Great Recession" truly descend into another "Great Depression."
Still, even the President had to grudgingly admit that all this economic growth has benefited those at the top of the money tree the most. The rest of us are still fighting over scraps.
You can thank a congress more concerned with vendettas and cronyism than meaningful legislation for that. The past 8 years have been more about who gets to marry who and dismantling healthcare reforms than anything else. Expect more of the same if another Democrat takes over. It's been an 8 year grudge match that even extended to his own party. So it's no wonder that much of President Obama's agenda has amounted to less than was hoped for.
While the President's speech was hopeful and steadfast in his determination he knows that with a lame duck presidency and an obstinate congress his words will ultimately ring hollow. Look at the speech as nothing more than a platform for his successor,
We think activism is best accomplished by a Tweet or Facebook like. 
