Do They Understand The Significance Of Today?
By Corey Thompson, filed in Corey Thompson, General on Apr.15, 2009
“Do They Understand The Significance Of Today?”
By: Corey Thompson, “The Thirsty Quill”
April 15th…
The date carries a great deal of significance for those who care enough to pay attention to these types of things.
Allow me to explain…
Sadly, it was on this morning in 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln took his final breath, unable to cling to life any longer after an assassin’s bullet had struck him in the back of the head the night before. That bullet not only took with it the life of a man devoted to the longevity of the United States, but also the dream that America could reunite quickly after the bloodiest war she had ever known.
Coincidentally, it was also in the early-morning hours on this day in 1912 that the death of another ‘dream,’ the RMS Titanic, took to the bottom of the North Atlantic with her the hopes (and perhaps arrogance) of an age defined by industrial achievement and progress.
From a more positive perspective, baseball slugger Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier on April 15th, 1947, thus paving the way for African-Americans to integrate America’s pastime.
In 1452, renowned Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15th. Ironically, the term renaissance means “a rebirth or revival.”
It was also on this date back in 1783 that the Continental Congress brought an ‘unofficial end’ to the American Revolution. They did so through ratification of several articles that halted hostilities between America and Great Britain.
Nearly two centuries later, in 1955, Congress once again brought significance to this date by reminding Americans of their ‘obligation’ to their government, by declaring April 15th as “Tax Day”…
…and that, my fellow patriots, is what brings us to today.
Today, Wednesday April 15th, 2009, hundreds of thousands of Americans will take to the streets in towns and cities all across this great land in protest. And just as Congress ‘reminded’ us of our ‘obligation’ back in 1955, today it is our opportunity to remind them of their obligation to us…THE PEOPLE.
Make no mistake, I’m mad as hell.
I think we’re all a little mad about something these days. Terms such as “bailouts,” “TARP,” “golden parachutes,” “spreading the wealth,” and “stimulus” have infected our now-calloused ears to the point of causing us to go deaf to what is really being shouted from the marble mountaintops in Washington, D.C. A specter of fear, inspired by many of our elected officials, has shrouded our eyes and blinded us to the fact that our prosperity will only be reborn through our hard work and innovation…not by a handout or government program that does nothing more than recycle our tax dollars through the filters of greed.
I don’t have any tea to throw in the water today. Yet, I do have some things I’d like to say.
I’m a simple man, and I lead a very simple life. My wife and I are both public servants who make our simple living through teaching. We have a simple house, and a simple family, complete with a one-year-old son, and a mutt we rescued from the shelter several years ago. We have a simple love for all things American, propped up by a simple faith in something much bigger that holds all of it together when times get tough.
In many ways, we are a “typical” American family. We live month-to-month, and we have our fair share of bills and debt. We have always done our best to protect our good name, and the credit we’ve worked so hard to establish. We pay our bills on time, and never try to bite off more than we can chew.
When some complications extended my wife’s maternity leave a little over a year ago, things got tough. We hit bottom, and we suddenly found ourselves falling behind. We made some necessary adjustments to try to compensate, but it still wasn’t enough to bridge the gap. So, for several months, we played “catch up.” Although late in a few areas, we never stopped paying, we never defaulted, and we never went “bust.”
We survived…
It wasn’t easy, but after that rough period, we brought everything current. We made it…on our own…without a government bailout, without a government program, and without someone else’s tax dollars.
Over the past several months, I have watched in anger as hundreds of banks and corporations are getting a “crutch” to lean on during their own “rough period.” Some of these banks are the very ones who blistered us during our struggle. This “crutch,” a stack of nice, crisp greenbacks, has been donated courtesy of the very people who need that money the most. Simple people, like you and me.
Banks, large corporations, government pork projects: they’re all getting a “leg up” that we never got when we needed help. They’re not being allowed to fail. We, on the other hand, were. But we didn’t.
In recent weeks, I have received letters from some of the banks and financial institutions who have benefited from the recent bailouts and our tax dollars. It seems that they now find it necessary to raise my interest rates, increase my service fees, and even lower some of my credit lines. It appears that forgiveness and bailouts are only one-way streets these days.
My wife and I tried to refinance our mortgage a month or so ago. Unfortunately, due to our “rough period,” we currently don’t qualify for a lower rate. Furthermore, we don’t qualify for any type of government program because we aren’t behind on our mortgage payments.
What??? I guess we’d have been better off to let our mortgage lapse and to currently be walking the tightrope over foreclosure. Maybe then we too could catch a break.
Instead, we tried to do it the right way…the hard way. And now, we’re not worthy of a “crutch” similar to those being passed out to the big banks on our dime. However, truth be told, we don’t want a break. We don’t want a handout on somebody else’s dime. That’s not how things were originally intended by our forefathers. I’m learning a lot about how things work in America these days, and to be honest, I don’t like what I see being orchestrated by those in Washington.
So no, I don’t have any tea today. But I’ve got my credit cards and high interest rates. I’ve got my debt, and my IOU’s, and my pledge that if I can ever get out from under the heel of the boot that I’m currently paying to save, I’ll never be enslaved to them again. I’m standing over the harbor that is the future of America, and I’m ready to toss those heavy chains overboard once and for all.
For now, I’ve got my willingness to sacrifice. I’ve got my determination to work hard. I’ve got my votes for 2010 and 2012. And, more importantly, I’ve got my American flag and my voice. Find me later this afternoon and you’ll see me proudly displaying both.
So today, April 15th, I’m pledging to save my American dream from assassination. I will not allow it to sink after striking one of life’s “icebergs.”
I’m marking today as a “breakthrough,” a “rebirth,” and a “revival” of sorts, for me personally and for the future prosperity of America. I’m bringing to an ‘unofficial end’ my enslavement to the very companies that I’m helping to save, yet are doing nothing for me in return.
Today I’m reminding OUR government of their obligation to us, THE PEOPLE, first and foremost. Today I’m marching in protest. Today I’m tossing tea, just like they did at the harbor in Boston in 1773. Even if not doing it literally, I’m doing so symbolically.
Today I’m waving my flag. Today I’m renewing my undying belief in the greatness of America and the power of people, simple people like you and me, to bring TRUE “hope and change” to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I just hope that OUR government cares enough to pay attention to these types of things.
April 15th, 2009 on 3:51 pm
Well said. No matter what your stance on how big or small government should be, the government should ALWAYS belooking after the intrest of the people.
In the last few years, I have felt like a serf in some large kingdom rather than a voice in a representative democracy.
April 15th, 2009 on 3:59 pm
I completely sympathize with your anger over the bailouts, and the frustration of your financial “rough patch.” Personally, our family has held on for dear life financially recently, and employed sound principles and hard work to muttle through. But, on the whole, I don’t think that bootstrap methodology is the answer.
I think the whole situation calls for different solutions that address the root causes of the economic crisis. Certainly fraud and corruption played a great part in all of this, as did willful ignorance and in some cases, greed, on the part of the American consumer. Still, there are many for whom those aren’t the factors that led to their financial ruin.
Several years ago, a Harvard study demonstrated that the leading cause of bankruptcy (particularly among those who were middle-class, home-owning, college-educated, health insured folks) was overwhelming medical debt.
In the last year, my husband and I have had financial trials similar to yours–most of them due to health-related burdens. I’ve had a series of problems that caused us to spend more in medical expenses, and forced us to look for previously unnecessary child care for the kids. We’ve done battle with our insurance company, and been surprised when we received bills for procedures we thought we’d already paid for in other bills. Almost every bill was written in what can only be described as Sanskrit, and many of them required me spending time navigating a maze of medical receptionists, billing offices, and several layers of our insurance company to determine what we were being asked to pay and why.
Not many working and dual-income families have time to spend navigating these systems like I did, hanging out on the phone with Aetna for an hour only to find out they had billed you for something your insurance supposedly covers. Billing errors are rampant, and many of our bills have been wrong-to the tune of hundreds of dollars sometimes.
I even fought the charges on a well-child visit once because I took my son to the doctor a week after his first birthday. We were billed for the whole cost, even though that visit is covered by our insurance. Apparently, it created a near-collapse of their billing system for the insurance representative to force the system to see that visit as our “annual” well-child checkup.
I have a Master’s Degree, much of which was earned studying Health Policy, and it was still complicated to discern our bills and to reconcile the inaccuracies therein. I cannot imagine Joe Six Pack taking hours out of his work day to fight the good fight for fair billing, or even sensible billing, when talking to a medical representative who’s speaking some bizarre insider insurance dialect, all the while earning enough to pay for the medical expenses he or his family has incurred. Many people like us begin their “I fell behind…” stories with a health-related incident.
Until we address the issue of the cost and complexity of our health care system, we will continue to see people slip into poverty (be it by incurring their own medically-related debt, or by the over-burdening of the tax payer through continued corporate bailout programs). Many Americans like you and me have their bootstraps forcibly cut by medical calamity. Those people don’t just need a band aid bailout, they need an entire health system transplant.
April 16th, 2009 on 12:40 am
Very well said. The government should be striving to help citizens, not corporations. Until we stand up to our government and representatives and DEMAND justice, things will likely never change.
Once again, well said.
April 16th, 2009 on 11:55 pm
I love your passion Corey, I love it because it comes from a good place and it has the very best of intentions. I have no doubt that a great many of those protesting are doing so out of a deep conviction and an equally deeper fear for our future. I love the fact we live in a country where mass protest like these can happen as a right without being shutdown by a corrupt and powerful leader. While I will continue to ponder why only now all these conservatives are up in arms as appose to 4 years ago(for example) after Medicaid Part D was literally crammed down our throats at a 51-50 vote (Thanks Dick).
I think Abigail hits a very good point and reminds me that we should be looking within the guts of this thing instead of throwing mud on each other like we have done for what seems to be decades now.
When are the people who care the most about our country stand up and force a third (transpartisan) party choice where we can move past the stalemate issues and really get something accomplished?
Until then I will continue to pull for our President, who I believe loves this country with every fiber of his being, and has been extremely brave and graceful over the last 100+ days. I also think you don’t call a game in the third inning. Did we walk some guys, give up some hits, and commit an error or two? Sure we did, but it sure beats last season when only 25% of the fans cheered for the team and we took the team with the best batting average and ERA (SURPLUS)and ran them into the ground. Let’s give this game and its players and coaches a little time to open up and see what can happen.
April 19th, 2009 on 10:28 pm
Steven:
Good point. I personally believe that it is time for a reaffirmation of the 9th and 10th Amendments.
Abigail:
Thanks for being open with us. It was good for me to hear from somebody else who is in “the same boat.” It’s hard, and yes, it’s quite frustrating indeed. You and I differ on the idea of a revamped healthcare system (yeah, you tried to “sneak” nationalized healthcare past us…hehehe). However, I agree with you entirely on the basis that the system is corrupt and broken down. I think we just have different ideas on how to get it working again. But as always, thanks for chiming in. Your honesty and openness is always a breath of fresh air on this blog, even if you do hang with the Liberal Dems…hehe.
Austin:
Thanks buddy. Once again, this blog eagerly awaits your first article. You have one of the keenest minds among our readers (as often witnessed in the forums), and we’d be honored to have you write a feature piece. No pressure though.
Andy:
You are my arch nemesis and the Chairman of the Liberal front here at ‘The Quill.’ Let me say again, that while I did have a fond appreciation for “W,” I do not think highly of a great deal of his spending initiatives. He was NOT a FISCAL conservative. I like a lot of what he did, but his spending was out of control. I give him some flexibility and breathing room based on the fact that so much of his spending came as a follow-up to 9/11 and in Afghanistan/Iraq.
I do agree with you about a 3rd party. How does the Thirsty Quill Party sound?
April 19th, 2009 on 11:26 pm
Thirsty Quill sounds like a good blog.
What about the:
Moderate Transpartisan Moment!
Mix passion and hustle and see what happens?
I am in!