WAKE ME WHEN………….
Voices of the poor, the impoverished, the shanties, open sewers, tin roofs, irrepressible squalor ring loud demanding justice and equality.
Gently tap me on the shoulder when they are heard,
when we stop patting ourselves on the back for the incremental improvements in the poverty graph showing the number of people raised above the abject poverty threshold.
Shame on us, thinking it okay that this problem should have only incremental solutions,
when in fact it demands our outrage, a massive redirection of resources, and a mobilization on an international scale to make it go away.
“Power brokers”, “haves”, “threshold creators” ………. how much are you willing to give and sacrifice to change all this?
How many zeroes taken off that staggering yearly income?
How wide is wide enough for the income gap?
What do you really want to happen to all those millions of people that are now kept from your personal space?
Just how threatened would your ego be, if that gap shrunk, if “the others” had more, appeared in your part of town, shopped, gathered in places that you always considered set aside just for you?
Could you handle that?
Would you welcome such a change in the reality of your fiefdom?
AND WHEN………….
99.9% of the politicians stop mattering and people realize that they never did.
When Donald Trump and his ilk become an acknowledged embarrassment to all of us and we openly forgive ourselves and each other for putting such disgusting and dangerous people in power.
When we find a way, find the person or people who have a better vision and an honest, simple, trustworthy sense as to how we truly make things better for all of us.
Barack Obama, although not perfect, comes to mind.
Why was he limited to just eight years?
Will we ever reach a point of agreement that there is someone who may not be all that we want, but knows what is wrong, what direction to head in, and is given the opportunity and time to get us there.
Isn’t it time to rid ourselves of the “B Movie” approach to leadership that we engage in every four years,
the next hero of the moment stepping forward to save the day.
What if a consensus really existed that enough is enough, time is indeed running out, our selfish naïveté has gotten the best of us, and that everyone’s interests can be addressed within the context of compromise.
No you will not get it all, but you will understand the importance of the greater good.
If this ever happens, please wake me.
It is something I would not want to miss.
II
Nor would I want to miss any of the following……….
Just maybe we stop slaughtering animals by the millions to satisfy some bygone carnivorous desire.
We put down our 21st century version of clubs, the bow & arrow, sharp stones and long rifles in the name of animal rights, ending the mass brutality and inhumanity involved,
recognizing that, like it or not, we are part of the same kingdom and quite often bad representations of it’s majesty and beauty.
That you don’t have to be GI Joe or Josephine to feel good about yourself.
No automatic weapon or Hummer, F150, Dodge hemi, or militia membership will make those self-doubts and inadequacies go away.
You are in our boat, like it or not.
We all have that emptiness and craving to be bigger and better than we are.
We all ride the same wave of joy and despair.
Throw away your enemies list,
those names are closer likenesses to you than you want to believe.
Reach out a welcoming hand, weapon of choice now safely by your side.
And wake me when the mass killings cease.
When we can go a day, week, or perhaps a year without the news reports, helicopter images of a scene where the innocent were gunned down for some reason known, understood, and appreciated only by the “perpetrator”.
Just where are we going wrong that so many must die at the hands of our angry brothers and sisters?
I don’t want to be more desensitized to this than I already am.
No, this is not the acceptable new normal…….
at least not in my world.
I also do not want to miss the end of police killings of blacks…….
Please wake me for that.
The time when being a person of color does not greatly increase your chances of being murdered by the people who are hired to protect you.
When bigots are not given uniforms and guns,
when policing is not synonymous with oppression,
when negotiation replaces interrogation,
and the first inclination is that the person you are encountering is not already a criminal……. armed and dangerous.
Yes please wake me, when the ranks are cleansed of such monsters,
when they are sent to re-education and sensitization centers to regain the humanity and decency that membership and participation in this society necessitates.
There is no longer room for anything else here,
Your time has passed,
we must get beyond you.
And wake me when………
Israelis stop killing Palestinian children and
Palestinians stop firing missiles into Israel’s
populated territories.
When they agree to live together on equal terms,
no longer in their roles of oppressor and the oppressed.
Catholics and Protestants, Hindus and Muslims, conclude that their god(s) just may be the same ideation and that he or she or them look down disappointedly at the behavior of their brethren.
No more Belfast, Kashmir, Iraq or Sudans just to name a few.
In the name of religion and your god, just how savage will you become?
Does your degree of violence ever become inexcusable?
Wake me when Africa is truly recognized that it exists and that it’s people, our ancestral brothers and sisters, really matter.
When kidnapped school children, starving people, countless political coups and the resulting chaos are deemed unacceptable to the international community.
When, at that level, something is truly done.
Doctors Without Borders and all the others can scale down, slowly pack up, and hope to someday go home.
Make sure I am awake……I surely do not want to miss that.
People in power begin to really listen to Greta Thunberg and not just give of their time for the novelty of the experience and a photo-op.
Summers now too hot and winters too cold for the usual indulgences in any of their seasonal homes.
When their coastal homes are under water, their skin baked to a point of forced retreat to darkened rooms to avoid the searing heat of their worshipped sun.
When smog blocks the million dollar views from their penthouses, and fire threatens their private and pristine mountain and valley retreats.
Maybe then, just then, they will listen to Greta and all the other voices that she represents.
It will not be because of any threat or inconvenience to us that they open their ears.
Only when their lifestyles and pocketbooks are under siege, will they listen and act to protect themselves and their interests,
telling us, all will be okay because they really care and will now do something to save our world.
They don’t care, never have, never will.
It is only their fire that they wish to extinguish,
but it will be too late to do so.
And after fucking things up for millennia, men step aside permitting women, often their better half, to manage our affairs.
Wake me for this…….I want to be apart of this new Enlightenment.
Equal pay then a given,
Sexual exploitation no longer a factor in the power equation,
A new respect and shifting of decision-making roles and the admission and acceptance on our part that indeed we have had our time and now must realize our failure.
This transfer not to be done with shame or our tail between our legs,
our time at the helm is simply over,
the ship off course,
danger lurking in these very turbulent waters.
Our failures the result of our own biological make-up.
Testosterone on over drive manifesting itself in too many blunders over the tenure of our dominance.
All hail to a new era.
Our borders are truly open, the statute of liberty being a symbol of an open door, not a sentinel or guard.
Entry not dependent on skin color, merit, or how much money you have.
We willingly take in the masses who flee the destructive outcome of the industrialized world’s greed and arrogance.
We have displaced, impoverished, disenfranchised, stepped on and even exterminated our way to the success we have experienced.
In the process, we have blocked this behavior from our consciousness and ignored it’s connection to the great suffering and inequality around us.
We willingly live our lives with blinders on.
Who with any real degree of humanity and compassion would want to see what we have done?
If we did, would we also see the need to now make room for all?
We are a big nation, broad shoulders, potentially kind and welcoming.
There is room for all who seek to come…….much open space, places to populate, work to be done, and contributions to be made.
We forget that we are built from this process,
choosing instead to revive that ancient fear that we will be replaced or diminished.
We will not, we have never been.
Wake me when this monumental change happens……I want to see that in my lifetime.
III
And there are there are other things, some more important than others, that I have grown tired of.
I would love to open my eyes and see them gone.
You must promise to wake me should that occur……..
The homeless are provided with a decent place to live.
How much of a no brainer is that?
Raise the minimum wage to a level that people can sustain a quality life,
No more food pantries, disadvantaged children, forgotten adults.
I am willing to pay more in taxes and on what I purchase.
Let that extra money not further line someone’s pockets but instead go to where it will make a critical difference.
You must demonstrate a need to own a truck.
How many of us really need a truck in terms of how we live our lives?
Prove that it is necessary, not a luxury or recreational toy,
God knows we have too many pick-ups and vans on the roads.
Not needed and a source of arrogance and disregard for many of those behind the wheel.
Motorcycles have baffles and we have ordinances that regulate their noise level…….. just common sense, a quality of life kind of thing.
Isn’t going fast and the open air enough?
Do we need to hear you coming blocks away and protect our ears when you pass?
Sorry, you are not easy rider, an outlaw, or on a track.
Legislate baffles, engine size and better mufflers.
Require that they all be electric.
We all would benefit from a little more peace and quiet, don’t you think?
And stop selling junk and toxic food.
No, what you put into your own body is not just your business.
Your self neglect is harmful to us all.
Your consumer demand causes all of this stuff to make it on to our shelves.
The processed food you choose to eat over more nutritious items becomes a
drain on us all as you weaken and become more sickly with age.
It is not just you who pays for your reflexive decision-making.
If you don’t buy it or eat it, they won’t make it.
Just say screw them, have a salad, take a walk.
Pass on the double whopper and 16 ounce sugared drink.
Quite honestly, I am tired at looking a the level of obesity on display in this society.
Give yourself and me a break, for gods sake.
And no, we should not be rewarded for just showing up, a mediocre effort, or not giving it your best.
Every little “ act of brilliance” our kids demonstrate should not be reinforced………”good job honey”, “high five son”,
Here’s a trophy because every one should get one…….good for self-esteem and the developing ego.
Maybe instead, we should clue them in that this is not how the real world works, which they will find out in a rather harsh awakening, if we don’t.
Giving it your best is expected and not rewarded as exceptional.
What your best results in is what is rewarded or not,
Raises, promotions, positive feedback and even self-reinforcement coming only when you take it to another level.
Being a slug, an underachiever is obvious to others and self,
We can’t hide that kind of stuff.
We know and so do others, when we are just putting in our time or really suck at something.
No in the real world, trophies are not given for this, and we know it or soon will.
Wake me when we acknowledge the superior efforts of others and make a personal decision that we need to work harder and model their success.
Then we can begin our trophy collection, in whatever shape or form that may take.
IV
So those are some of my terms of reengagement,
not too much to ask, actually.
Given life, they will no longer fester inside or cause me to mumble to myself, neck growing tired as my head continues to shake.
Not healthy, you know.
Or so they say.
I am just not interested anymore in what we and our world have become.
We and it could have been so much more,
but we continue to deny our potential and cause unending harm.
I am angry, I guess,
disappointed in our progress and development.
I know we are children on the evolutionary scale, barely toilet trained and able to stand our own two feet.
But come on, we have become defiant, uncaring, selfish children with little sign that we will outgrow these behaviors anytime soon.
I am just tired of all the accidents, stumbles, falls and have little confidence that we will not suffocate in our own fecal matter or take that last fall to our death.
And so I must retire now, withdraw, to rest with only the slightest sense of hope that I am indeed wrong about who we are and what will happen to us as a result.
Just so tired, so very exhausted, so worn thin……….