It's been a while...

I haven't had much to say in a while, so I haven't posted. Holidays are tough. It was tough to get through, we just closed on a house right before Christmas, and having an almost 5 year old, made unpacking difficult. We made it through, and now I have saved up some zingers from recent conversations.

I was on break at work last night, smoking outside in the foggy chill, when this KID who throws dairy and freight comes out to sit for a while. I was reading a book, W.E.B Griffin, who I'd never read and we eventually got on the topic of politics. He's not old enough to vote, but I asked him who he'd vote for if he could. He said "definitely not Hillary, and never Obama." Edwards, then? I asked. Huckabee he said. I asked why, he attempted to talk about how the other side would just pull out of Iraq and leave all the lovely people there hanging. I told him that they blow each other up all the time, and don't need us there mucking it all up for them by adding in another faction for them to worry about. He told me that us (American Forces) being over there are doing nothing but good. Helping the people who really want our help. I asked him if a forced Democracy was still considered a Democracy, and he didn't know what to say. I asked him what he thought that Huckabee would do for the people in THIS country, not anywhere else, but all the hungry and poor in this country. He said "stop welfare, all those people who sit around in the projects smoking cigars all day, they don't even bother to look for work." (By the way, he lives at home, drives a '67 Camaro, and his parents own a $350k house in a VERY NICE (read: Mostly White) subdivision) I then proceeded to ask him if he'd looked for a job recently. He informed me that he hadn't. Just this one, and he's been with the company for about 9 months. I told him about the futility of looking for even a menial job, without having a college degree. How McDonald's wants their managers to have some kind of degree, how telemarketers and retailers want degrees, it doesn't matter what they are for, just so long as you have them. He said that it was crazy, and why would McDonald's want you to have a degree. I told him that it was because this mind set had permeated the country, that if you had a degree it somehow made you smart. He chuckled a bit, and then said, "well, doesn't it?" I had to smile, as I looked at this 17 year old kid, who lives a charmed life right now. "You need to listen to the radio more. NPR especially, about 10 every night. The BBC World news." I said. He apparently watches Fox news occasionally, and considers himself well informed. I told him that he needed to listen to the radio news, not watch news on TV. "I don't listen to the radio, I have an ipod." Turn it off. I as well own an ipod, but I still manage to listen to the news everyday.

This teenager, who misses voting in this election by a mere 3 weeks, still lives in fantasy land that other republicans have created. He thinks the war in Iraq is about the people, and terrorists, not about oil and power. He thinks that all poor people just need to get off their asses and get a better job, and that health care should be outrageously expensive. He had no idea that there was anything wrong with the housing market, and thought inflation was good for people who didn't have a lot of money to begin with. I told this poor deluded young man, that because the housing market was so bad, it would be more expensive for his parents to pay for his college parties...I mean education. He looked at me seriously and said I needed to be on the radio or something, because I was so smart. I smiled slyly and said, "you need a degree for that, I never went to college." He gaped at me, "seriously?"
Imagine that, an intelligent woman in her 30's, who never went to college. Imagine the possibilities if I were in a "real" job, making more than flower arrangements. The people I meet at the store, are just like me, normal, non-rich, not quite poor parents of children they love, and worship. Imagine what would happen if WE ran the country, not rich fat lobbyists who keep all the senators in their pockets. NOT rich corporations looking to eek out an extra 5% earnings by sending all the good jobs to India, and outsourcing all the manufacturing to China. Not people like GW and his cabinet, hoarding power like gold, as if they were Midas, looking for the golden touch. Keeping the little guy down, keeping families like mine paying for the war, while companies like Wal-Mart use mob tactics to rule the retail industry. What comes next, what civil liberty am I going to have to give up next time I travel to the airport? Make sure that I'm not menstruating so my Tampons won't look like plastic guns or something?
Man, do I need to get published....