It is as if we have been forced into a box, the lid being closed as we watch from inside.
Can you feel the walls surrounding you drawing closer?
Can you see the light of hope shrinking to a slit through the barely open panels that will soon be taped shut?
In one moment, without even knowing what is happening, your world changes and the freedoms that gave you wings, brought you happiness, and opened the doors of community are taken away by those who are terrified of what your spirit represents.
The panicked reactions of their desperation hit in waves. Energy prices soar, and just as we start to believe our government might not have our best interests in mind, officials save the day with a quick bill to appease the masses, making us feel comfortable and cared for again; making us doubt ourselves for even thinking negatively about their purpose.
It doesn’t take long before we once again become complacent, believing we are safe and free. But the freedom we feel is not real, and the expression of that freedom in our comfortable lives serves only to anger and frustrate those who want to control us all the more.
When they begin to see us accepting, coping with the new restrictions they have placed, their fear reaches new levels. They seek new ways to bind us and new justifications for greater limitations on our lives.
The day is coming when the lid to the box will be closed completely unless we stand up, break open the closing folds and say NO MORE.
Our economy, our money is the final stronghold – their last line of defense and as we watch, those who need to control us are taking their stand. Our government lunatics are using our money, THE FRUITS OF OUR EFFORTS, to shore up the results of their inability to control their own greed.
How long before we act? How much longer before we pull the plug on their illusion of power and show them why it is they have been afraid of us all along?
Every day they seek to divide us; to isolate us from the opportunity for joining together and fighting back.
Every day their fear shows through in the reactive measures they take to keep us from using our anger and rage to stop their actions in a unified force.
We hear them calling those they fear “terrorists” and encouraging slander and racial epithets from the crowds of people they are misleading with their hyperbole, drumming us into a frenzied rage so they will be able to justify their eventual act of imprisoning us for the ensuing chaos they hope we allow ourselves to deteriorate into.
We watch as our economy falters as their investments are squandered in our name – an excuse for them to nationalize the one segment of our lives they need to finally have control of every puppet string.
How can we let this happen? How can we sit and watch while lunatics and addicts to power drive us deeper and deeper into the back of our little boxes in an effort to keep us from finally realizing the true extent of their illusion, and the true power we hold.
When are we going to rise up and defend what is ours?
We have done the work. We have born the weight of the effort it has taken to earn all that has been accomplished in the communities that make up this nation. We have stood in lines for handouts, we have carried the loads, lifted the boxes, built the cars, fed the hungry, raised the roofs, dug the ditches, cared for the sick, policed our streets, and educated our children – and we have done so in spite of their attempts to control us by taking away the funds, taking away the resources, taxing our efforts and limiting the freedom to be human beings that care by creating laws and regulations that do nothing except bind us and box us into a corner so they can pretend we don’t exist in an effort to feel a little less afraid.
I did not spend my life caring for others, working hard accepting my responsibilities only to have those who have never lifted a finger in their own name take the credit for my work.
I did not raise my children to believe in their abilities and to understand the value of hard work only to have their efforts benefit CEO’s of large corporations who would rather have a backrub than see that their employees have food on the table, using their inflated position to contain the growing confidence of the next generation of potential threats to revealing the real truth behind the illusion.
I did not walk 3 miles a day to work because I could not afford a car of my own, only to have someone tell me I have been a “good little girl” and can have enough money in return to buy a new pair of shoes.
I know what it is like to be treated like a prisoner. I know what it feels like to have my rights taken away, to have decisions made without respect for my position, to speak for the needs of others without being given the same respect in return. I know what it is like to wake up and learn that more of my freedoms have been taken away by someone who wants to control me simply because they can’t and won’t control themselves or their cravings.
I also know what it is like to be free. I know what it means to be able to give because I want to, because I can, and because it helps someone else along their way. I want my freedom back. I want what I have worked for to be given the respect it deserves.
I have earned everything I have – THEY have not.
THEY have not done one thing to justify what THEY are doing now – except live in fear of our one day learning the truth and coming to know that we can NOT LIVE LIKE THIS ANY LONGER.
I could name names – THEY – the Bushes, the Cheney’s, the Pelosi’s, the Paulsons, the Clintons, and so on and so on and so on. What does it matter? There are many that do exactly what our leadership has done, and who do it in their own homes, taking advantage of those of us who are willing to work, who are willing to accept our responsibilities and drive ourselves to accomplish in actions that THEY are only willing to talk about.
It is a growing trend, a disease of the masses of people who have believed that hard work would eventually show itself in real results. It is a growing acceptance that good people have undertaken – to be the underdogs, to wait for their rewards. WELL, THE REWARDS ARE NOT COMING unless we reach out and grab them. Those in whose name we have done the work are too selfish, too weak, too mindless and too determined to protect themselves to be able to understand what they have been given.
We have one choice. We have one chance.
It is not simply a matter of voting new people into office. It is a matter of voting the RIGHT people into office – those who will represent the people because they ARE the people: who have the scars on their hands to show they understand the value of the work all of have done and not received credit for.
It is not simply a matter of moving forward with hope that a new government will resolve our problems in the manner we ask. It is far more.
We MUST hold those who have attempted to take so much from us accountable for their actions, and we must demand our new employees to be just that: workers for the people.
WE MUST do it NOW.
Crimes have been committed. We must rise up and demand justice.
Power has been abused. We must stand UNITED and DEMAND our rights be returned.
The box is closing, but there is still time to show that we have what it takes to fight back and succeed.
We do have the power – but we cannot wait another day.
We MUST take things into our own hands – the shallow words that have been spoken; “we have your interests in mind,” are nothing more than words. WE MUST ACT NOW and say NO MORE.
MONICA BENDERMAN is a senior care advocate. Her husband was a ten-year Army veteran who served a combat tour in Iraq and a year in prison for his public protest of war. She continues to work within their community to promote resources for veterans and the elderly. Monica may be reached at mdawnb@coastalnow.net.