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i re-read the post i wrote yesterday about some events from my childhood and then i realized that one day my children would barely remember their childhoods or remember it in the snippets that i remember mine.
today probably won't even be a memory. how many todays slide into each other in our memories and get lost. maybe they become one memory, like how mom wouldn't let us have dessert unless we ate all our food or we had long hair and it would hurt so much when mom brushed the tangles out.
one day, this day, this evening, this moment will be utterly forgotten in a gigantic sea of moments a universe of moments, each moment it's own star or planet or heavenly body randomly separated by space and time from other moments of memory. and how will they remember how much i loved them at this age? how they fight with each other and then love each other? they will never remember how much they sang and acted silly and whined and were just children, will they? they will remember themselves just as the people they are. no major distinction of age other than a realization of unknowing or innocence at one age as compared to a later age.
it makes me melancholy to think all these moments, these moments which seem so important right now, will one day be nothing more than the moons of small planets floating in space, so forgotten as to be unknown, never known. i want to always remember what these moments are like. i don't want life to slip away into nothingness.
today probably won't even be a memory. how many todays slide into each other in our memories and get lost. maybe they become one memory, like how mom wouldn't let us have dessert unless we ate all our food or we had long hair and it would hurt so much when mom brushed the tangles out.
one day, this day, this evening, this moment will be utterly forgotten in a gigantic sea of moments a universe of moments, each moment it's own star or planet or heavenly body randomly separated by space and time from other moments of memory. and how will they remember how much i loved them at this age? how they fight with each other and then love each other? they will never remember how much they sang and acted silly and whined and were just children, will they? they will remember themselves just as the people they are. no major distinction of age other than a realization of unknowing or innocence at one age as compared to a later age.
it makes me melancholy to think all these moments, these moments which seem so important right now, will one day be nothing more than the moons of small planets floating in space, so forgotten as to be unknown, never known. i want to always remember what these moments are like. i don't want life to slip away into nothingness.
I was about five years old when we lived there, possibly six. It's hard to say. Maybe I even turned six when we lived in this trailer park. It was crowded to me. All the trailers seemed so close. I had a cat. A black cat. I don't remember what its name was anymore. We actually had two cats, the other being a tabby named Smokey. We almost had a third cat. There was a stray that would periodically come up through the floor in our bathroom under the sink and sneak about our trailer. We would leave food for him but he never stayed.
My little brother was about two. He had a bowl hair cut. Very fashionable in the mid-70s. He was sort of ginger-haired when he was a baby and a toddler. Then his hair turned blond.
We let our cats roam outside like everybody else. But there was a man who lived two trailers down and he would yell at me about my cat being in his "yard". I couldn't really comprehend what his issue was, or where exactly his yard was, or why he even cared about a cat. One day he said that if he found that cat in his yard again, he'd set his dog on it. I was scared, but I didn't know what to do. The cats went outside day and night and went where they wanted. I didn't know what he expected me to do.
I remember overhearing a story when we lived there about a man who got drunk, went into the wrong trailer and fell asleep on the couch. The man who lived there woke up, saw the drunk on his couch, and shot him. Dead. When I got older my dad used to say that town was full of in-breds.
My mom was standing behind the trailer one sunny summer afternoon. As I walked toward her, she told me to go away. The grass was long but I could see it. It was my cat lying there in that indentation. It was dead. My mom didn't want me to come closer and I vaguely remember a few other people standing around. I was sad, but I didn't go near. I don't remember much of what happened but my mom did confirm to me in later years that the man two trailers down did actually set his dog on our cat.
After Christmas, we moved into a rental house. It had cabinetry built into the wall of one bedroom and sometimes I would hide in there. That was the house where I pushed my brother down and he cracked his head open on the coffee table. He had six stitches above his eye. Poor little guy. I remember we used to go to bed when it was still light out. We got another black cat too.
My little brother was about two. He had a bowl hair cut. Very fashionable in the mid-70s. He was sort of ginger-haired when he was a baby and a toddler. Then his hair turned blond.
We let our cats roam outside like everybody else. But there was a man who lived two trailers down and he would yell at me about my cat being in his "yard". I couldn't really comprehend what his issue was, or where exactly his yard was, or why he even cared about a cat. One day he said that if he found that cat in his yard again, he'd set his dog on it. I was scared, but I didn't know what to do. The cats went outside day and night and went where they wanted. I didn't know what he expected me to do.
I remember overhearing a story when we lived there about a man who got drunk, went into the wrong trailer and fell asleep on the couch. The man who lived there woke up, saw the drunk on his couch, and shot him. Dead. When I got older my dad used to say that town was full of in-breds.
My mom was standing behind the trailer one sunny summer afternoon. As I walked toward her, she told me to go away. The grass was long but I could see it. It was my cat lying there in that indentation. It was dead. My mom didn't want me to come closer and I vaguely remember a few other people standing around. I was sad, but I didn't go near. I don't remember much of what happened but my mom did confirm to me in later years that the man two trailers down did actually set his dog on our cat.
After Christmas, we moved into a rental house. It had cabinetry built into the wall of one bedroom and sometimes I would hide in there. That was the house where I pushed my brother down and he cracked his head open on the coffee table. He had six stitches above his eye. Poor little guy. I remember we used to go to bed when it was still light out. We got another black cat too.
Fri Aug 05, 2011 at 04:08 PM PDT
30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died
by Michael MooreFollow
Share581
permalink 279 Comments
From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.
Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."
Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.
And they've succeeded.
On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.
It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it. What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him, what would he do to us?
Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started -- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a helping hand to minorities or women.
Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:
* The super-rich will make more, much much more, and the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.
* Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents might be home in time to put you to bed.
* 50 million of you must go without health insurance! And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to help -- or not.
* Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.
* You want to go to college? No problem -- just sign here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!
* What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut up!
And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:
The AFL-CIO.
The biggest organization of unions in America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers -- they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.
Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes! Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate America.
And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the Republicans knew they could get away with anything -- and they did. They slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job. They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they moved the jobs overseas anyway.
And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses" did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took the beating.
I have often wondered what would have happened had we all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.
But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece, in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people. Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning in 1981 (here's a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).
It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids back?
Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or step aside.
When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?
Why not use today to pause and think about the little steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/05/1003695/-30-Years-Ago-Today-The-Day-the-Middle-Class-Died
30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died
by Michael MooreFollow
Share581
permalink 279 Comments
From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.
Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."
Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.
And they've succeeded.
On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.
It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it. What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him, what would he do to us?
Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started -- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a helping hand to minorities or women.
Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:
* The super-rich will make more, much much more, and the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.
* Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents might be home in time to put you to bed.
* 50 million of you must go without health insurance! And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to help -- or not.
* Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.
* You want to go to college? No problem -- just sign here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!
* What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut up!
And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:
The AFL-CIO.
The biggest organization of unions in America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers -- they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.
Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes! Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate America.
And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the Republicans knew they could get away with anything -- and they did. They slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job. They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they moved the jobs overseas anyway.
And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses" did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took the beating.
I have often wondered what would have happened had we all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.
But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece, in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people. Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning in 1981 (here's a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).
It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids back?
Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or step aside.
When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?
Why not use today to pause and think about the little steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/05/1003695/-30-Years-Ago-Today-The-Day-the-Middle-Class-Died
i had a stomach virus this weekend and watched an inordinate number of episodes of BSG, when i wasn't sleeping or pathetically wincing in abdominal pain. i was able to get the kitchen and bathroom cleaned and laundry done before i realized i was sick, however, so i accomplished something.
we are watching the Glee Concert tonight. I SPOIL THESE CHILDREN.
i'm all caught up at work, just working on a fallback project.
in a little over two weeks, i'm going to Paris, or maybe just Dublin. plans might change. we'll see. i'm sort of favoring a less hectic weekend in dublin at this point. i have already bought a ticket there; i was going to fly to paris from there. but it might turn out to be too much of a hassle to fly to paris because of flight times. i'm going with my bff regardless. we are celebrating our third anniversary of meeting each other. yay!
so what to do, what to do. first world problems.
we are watching the Glee Concert tonight. I SPOIL THESE CHILDREN.
i'm all caught up at work, just working on a fallback project.
in a little over two weeks, i'm going to Paris, or maybe just Dublin. plans might change. we'll see. i'm sort of favoring a less hectic weekend in dublin at this point. i have already bought a ticket there; i was going to fly to paris from there. but it might turn out to be too much of a hassle to fly to paris because of flight times. i'm going with my bff regardless. we are celebrating our third anniversary of meeting each other. yay!
so what to do, what to do. first world problems.
i'd just like to say that i own a pair of green socks.
so the divas and i were dancing in the pouring rain while the sun was shining. first went big diva, then me, then little diva and we got soaking wet.
i have awesome kids.
they are still out there...
i have awesome kids.
they are still out there...
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