America's Decline

"AMERICA'S" DECLINE?


"Times are tough in the United States.  Unemployment is high; those with jobs suffer real wage declines and ever  greater demands to work harder and longer.  Household debt is up and wealth is down. Homelessness is growing.  Health care is becoming a luxury.  In sum, people are hurting, scared, and increasingly angry."---Martin Hart-Landsberg


"America, It is you and I who are perfect, not the next world."---Alan Ginsberg

America's decline?

The "country's" decline?

--Let's be clear:

We're talking about the  decline of America's working classes,

the decline of the fabled Middle Class......

Or, we might as well say we are talking about:


My family's decline.

--It's not just that we are older,

though that problem is bad enough;

Our resources have diminished,

and we need help,

and all the while,

we can remember when things were not this way.

--But stop:

Add to our memories the brash voices of those who are younger,
who know nothing of either politics or history,

and confidently tell us that this is the way things are,

as if they couldn't be any other way,

as if they wanted to shut us up,

and erase our memories,

while they bathe luxuriously and miserably in those cruel words,

"the new normal".

--That's the real insult,

a kick aimed at groin or ribs,
a slap,
a burning insult added to injury,

of a man,
this man,  
who's fallen down.