Oppression

So this week we are talking about Oppression.  Systematic oppression.  The kind of oppression that seems to be built into the our community.  The kind that controls and governs our social concepts and framework.  The word that shouts out loudest in my mind is Economic Oppression.  Growing up as a poor kid in several decrepit trailer parks meant learning to live on very little.  Growing accustomed to turning the kitchen lights on and seeing the cockroaches and mice scatter.  Having a childhood like that, developing the idea that you will never be able to make more out of life.  The whole economic system is designed to make the gap between the poor and the wealthy enormous and we have been taught that you need to have money to make money.  That you need to be the smartest in order to win scholarships or the most athletic to bank on a sports contract.  This makes kids believe that they have to be the best and that not being the best means failure.  Many out there, much like me, knew that we were not the smartest or strongest or most talented.  The world taught us that we would never achieve anything, that we would never change our circumstances.  Life grinds us into the dirt and lays us low.  Those children are taught that without some helping hand they will never leave the trailer park and most never do.  They accept that life believing that it won't get any better unless they win the lottery or have an unknown wealthy next of kin pass away.

The two major powers in this country, the Government and Corporate America, both argue that the other is crushing the little guy.  They say they are for our benefit and the other sucks us dry.  The truth is that they both suck us dry.  Corporate America has companies profiting off of the cheap labor of uneducated poor class.  The government keeps rapidly growing (meaning more tax income to fund it) while ignoring the equally rapid to resolve the struggles of the middle class, but doesn't mention that this new division or team costs thousands of dollars to operate and maintain, a cost that falls on the very class it seeks to help.  Then you have corporate america that claims that business build jobs, but in the name of profit they take those jobs overseas for a better return.  It seems to me that while the big rich folks (and yes that also means you career politicians on both side of the aisle who have made millions off of your books deals elbow rubbing) fight over who to blame for the poor Americans at the bottom, every step you take continues to increase that financial gap.  Every time someone in a suit goes on television to talk about how great they are and what they are doing to help me, all I see is the gears behind them working to take my dollar.