I
remember a distant time. A turbulent time. A time of fear, a time of
bravery, a time of peace, a time of conscience.

It
was a time when wearing blue jeans was a sign of subversion, along
with long hair and flowers on clothing.

It
was a time when we smoked marijuana almost openly, we accepted each
other for what we were, and we were ready to go to jail for our
convictions.

That
was a long, long time ago. Back when we knew that we were right. I
knew it then, and, almost fifty years later, I still believe it. We
were right, and we changed our world, and that change is still in
motion and evolving today.

Those
times were so much more than long hair and drugs and paisley prints
and drugs and bell bottom jeans.

I
believe that the sixties was a period of enlightenment. Great new
philosophies came forth, mostly dealing with the way we looked at our
fellow human beings and the individuality of every person. Sexuality
suddenly became much freer, and people started understanding that
what was important was what was inside of person, and that,
essentially, we were all the same.

We
ended a war. We changed the prevailing conventional wisdom on almost
every topic. We had The Establishment hating our guts because we so
rocked their world. (Nixon had his Enemies List. At Kent State
University, four innocent, unarmed college students were gunned down
and killed during an anti-war protest. Ronald Reagan, when speaking
about containing the youth, said, “If there’s going to be a blood
bath, let’s get on with it.”)

We
had our prophets. Bob Dylan screamed, “The times, they are
a-changing.” He told the older generation, “Your old road is
rapidly aging. Get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand!”

John
Lennon cried “Power to the people!” He also warned against
violent revolution because, he said, once The Establishment is
toppled, the revolutionaries become the new Establishment, and, after
a time, the sole aim of every “Establishment” is to maintain its
stature and power. (Listen carefully to his cryptic lyrics in Revolution.)

We
were right. I am absolutely convinced of it.

When
I first heard about a new movement in U.S. Politics called The Tea
Party, I was absolutely elated. People were getting fed up with The
Establishment again. A grassroots movement was going to be a voice
for the masses yet again, and The Power was going to return to its
rightful place.

It
didn’t happen. What happened was that The Tea Party was swallowed
up by billionaires and their lackeys, and the movement was completely
embraced by the Republican Party. And then The Republican Party
became the proverbial serpent eating its own tail.

If
The Tea Party had not been corrupted and completely taken over by
covert billionaires, it might have been a positive and credible force
in American Politics.

The
Tea Party, in its original version, no longer exists. It is no
longer a grassroots movement of the people. It is a group of, in my
opinion, mindless puppets that are having their strings pulled by
well-hidden old men who have a lot to lose if Obama and the
reformists have their way.

The
conservatives are against universal health care because many of them
have a vested interest in pharmaceutical companies. They point to
Canada and claim that the Canadian health care system, which is
similar to what many folks are now calling ObamaCare, is a miserable
failure. (Have you ever spoken to Canadians about their health care
system? I have. And every single Canadian I’ve EVER spoken to about
the subject is wildly positive about it!)

And,
while we’re on the subject, let’s talk about OUR wonderful
present health care set-up here in the U.S.

I
have a fellow who works for me. He’s an engineer. We’ll call
him. . . Mitt.

Mitt
has a daughter who is fourteen years old. We’ll call her . . .
Sara.

Sara
is a soccer player. A damned good one.

Twelve
days ago, Sara was at soccer practice, and suddenly she stopped
running, sat down in the middle of the field, and grabbed her head.
When her coach asked her what the problem was, she said that she just
got hit with the worst headache of her life.

The
coach, knowing that Sara was no slacker, became concerned and told
her to call her parents. Sara called her mother, who came and picked
her up. On the way home in the car, Sara began crying from the pain
of the headache. Then she passed out.

Sara
ended up in the hospital that evening, and she underwent brain
surgery at 9 p.m. that night. The doctors removed a blood clot the
size of a marble and a small piece of Sara’s brain.

Today,
Sara is recovering nicely. She has full vision. (She lost her
peripheral vision temporarily just before the operation.) Her speech
is back to normal. Her memory does not seem to be effected. However,
her balance and coordination is still a tad lacking.

So,
after twelve days of being in the hospital, her doctors are ready to
let her go home, and they ordered another week of physical therapy to
help her regain her balance and motor skills.

Her
health insurance company is Aetna.

Guess
what?

Aetna denied
her claim!

Sara’s
parents pay their health care premium weekly. (It is automatically
deducted from their paychecks.) Sara just went through BRAIN
SURGERY,
and the freaking insurance company denied her claim for a week’s
worth of physical therapy!!!!!!

A
claim was also put in for a shower chair because Sara cannot stand up
long enough to take a shower just yet. That was claim was also
declined by Aetna.

Now, tell
me that there’s not something wrong with health care insurance in the
United States!

Do
you know how much the shower chair costs?

$69.00

Do
you know how much money Aetna paid its CEO, Ron Williams, last year?

OVER
$25,000,000.00!!!!!!!

(In
2008, Aetna paid him $24,300,112 in salary, stock options and
bonuses.)

I’m
sorry, but to my way of thinking, any company that can afford to pay
its CEO $25,000,000.00 a year can certainly afford to pay for a $69
shower chair for a child who just underwent brain surgery and whose
parents have been steadily paying their premium on the health
insurance policy!

Something
just ain’t right here!

***

The
Republicans and The Tea Partiers are against raising taxes on the
wealthy because they say, 1. The wealthy are already paying their
fair share in taxes, and 2. We don’t want to burden the wealthy
because they are the “job makers” in this country.

Well,
if the wealthy are already paying their fair share in taxes, then
nobody should be opposed to a flat rate tax system, right? Let’s
do away with ALL tax exemptions and loopholes and just say this –
“Everybody, that’s EVERYBODY, who makes money on United States
soil - individuals, institutions, churches, businesses – pays 9% of
all earnings to the government. No exceptions.

That
would put the Certified Public Accountants out of business, but it
would be a more fair way of doing things, wouldn’t it?

And
if Big Business and the billionaires are already paying their fair
share, then they don’t have anything to worry about…RIGHT?

Now,
what about the second part of the conservatives’ reasoning for not
raising taxes on the wealthy – “They are the job makers in this
country, and we wouldn’t want to take away their incentives to
create jobs.”

First
of all, the vast majority of Americans work for companies that employ
35 or less employees, and most of these companies are owned by people
like me, who are far cries from being billionaires.

Secondly,
if the conservatives are afraid that the “job makers’ will lose
their incentive to create new jobs if we raise taxes on them, I’ve
got a question for them; Have
you geniuses looked at the unemployment rates lately? Even though Big Business is currently sitting on TRILLIONS of surplus
dollars (a good portion of that coming from Obama’s stimulus
packages), they ARE NOT creating new jobs! They are not hiring!!! And
nobody has raised their taxes!!!!!

So
I say, go ahead and raise their taxes!!!! It won’t hurt the jobless
numbers! The truth is, Big Business has plenty of money right now
to create new jobs, but as long as the CEO are making millions of
dollars every year, they REALLY DON’T GIVE A SHIT if Everyman has a
job or not!

Lately,
a new movement in the United States called Occupy Wall Street has
been getting a lot of press. Like The Tea Party was in its genesis,
this is a true, grassroots movement of concerned and irate citizens
who are completely fed up with the excessive corporate greed,
examples of which I have chronicled in this blog post thus far.

It
reminds me of the protests that took place during the Hippie
Movement, which were highly effective in bringing awareness of a
myriad of social injustices to the multitudes, and they were also
instrumental in changing government policies and society’s
opinions.

I
see a lot of good in this movement. Like the original Tea Party,
these people have every right to protest and state their opinions.

All
politics are local and personal. The Tea Party was formed because
people were afraid of what was happening to their wallets and
pocketbooks. This new group was formed for the exact same reasons,
only their philosophy is different.

The
Tea Party, as it stands today, wants to save their pocketbooks by
stopping government spending without raising taxes.

The
Occupy Wall Street movement is made up mostly of young people who
want jobs and feel that Big Business would rather line their own
pockets than create jobs with their exorbitant profits, unfair tax
breaks and accepted stimulus money.

Dave
Barger, the CEO of the most successful and profitable U.S. airlines,
Jet Blue, states that in order for Big Business to begin hiring
again, it has to feel confident that the U.S. Government is acting in
the best interest of America. According to Barger, that means that
Congress must get along with each other and work together to help
solve the nation’s problems. When The Tea Partiers declare that
they flat-out refuse to compromise on anything that does not instill
confidence. (Somebody should tell these people that The Constitution
of The United States is a document that is the result of COUNTLESS compromises!!!! That is how things get done in Democratic Republics
such as ours!) Barger states that Congress must show a willingness to
compromise in order for Big Business to feel secure enough to start
spending money!

I
like the Occupy Wall Street Movement. I like the fact that it is
spreading like wildfire across the U.S. I like that people are
standing up for themselves and getting mad as hell.

However,
I hope and pray that the movement does not attach itself to the
Democratic Party as The Tea Party has attached itself to The
Republican Party. I hope the movement stays autonomous, and does not
get usurped by powerful people with hidden agendas the way The Tea
Party has been usurped by billionaires like the Koch brothers, who
see the movement as a means to line their bulging pockets even more
than they are already are.

These
are exciting times, and I like being a part of them.