The Responsible Course of Action

The US Government’s response to the Coronavirus represents the most recent example of a dysfunctional approach to securing and supporting public wellbeing in the United States. Yes, there has been a tepid response to ascertain how to stem the communicable nature and then treat the disease. In a way, these efforts alone are analogous to stopping the wind. A responsible approach from elected officials will commit through words and deeds that all people receive the necessary resources to weather slowdowns, shutdowns and the upheaval of an economic system that has led us to the place we are today. Simply embracing and promulgating a view of capitalism and money as God’s way has brought only despair and hardship to the masses and the destruction of the earth. Capitalism does nothing to support care, compassion and love and the awakening of divine thoughts and actions. Instead, it breeds greed, otherness and indifference. So long as the people allow for elected officials to pad their own pockets, turn away from the public they swore to serve and partake of services not afforded to the general population, there will be no change in a system that is clearly broken. To ensure freedom and security, the efforts begin at home. Let us take responsibility for our families, neighbors, citizens and fellow humans and agree that everyone deserves health care, organic food, sound shelter, effective education, suitable clothing and a living wage. Then we act to build a strong and sustainable foundation that enfranchises all people. Herein lies freedom and security.

Unfortunately, there is a level of avarice and entitlement of elected officials and CEO’s that is nothing less than publicly condoned robbery. This staggers the imagination that it has been allowed to exist for so long. This behavior on the part of elected officials and CEO’s is even more repugnant given their boldness in justifying they deserve it. No elected official deserves to have anything more than that provided to each and every member of the public. No CEO deserves to be paid more than ten times the amount of the lowest paid employee in their organization. There has been a longstanding saying within the maritime tradition that “the Captain is the last one off” having made sure that all passengers and crew have been safely disembarked. This is no different for elected officials and CEO’s who hold their positions. They swore to serve, and they hold their positions because of the multitudes who make that possible.

The message from the 1976 film, Network, is most poignant now. “I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change.” Coarsely put, “Wake the fuck up!“ Demand action from your elected officials and your boss. Protest, write, call, make yourself heard, make your disdain felt. Let me refresh your memory of the Declaration of Independence. “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation ….” Among the most egregious causes today are inequality, classism, discrimination, racism, sexism, homophobia, jobless, homeless, un- and underinsured and impoverishment. The Declaration further states, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends (albeit, I am making a case for conscious loving inspired attitudes and behavior), it is the right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely effect their Safety and Happiness … it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

So my message is this, “Elected officials and CEO’s, get it together, or the people will do it for you!”