Dear Politicians, This is the Price you Pay
For far too long, those ruling this country, its states, and its cities have demanded (and received) more and more authority over controlling the lives of citizens. The fault isn’t one of Republicans or Democrats, it’s both. The failure is in the abuse of the system, and all who have participated are complicit in creating the environment supporting the events unfolding before us.
You have intentionally demonized the opposition to ensure your base “turns out for the vote.” You continue to entertain pay for play with the various opposing lobbies causing deadlocks in legislation. These same lobbies have successfully influenced laws that harm our only planet, cause sickness, death, and given law enforcement the legal right to commit crimes. You have prioritized profits over people by giving multi-billion dollar corporation tax breaks and saddled hard-working people with the bill. You have armed law enforcement and the military more than you have invested in the health, wellbeing, and education of the people.
To make matters worse, you have used each crisis and catastrophe that occurred under your watch to invade privacy and conducted illegal surveillance of Americans in the name of national security. You have used this power to convict Americans of petty crimes that hurt no one and target minorities. Meanwhile, those who have the means with which to participate in the lobbying process (the real government) are free to conduct themselves as they please.
Even today, when given a chance to de-escalate, you double down with additional force as billions watch the injustice unfold before our eyes. The world is begging you for peace and a solution while you stubbornly move forward.
Your predictable prioritization of anything other than the wellbeing of our global population and our world comes with a price to pay and this is it.
But don’t worry, you’re not alone. We let this happen. We happily sat on our couches, drove our cars, entertained ourselves with the countless ways to distract our minds from recognizing that you were failing to deliver what we really needed. Some resist, try to warn us, and get mocked while most consistently and silently ignore the ever-intensifying signs. They blissfully continued along with their lives, trying to climb that ladder, get more stuff, and distract themselves.
Even today, as the people die and streets of our cities burn, you’re still armchair quarterbacking the whole thing on social media. You’re spinning the same tired rhetoric that politicians used to create this environment. You’re adding fuel to the fire.
The world is begging you for compromise while you dig in harder.
Here’s the thing: the people have already paid the price. We’ve shouldered the burden of your selfishness. The impact of your bad decisions. The pain of watching people suffer. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and anyone outside of the club has paid the price. Too many have paid the unthinkable price: their lives.
Politicians, look at our country. Hear the cries of the global community. Feel the pain of the people in the streets. How much more are you going to ask us to pay? How far is this going to go? How much is your club worth? How many will have to die for your precious privilege?
To the people: is this how you want it? Politics aside, does any of this feel right to you? Ask yourself if a loved one having to die for equality is the kind of world you want. Why should we have to fight for equality? Why should we even have to ask for it? Don’t you want to be treated fairly? That’s all that equity means.
Everything you are seeing happening around us is symptoms of the more significant disease plaguing our society.
You can attempt to treat the symptoms, but the underlying disease will continue to grow stronger.
The ball is in your court, and we have paid enough. What will you do?
