In essence, don't worry about government eeeeever overstepping its bounds. "WE" are the government and all we have to do about injustice is vote, right? Well, I saw this "we are the government" quote elsewhere, and it just strikes me plumb weird. It's along the lines of "WE are the people we've been waiting for." Ending sentences in prepositions does not a convincing argument make. But it does have an "I am my own best Messiah" sort of a flavour. Some thoughts on "We, the government:"
Do you think fat people voted in Mississippi for their state legislators? Hm. And yet, suppose an obese person finds himself unable to use his kitchen due to housefire or travelling. (If he's not *too* fat, he can actually leave his house sometimes without fire department assistance. Wow!)
Restaurants would leave him out hungry under this proposed bill, because you know what? Fat people don't deserve to eat, even if they have money to pay for their own food. Hopefully most of my readers can do a liiiittle commonsense thinking and figure out that even if a person is 450 pounds, he's still going to starve after a while if he can't eat. He'll just die still obese. It isn't like you can convert the extra 300 pounds into ready energy as you need it; sorry. Thankfully, there was a great outcry and the bill was not enacted into law. And I suppose you could buy a ready-made sandwich at the grocery store, but only if the law isn't expanded later. (Get it? Expanded! I'm a genius here.)
And how many votes do you think those kids in public schools get? "Should Schools Use Restraints on Children?" indeed. That that's even a question up for exploration by a major publication bespeaks the fact that we have not passed the medieval ages in how we view the disabled among us. (Newsflash: Did you know that constantly locking up a kid or restraining him on a regular basis actually makes the behaviour you're trying to prevent WORSE? But it gives you a sense of power if you're that kid's public school teacher to see ol' Joey get his face flattened for overturning that table and mouthing off, doesn't it?)
Prisoners are treated with more respect and dignity than kids in public schools are sometimes. In some states, you can wallop, strap down, lock up and "restrain" children at will and don't even need parental permission. You know, states like mine? And do you think *I* didn't vote last year? Do you think that if every autistic person somehow got together that they could overrule the "majority" and their sense of privilege?
"WE" are the government, indeed. More like "WE" the majority, hate and despise autistic kids and want them dead. Who cares about kids like Elf, or anybody else without a voice in government. Not "US." Nope.
See, right now, it's the rich and the people that cost us a lot of money that we don't specially like. Let's just tax the rich more, because you know what? I deserve healthcare and I don't feel like I'm getting my fair share. And those old people at the end of their lives are a little out of it and don't usually vote anyway. And they're expensive, useless people of no good to society anyway. They'd hold up the GAO figures, so... well, it isn't rationing. It's just not a "provided service" to help these people too much toward the end of their lives.
We, the government, indeed.
It's "We the People" of the United States who, through our representatives, established the Constitution. Guess what? I'd like to mention here just in passing that Jesus did not die for the Constitution and the American flag. These are not sacred emblems. No, they're not "nothing," either, mind you... but if they are indeed living documents, I must alter my belief in evolution forthwith. The Constitution, federal and state law can indeed evolve into a monster.
I don't want that to happen.
Maybe this is all semantics. So, I'll ask you. Do YOU think that "we are the government?"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
Reminds me of 'thought for the day' on NPR which I heard this morning. Otherwise I'm unqualified to comment seeing as how I hail from a socialist medicine country.
ReplyDeleteCheers
I do. In fact, my words may be where you saw this phrase recently. We are the government because if we're not, who is? There's no "them" -- either we the people are all of us the people, or only some of us are the people and the rest are some ruling class . . .
ReplyDeleteDemonizing each other as "Other" is the road to hell imo.
Maddy, of COURSE you are welcome to voice your opinion. And I think you may have some insight we'd lack. :]
ReplyDeleteJJ, *sorry* it wasn't you. But far from demonizing as "other," I was trying to point out that some of us really are unable to turn the majority away from voting OUR rights away. If it is true that "we" are the government... then somehow, when things NEVER go "my" way, what are my options?
Hm. Hopefully no one else read what I just thought.
PS of course by "my way" I don't mean petty, stupid things. I'm thinking things like the laws that allow for the way Elf was treated. There aren't enough of "we" parents to change this, and it shouldn't matter whether we have "buy-in" from 50% of the voters, yk?
ReplyDeleteSO I think a healthy dose of self-determination is in order wherever feasible. If you know that the government is not on your side, and actively ignores how your fundamental rights are violated, the only logical answer is to disconnect with the larger society as much as possible.
Seems like businesses are out to get over-weight people. First the airlines started charging them for two seats. Then businesses started offering incentives to people who fit the "healthy" category to lower the company's medical premiums.
ReplyDeleteLol- Mrs. C said "the larger society" and DF's mind went to overweight people. . .
ReplyDeleteMrs C, if you mean larger society when you say "government" then I'd agree, pretty much. What I disagree with is the habit of thinking of our government (or larger society) as some occupying force that's keeping us here as slaves and needs to be driven out, as if it weren't just as much "us" as anything else here in America.
DF, but imagine the outcry if they did that to gay people... Surely they can change their behaviour just as easily as I can forgo that fudge sundae.
ReplyDeleteMust. Stop. Eating. Sundaaaaaaeee.... :p
JJ, I don't think of our government as an occupying force, exactly. More like a parasite we keep feeding. It's become so intertwined with us that has become a part of us rather than a tool that is answerable TO us... We're afraid to extract it and put it in its rightful place lest we die.
Speaking of government, there ought to be a law against my writing stuff on the blog after 11 p.m.
ReplyDeleteNight!
Our corporate overlords are less human, more powerful and demonstrably more parasitic and exploitative than our government, if we're taking sides and taking up arms.
ReplyDeleteMmm... If we're talking corporations and that sort of thing, it still baffles me that we boycott Pepsi and drive Hummers.
ReplyDelete(scratches head)
The airlines issue is an interesting one. Restaurants engage in the same sort of discrimination. Imagine if you are sitting in a restaurant. You order a cheeseburger and fries, and it arrives. You are paying for the meal; you have purchased a right to eat your meal. Right when your meal arrives, a complete stranger, who just finished their own meal, pulls up a chair to your table and starts picking fries from your plate. The stranger then grabs your burger and take a bite. I think there are a fair amount of people that would get upset by this -- somebody taking something that you paid for. I don't see the difference between this and someone encroaching upon a seat that you paid for on an airplane. I guess restaurants discriminate against people who eat more when they charge you more if you order more food, but I'm not sure how they would restructure their business to avoid this kind of discrimination.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Anon!
ReplyDeleteHow about the "buffet," though? The skinny person AND the huge guy are paying the same price. One is getting more value for the money, and I suppose the skinny person is subsidizing the fat guy.
Senior citizen discounts bug the poo out of me. What is the big accomplishment about getting old that gives anyone the right to get a lower price than me on an item? PER CAPITA, bet you these old folks earn wayyy more money than our family does. But watch 'em cry that they can't afford their medicines, food AND shelter at the same time. Um, these are the same people who have money to go out to eat? They wear jewelry? They have money for cigarettes? They drive nice cars? My newest car is almost eight years old, and we're not replacing it any time soon. I have myself a feeling that the stories of old ladies eating dog food are made up if they have extra cash on hand to feed their four cats. :p
On the airline thing, though. People do NOT come in standard sizes. These things are made for tiny Japanese people who don't grow very tall at all. Try finding a seat for a large-boned guy who is 6 ft 4 and muscular without having his knees out to the sides like a big kid on a tricycle. Even if you were to diet carefully all your life for the cattle car flying event, you can't help how tall you are or the fact that the seat is 11 inches wide and your butt is 30.
Though I'm not sure there is a good answer to that problem at all. I can't pretend to be an expert on airline economics. :]
The experts on airline economics aren't (experts) either!
ReplyDeleteWhich I've blogged before, relating it then to School as a governing system, and to which I'd now add the health care system "experts" keeping us all so helplessly miserable:
"The whole story is about how aggressive and insulated data analysts crunch endless numbers to create operational models that are statistically attractive but unfit for human consumption, thereby infuriating regular, responsible people just trying to participate in the system in good faith."
See
Bumpy Ride or Getting Bumped, Both Wrong Answers
and
New Wings for "School is to Flying" Analogy:
"Like consumers of regional utilities or like drivers who tolerate bad traffic day after day, fliers have accommodated themselves to misery. It’s little wonder, then, that the air-travel market rarely punishes an individual airline for failing to get people to their destination on time: consumers assume, with good reason, that the options are interchangeably awful.
. . . Furthermore, in the short run more competition could actually make things worse for customers. . .In other words, we’re stuck with the current system, because it isn’t really in any airline’s interest to try to change it. . ."
Okay, so how are we going to get people that are severely underweight to stop starving themselves? Rhetorical question ~ where do you find these things.
ReplyDeleteHow about just asking restaurants to provide at least one sensible, healthy food item. Ron and I drove up to see Marissa and participate in family counseling. Because, apparently if we were better at parenting her, she wouldn't have FAS. Anyway, the session was from 4 to 5. Marissa was taken back to her room within minutes because she refused to participate. She is in a town 2 hours away. And, visiting hours didn't start until 6:30. So, our choices were to drive two hours and not really see Marissa, drive home and eat at 7 PM or eat out. We went to a steak house. The smallest portion on the menu was 12-ounces. Since a portion in 3-ounces and an adult diet should only have 2 servings of meat a day, the smallest portion was equivalent to twice the normal portion size for the entire day... all to be consumed in one meal. It was impossible to find anything on the menu that was anywhere near healthy.
Oh, I should say that dinner was Ron and I first "date" in 4-years and the meal was really, really good. But, I left feeling overfull and would have loved to pay less for half the meat.