We Could Chalk This Up to a Rant

Sharon came into work, as she always did, with the headlines of the day. It was Black Friday. Thanksgiving was past, Christmas ahead; leftovers passed to the pigs. The single soul had shivered in the cold New York late autumn for her first place. She became three, and a line formed. The line became a mob. The mob pushed against the glass doors that were meant to hold them all back. The Greeter on the other side tried to explain, but they didn’t care. They burst through the doors as if sharks after a pint of fleshy blood. Stampeding like buffalo, the mob shoved over and trampled the Greeter, and nobody stopped until they had all passed and he was found, dead. “I was here first!” He wanted the best first sales! Everyone was on such a budget, afterall. And from the Grace-tables of Thanks-giving to the death of an employee, This is disgusting.
A driver of an SUV hit a pedestrian and drove off. Passers-by investigated the motionless body and walked off. A person on a scooter passed, turned around, looked closer at the person lying face down in the middle of the road, turned around again, and drove off.
A person waited in the clinic for assistance; she’d been there for nine hours. She began seizing. The two sitting across the room sat and stared. The nurse who walked in saw the crippled body and left. The doctor she returned with saw the breathless body and turned away.
Ronald McDonald smiles big. He’s hugging an old woman who smiles with him. There’s a smack of red make-up from Ronald’s kiss on her cheek. He wears his distinct yellow and red striped jump-suit.
Walmart’s Smile shines to bring in shoppers who are ignorant to what they themselves cause.

The death of an employee by a disgustingly ravenous appetite for cheap goods is an incredible point about who we are as a nation that boasts on “Pride.” (As long as the colors are right, afterall.) Yet, it’s brushed aside, off the news desk, to make room for
America’s First Black President!
“The audacity to dream of something better.”
As of right now, it’s a dream story. We’re bitter among ourselves and it seems a man will come along to mend the wounds we’ve scratched upon each other. All that could help him “help” us would be strings, collars. And all his predecessors seem to have enjoyed that.
You keep thinking things can be changed by a new face; the audacity to believe that a person in a place of power will in fact help the people he leads. His motives may even be good, but we need to help ourselves. Stop thrashing about each other as if you’re the only one in a particular situation. Take notice of what you have in common with your neighbor.
Where is our pride found? Flags shot up immediately Sept. 11. Flags stood proud when we invaded Afghanistan. They maintained at the beginning of the war in Iraq. They are erected for each day this country has to remember Veterans. When was a flag raised to celebrate well-funded education, low unemployment rate, negotiations? This is a foolish country proud of bloodshed that tramples its own people to consume consume consume. Afterall, consuming is what drives this nation. Pride in buying things, pride in battling other people. This is disgusting.
Where’s pride in what we as a people can do? Pride is found in the fact we now have a black president. “We’re progressive!” No, we still submit ourselves to the old ideas of government.
It’s patriotic to consume. It’s patriotic to fly your flag. It’s patriotic to vote. It’s patriotic to say the pledge. It’s patriotic to thank a veteran. It’s patriotic to support the president. It’s patriotic to protest, even. Yet, “patriots” are not “compatriots.” No one’s in this together. They fought at the doors with each other before they murdered an employee, then fought to the first things on their lists, then complained when no one was allowed to leave because the employee laid dead on the floor. They complained! PRIDE! “And I’m proud to be an American… I’ll gladly stand up, next to you,” unless you’re in my way. What a foolish, selfish, immature, naïve people – controlled by media that’s influenced by numbers rather than truth; hypnotized by the 2 and 4 year processes or otherwise disenfranchised, but equally a part; bound to everything by money; unable or unwilling to draw themselves out of what they agree is chaotic. And they say, “At least we’re free.” From what, I ask. We’re victims to the tyranny of the dollar, the dictatorship of jobs; You pledge to a finite nation, pray to a fictional god because you don’t find truth on your own. You watch the green screens of war. You follow the words in the book along the lines the preacher says. Simply, you don’t ask questions yet you never hesitate to tell me, “Get to reality.” You willingly submit yourself to all this nonsense. Yes, this is all nonsense. An untruthful governing body that people continue to take solace in, is nonsense. A monetary system that thrives on the lavishness of some and scavenging by others is nonsense. A God that continues to ask for money each week and spends it on bigger paychecks for the parish is nonsense. But I’m crazy, don’t listen to me.
I don’t have faith in this government. It’s citizens could do more for themselves if they’d lift their dumb eyes. Instead, like clockwork, they hold their daze to the footprints in front of them and say, “This is how it’s been done for so long.” I don’t need religion to find God. “But this is truth.” No, that’s truth for you. And I won’t tell you you’re wrong, but I’ll make a case why I’m right. Why am I right in this case? Because God is not trivial. The power-mad government, the divisive religions, the imaginary dollar is all trivial. I will not take part in those things; God is in none of that. So I’ll continue on my own way, on the outskirts of your “Real World.”