The last few days, I’ve held my breath, waiting for the news about the “Occupy Wall Street” protest to hit the headlines; but I’ve been waiting in vain. Then, last night, I found a very short AP article about how 80 of the protesters were arrested. YouTube is far more forthcoming with news of the protest, though none of the videos’ view counts go over 50,000. As if finally ceding to the uproar about the media blackout, the NY Times shot out a quick, highly critical, painfully short of substance, article today where the obvious purpose is to fragment and vilify the story. The article implies that the protesters are nothing more than a few unemployed college students who have no idea what “corporate personhood” is. So, the information leaking out into the mainstream is only misinformation. None link to the Occupy Wall Street website, as though it isn’t easy enough to find via Google.
Of equal importance to us, those of us that fall into the 99 percent of people in this country not opulently wealthy and living the good life, is the fact that, once again, the government is headed for a shutdown. It effects us, the people, though it is of little importance to business. The Washington Post goes a step further in information deflection by putting out a story today called “Senate likely to reject House-passed spending bill; shutdown still possible” with an address that indicated the headline originally read “Boehner tries to give House GOP conservatives a lesson in spending fight.” In a typical Google search for information on the looming government paralysis due to childish politics using obvious search terms such as “budget” or “shutdown” isn’t likely to return anything substantial about what is going on about the crisis the everyday Joe is going to face next week if the operating budget isn’t passed. Since this round of budget negotiation isn’t married to the debt ceiling and the country’s credit rating in the global market, it has little impact on business. It will only effect you and I and those that work in government jobs and the military, and people who receive Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Public Assistance, Food Stamps, Unemployment Insurance.
We are like children sitting at the beginning of a very slippery slope. We’ve been pried apart, separated and exploited in support of a capitalistic economy of greed and are now stripped of voice, choice and freedom. It is a horribly frightening turn of events that blatantly worsens every day.
