Ercille I. Christmas
Serf’s Up!
Once upon a time, in a nation called the United States of America, people who were sturdy, hardworking, innovative, God-fearing, country-loving and – if not uniformly prosperous – had most of their needs and wants met. In that land, guy met gal, guy and gal fell in love, married and began a family. Many times, he got a decent-paying job making automobiles, teaching in the local college, even becoming a doctor or lawyer. When necessary, Guy worked two jobs. Come the weekend, the family members dressed in their "Sunday-best,” and attended the local church to give thanks to their Creator, not only for all of His bountiful creations, but for providing them the means, to survive and often thrive.
Heck, if Dad and the kids lived in California or Hawaii, where the surf’s always up, they even caught a few waves. Yes, in those days, the surf was up and "serfitude” was down. That was America, "land of the free, home of the brave,” in the late 1940s and 1950s. Although I wasn’t there at the time, I heard all about it.
It is a new century, and that young stud who once rode those waves is now a grandfather, or perhaps a great-grandfather, getting around with a walker or in his wheelchair, but still possessing an active mind. He still possesses a mind analytical enough to realize that his grandchildren and great-grandchildren may not have time to ride the waves, as he did, because his type of decent-paying manufacturing job now resides in China, where about 90 percent of the world’s manufacturing is completed.
The former "surfer dude” just found out that his grandson, along with his wife and two kids, are moving in with Grandpa. Apparently the house they owned now belongs to the bank and sits vacant because the entire "younger” generation to which the grandson belongs, is suddenly poverty-stricken and unable to snap it up, even at its newly-lowered price. Not to worry though, the bank that threw him out of the now-vacant-for-six-months house just got a bailout. "Some animals are more equal than others.”
This story, for millions of Americans, does not have a fairytale "and they lived happily ever after” ending. In real fairy tales, that ending may be true. But in this twenty-first century fairy tale, not even the bailed-out bank may live happily ever after. Banks need customers. They may have "friends in high places” but they also need customers in middle earth. This bank’s customers are either unemployed or under-employed. One thing is certain… they do not have a ploy to save their financial lives. In receiving the bailout dough, the bank celebrated by ‘rewarding,” with billions of taxpayer bailout money, the top echelon of its "hard working employees.” This top echelon showed its gratitude by promptly parachuting from their airplane, er bank. They didn’t want to be onboard when that debt-laden craft fell to earth. No fools, they wanted their fairy tale existences to continue.
Recently, when I told an e-mail friend that I was not going to let "the bastards keep this serf down,” he wittily responded: "You go girl, serf’s up!” So this "serf” – as is the case with many of my almost 300-million fellow citizens – will never be dragged into the new "serfitude,” until the last breath of fighting this monstrous juggernaut toward socialism, is gone from me. The Newsweek Magazine cover which boldly declared, "We Are All Socialists Now,” notwithstanding, socialism be damned!
As I wrote in another article Take My Freedom from My Cold Dead Hands:
"The 1776 Congress went on to state that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. So if governments (read politicians) derive their powers from the consent of the governed, why are the governed the last to know about many of the things to which they have supposedly "consented"? I wonder what John Hart, Josiah Bartlett, Matthew Thornton, William Williams or William Ellery – a few of the 56 signers of the Declaration – would think if they were magically transported from 1776 to 2008?
"No doubt they would be fascinated by the newfangled ATM. Would they think, as I am beginning to think, that ATM now means "American Taxpayer Machine," as "We the People, mainly without our `consent,’ are being expected to pick up the tab for each and every exotic idea that springs from the fertile imagination of those who derive their `just’ power from us?”
I look back at that article and think that I should be applying for the position of a Fortune Teller in the new administration! Then, I referred to the American Taxpayer Machine. Today, those "human kiosks” are practically disintegrating from overuse! The great-great-great-great grand children of the American Taxpayer Machines of 2008-2009 will be paying for the excesses of the financial and political rulers of this land for the next hundred years. They may never be solvent! Hopefully they will be able to topple the ogres in this nightmare of a fairy tale and have a happy ending, a change they can really believe in!
As for this "serf,” I intend to obey all the laws of the land, including faithfully paying my taxes, as any good American Taxpayer Machine should. However, I will not bow down to the Emperor and tell him how good his new suit looks – when he is butt naked! I will let the Emperor know that his feckless innards are showing and that they’re not pretty.
Who knows? If this serf remains "up” – and millions like me do the same – and we are faithful in telling the Emperor the truth and he is willing to listen, we may all live happily ever after.
If not? We will fight on! Serfdom is just as antithetical to Americans and American values as bailouts are!
