We were celebrating Ruth Ellen's (Kathie's mom) birthday at Mizuna last Saturday night when Ruth Ellen said something like, "That Obama has certainly raised the death tax!"
We asked what she was talking about and she told us that because of Obama every one had to pay $35,000 when they died. She said she had read it in the Post. This death tax fantasy was a lot like her outrage at the cuts Obama had made to social security.
Even when confronted with the truth ("Ruth Ellen, has your social security been cut?"--"No, it's about the same."), she refuses to abandon her newest certainty.
This is a smart woman. She has a degree in music from KU. There had to be a time when she valued facts. What is happening?
The truth gets shouted down every time it rears its head.
Trayvon Martin for example. There are so many levels of tragedy its hard to keep track. But all that yelling and name calling and radio ranting freak outs over the President's stating of the obvious ("If I had a son he would look like Trayvon"), just obscures the real issue.
What is a state doing with a "Stand Your Ground" law in the first place? Couple the spirit of that law (can you say "Class Warfare?"), with the vigilante spirit that prompts someone to want to be on neighborhood watch complete with his very own walkie talkie and his very own gun and the odds are that someone is going to get dead. I don't think it is a racial thing necessarily. But I suspect if we had gated communities of primarily black wealthy people with black neighborhood watch volunteers, hoodie wearing white guys better think twice about jogging around the neighborhood.
If we listen to those making the most noise, here is our situation. There is a basic mistrust of government because government tends to distribute hard earned tax dollars to those who don't deserve it. There is a belief that illegal immigrants (you can spot them because they tend to be non-white and poor) are figuring out ways to sneak over the border to our warm and inviting country so they can have anchor babies and live here with them happily ever after. And there is another belief that anything the public sector does can be done better if privatized.
Since we are increasingly being held hostage by the idea that any tax is creeping socialism, the only way to balance budgets is by cutting services and privatizing them. We see whole towns choosing bankruptcy over paying police and fire departments. What happens in that case? The middle class and the poor--you know, the ones who not only shouldered the financial burdens of the community by paying taxes, but who also relied on those same services--get forced out and the homeowners put up a gate, install surveillance cameras, and hire a couple of security guards. The next step is to set up a private fire district and find a trendy corporation to set up charter schools with specialized curriculums and parent led field trips to the Gallapagos during spring break.
Can't afford it? You say you're a single mom and have to work? Don't worry, there's a bus stop on the corner that will take your kid to the public school down the road. I hear they're going to get computers this year.
That's the biggest tragedy. Politics has robbed Trayvon Martin of his humanity and it has obscured his family's grief. How do you mourn a symptom?
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