Let’s start off with the obvious. Gasoline. $4.00! Come on, now. What is going on here? It’s not that people aren’t bitching about it enough, but something has to give here and I’m talking above and beyond this stupid stimulus check G. Dubya thought would excite the public. We can’t vote you in for four more years, anyway, Bush so just step aside. It’ll be nice for a change of pace.
Speaking of a change of pace; is this country really ready for an African American President? Or a woman Vice President? I’m not a sexist or a racist, so before any of you reading this start pointing fingers at me and calling me names, listen to what I have to say. I work in the trenches and pretty much have all my life. I am neck deep in blue-collar co-workers and have been most of my life. I am going to make a bold statement to you and some of you people can read this and take it anyway you want to. It’s the gospel as far as I’m concerned by my vast experience so you wanna argue with me, get ready for a debate. Most blue-collar people I have worked with in my lifetime swear like truckers. Sometimes I swear and it offends people and yet, I hear it everyday of my life and I don’t mean coming from my lips. Sometimes people think to relate to me, they need to swear when they start talking to me just because of what I do for a living. And I don’t mean write. That’s my dream job, but for now … as already mentioned, I’m in the trenches. In the trenches, people swear and I’ve worked with major corporations and I was involved in white collar middle management and guess what? People swore all the way up to the CEO. I have worked for entrepreneurs and restaurateurs and so on. I have worked with government officials and the likes and I do not believe it’s all relative to New Hampshire only. The Granite Staters are not a bunch of potty mouths. Everyone is. Whether you want to believe me or not, it’s true. I write graphic stories and novels and sometimes I use profanity and sometimes people give me the impression they are offended. And then I watch some of the reality shows they are previewing on the channels and have to decipher what the bleep is being said between the bleeps. People swear. It’s a bleeping fact of life. Wanna know where I went to college? F.U.
The other thing I want to tell you about blue collar America is that I sincerely believe that we are ready for four years of change from the Republican Party, but I don’t think the options are what America will accept wholeheartedly. I think it’s a bleeping shame, too because Obama or Clinton could probably tag team and stimulate the country and the economy by more than a few hundred bleeping dollars per person and finally pull the proverbial head of the U.S. of A. out of its arse that the Bush administration has done so well at inserting for the past eight years. Why would I make such a bold statement to assume that we are not ready for either an African American President or a female President? As mentioned, I work with the commoners. I hear what they say. I hear what’s on their minds and some of the things they say raise my eyebrows from time to time. There is still a great deal of racism and sexism that exists in this country and in this world. Sad, but true. There’s a great deal of reverse racism and reverse sexism now too as a result of the very existence of racism and sexism. We haven’t gotten rid of it. We might think we’re better at it by applying terms like “politically correct” and treating people more respectfully, but in the long run, if racism still exists and sexism still exists, behind closed doors or wherever, then believe me when I say that extremism still exists as well. There are going to certain people in this country that will not and cannot live with the fact that their President is an African American or a woman. It’s sick to think about, but imagine the money that the American economy would have to invest to protect these incumbents if so voted in. They would never be safe public and would have to dearly increase their safety considerably more than a white American man. I’m not saying anything that people do not already know, but maybe just are not willing to admit out loud. If I thought this world to be a safer place, my vote would certainly go to the best man or woman and that would definitely be on the Democratic side of the ballot. Obama is a good man heading in the right direction. McCain isn’t a bad politician, but it’s evident that America is paying $4.00 a gallon or much more for a low grade gasoline. There is no relief in sight. It’s not like we can say, “well, bleep it … I’m just not going to go to work today because I can’t afford the gas.” Groceries are more expensive. The problem with gasoline being so high is that it compounds onto everything from there and expands the problem tenfold onto the public. Everything is more expensive. Everywhere you go costs more money. Fueling your house is more. Renters now have to pay more in rent to cover these increased heating costs. The only thing in America that has remained intact throughout this whole bleeping debacle is what the American population is making per hour. I’ll repeat this to let it sink in and to get it off my chest. The American hourly rate on average has remained the same. So we are poorer than we were last year and the year before and to stimulate the economy, the government is giving us a few hundred dollars that they are taxing us on next years as earned income and the only bleeping thing it stimulated was the oil companies who have been bleeping the people of the nations for as long as there has been oil in the world.
Enough is enough. I don’t have any solution. I’m just telling you how it is. Maybe it’s because I have the ten pound brass balls to say it out loud and sing it from the rooftops. Is McCain going to decrease the price of oil and gasoline back to where the American population can afford it and then we can get back to real issues in America like nationwide healthcare coverage? Remember that? There are still people who do not have it. Owing a few thousand dollars to a hospital suddenly doesn’t seem like that big of a deal any longer, does it? Hell, we can’t even afford the gasoline to drive to the hospital for if it’s not budgeted in our weekly planner, let alone how much the hospital is going to outrageously charge us for the visit to begin with. Four more years of Republican Party running this country is not the answer. Not that McCain is a bad man or the wrong choice, but America is fed up. And being the first African American or the first woman President taking over a country in such a volatile condition after a middle-aged white oil man screwed us up for eight years is not the time to start experimenting with such sensitive topics as racism or sexism. The country is pissed and they’re looking for someone to blame. What if Obama gets voted in and is unable to make changes quick enough for some of these backwoods thinking blue-collar workers who are losing their homes and finally being pushed to the brink of survival.
We’re trying to keep our heads above water and our families intact and the government has done nothing but implement vehicle emissions standards on us which costs money and then has turned on us and increased the price of fuel. We pay more for everything now. Everything. But, again … one more time, let me repeat the phrase that I predict is going to be the straw that breaks the American Camel’s back. Our hourly rate of pay has not changed. That equals stress, my fellow Americans. And when people are stressed, things change. People tick like time bombs. Someone, somewhere down the line is going to want to get famous for fifteen minutes by thinking they have the God-given right to do something about it. America is getting scary and just imagine countries that have it worse than us. But of course, too many of us have our own crosses to bear to burden ourselves with the problems of others. That’s the selfish side of human nature.
There are some that will read this and call me controversial. I’m honestly not trying to be. I would honestly love to see an American President get voted in (without a controversial recount) and actually do something to stimulate the country other than offer us a Scooby Snack that ends up making the already rich even richer. I could give a rat’s ass what color or what sex he or she is. But what scares me is that not every American thinks the way I do. Actually, maybe that’s not such a bad thing, but if I can think of it and remark about it, then I’m not the only one thinking it, and even though being a common man with a family to support, I would never endanger myself or the welfare of my wife or daughter. What scares me is that there are still people out there that are racist and sexist and have a completely warped sense of minorities and woman … even still today. Yes, their numbers have decreased somewhat … just like the swearers. Yeah …sure they have. If I live in New Hampshire and can tell you that I can still see racism and sexism is still a problem in this country … hello America! … then what’s happening in the places where racism and sexism are really a problem?
We need four good years of the right man or woman leading this country, America. All you extremists out there … answer me this one. If Obama or Clinton could either increase your hourly rate of pay or decrease the cost of gasoline and oil significantly and make us as profitable as we were … say … three to four years ago … would you still consider them inferior because of their color or sex? I hope America will give the right person the option and the time needed to turn this country around. Remember, the Democrats didn’t get the country in the position it is today. That was the oil man. The white guy. It’s my opinion … again listening and hearing to what the people say in the trenches … they’re not too happy with G. Dubya, either. The country needs to change, but in order to do so; it needs the support of everyone in America. And I sincerely and sadly doubt that it would get it from every single person nationwide.
So … here’s what I have to say to all you racist and sexist naysayers across the country … here’s to $5 a gallon of gasoline and they’re predicting $7-$8 a gallon of heating fuel by this winter. Remember the Movie Mad Max?
Jody L. Campbell
Posted at: 06:45 PM | Add Comment
