stop posting that crap on your wall!

a hundred and fifty years ago in my country we had an addiction to slavery, specifically to African slaves, about ten years and a war from abolition.

Some slaves were house slaves, treated to a kinder life of indoor tasks (but slaves none-the-less). Some slaves were field slaves, worked hard, in the weather regardless. Needless to say, there was some resentment, and differing feelings for the white slave master.

We have a two party system. Two parties dominate our the running of our government, but all the individuals involved are politicians, some with and some without experience - and ulterior motives - and nobody gets into office without a lot of work (mostly dodging questions and shaking hands) and a lot of money. When one party is in office, the supporters of the opposition party are (rightly) unhappy with the policies and actions of the dominant party, protests and inflammatory speech ensue. One of the parties in the US is seen as a party of liberal elitists who are selling our freedoms for government control and a socialist agenda (with wall-street cronies to back them, and control of our systems of media and higher education), and the other a party - conservative hypocrites who push a corporate agenda that cares more about profits than about the damage it does to the planet and the inhabitants thereof (with plenty of big corporate sponsorship). The same party that was actively pro-slavery in the 1860's was actively pro civil-rights and for integration in the 1960s, so things are fluid. Both parties are actively influenced more by well paid and funded lobbyists than to their mostly inactive and uninformed constituencies, of which predictable demographics vote, and others stay uninvolved while the youth act as an on/off, hard to call wild-card. Cities often vote opposite the surrounding countryside, with the individual states being a winner take all contest.

Our president changes every four years, but the same man can be elected twice - a maximum of eight years.

Currently, we have our first African American president, Barack Obama, he ran for the pro-slavery/pro-civil-rights party, their symbol is a donkey. The other party's symbol is an elephant.

Before him we had a president from the other party. He invaded two countries, perhaps one for each plane of the September Eleventh terrorist attack on New York. Some people say a lot of different things about that attack; some say we attacked ourselves to start an oil war. Either way, a lot of people have died. Soldiers from my country are killing people on the other side of the world for a worn out reason that wasn't very solid to begin with. Meanwhile, the nation was inundated with pro-America, patriotic propaganda. It really started showing the outwardly nationalistic signs of what I imagine fascism looks like.

At the end of his eight year presidency (doubts and contestation occurred in both elections that he won; first against the former Vice President of the preceeding administration when he lost the popular vote, but won the winner take all contest of states and was installed by the supreme court; then against a member of the same college fraternity, who came close enough to cause the election to remain contested, but did not contest) the country voted in a landslide to elect Barack Obama.

There were many protests during the wars by the out of party power-base, by which nothing was really accomplished. There were many insults thrown at the President, his cabinet, and anyone associated with the administration. Even the representative bodies were seen as being under the control of the President, granting him unconstitutional, and unprecedented powers (though their lawyers were constantly arguing to the contrary; the presiding Vice President went so far as to call the Constitution, "Just a peice of paper."). These powers were not reversed by Barack Obama, though he alluded as much during his lengthy, but spotless campaign (most campaigns are mauled by the constant media coverage, sooner or later, every makes a big enough mistake to be seized upon by reporters and the pundits and the twenty-four hour news cycle.

But this is how it all relates, our modern poor, the working and impoverished may be free-men in the sense that they do not have bonds, or guards. It is however, in this country, far too easy to find oneself stuck in a world of repetitive action from which escape is nigh impossible. It is the life of a modern slave. 16+ hours of work, 5-7 days a week for an hourly pittance, as the labor is typically unskilled.

These laborers, other poor and many others who have no one to fight for their interests, sometimes wind up caught up in party politics. Some, find the limited socialism, programs and tax breaks for the poor appealing and join our Democratic party. Others find the liberal elitism and government intrusion unappealing and take more of an every-man-for-himself approach, siding with the Republicans.

Neither party really does all that much for the working poor, in many ways, as unfortunate as it is to say, I'm not sure what can be done for them without help from those in this country who have more money than they need. The trouble is, they are under no obligation to help and any talk of the imposition of such an obligation brings the fire of anti-socialism to the surface. During this day and age, cold-war sentimentality lingers rendering any idea associated with communists unappealing. Some of the most fervent opposition comes from working poor. Poorly educated, misinformed by low quality journalism( with a penchant for sensationalism over quality), these loudest mouths are actually supporting policies that work against them.

How do you tell a house slave he's still a slave?

When the presidency flips over, the dynamic shifts, the house slaves become field slaves, and the field slaves become house slaves. The old house slaves grow ever more indignant, and they have their media channels to funnel, fuel and misinform them right into a frenzy. Meanwhile, the new house slaves look out the window at the seething fury of the other yet they can't but bask in the comfort, just for a short time, one never knows how long his stay in the house will last.

But this time, the people who are unhappy are people who have a history of supporting violence. Two wars, stay the course, the country needs to fight to be free, and now how long will it be until they fight for their freedoms again. What's sad, is that they aren't fighting for freedom, they're fighting for the other agenda that doesn't care about them, and doesn't do anything for them - and against the one that is trying to help.

Too bad the help doesn't come in an acceptable method, I just hope it doesn't take violence to solve it.