These are trying times, which is not new at all. Humanity has been changing and evolving all the time, but in occasions change seems to be a bit more radical. We have label these changes with names such as: The New Deal, etc.
Worldwide there is one recurrent theme today, the Coronavirus is in everyone’s mind. Here, there, everywhere people are talking, joking, planning, fearing, and thinking about the effects that the pandemic will have in our society. People with resources are using them to advance their own agenda. I am doing it now with the Internet, my website, and my network. These are some of my resources, not forgetting time, I have time. Time that we are using in different ways, some are panicking, hoarding TP, some are spreading conspiracy theories, and some are living a learning experience reading and writing.
Before continuing with this ranting, let me share how blessed I feel to be able to do this, to enjoy life in the midst of a terrible pandemic where many are dying, many are sick in danger of dying, and many are petrified, scared of contracting the virus. Also I am grateful for the opportunity to re-evaluate what we are doing as a society, and that is why I am writing this memo.
OK. For thousands of years society has evolved with ups and downs, peace times and wars. Flourishing and decadence, in what it seems a constant change that feels cyclical. Las century we witness two World Wars, pandemics like the 1918 Flu, and HIV. But as these events were happening a continuous improvement of living standards around the world was happening. In most areas the improvement was not even and some economic clases were better served than others. Accumulation of wealth became the norm. The gap between the 1% and the 99% became wider and wider, where now we have people living with less than two dollars a day and a few making millions a day/week/month or year. An example is AETNA’s CEO Bertolini making almost 19 million a year, more than $1.5 million a month! https://www1.salary.com/AETNA-INC-Executive-Salaries.html (Which is absolutely immoral, and obscene.) This is just an example of how insurance companies have been scamming society over the past few years. Of course Bertolini is not the highest paid CEO there are some like Michael Minogue from ABIOMED who is making more than $19 million.
Why are the republicans thinking about bailing out these corporations? Well they are the “donors” who bought them. These people are the ones that write the laws that benefit them with rents that are, in the long run, breaking the system. Just think about the oil and gas (fossil fuel) and other mining industries. They get huge tax giveaways, and rent from national owned lands. They use immense amount of national resources, like education, transportation, safety, and security that the state provides but do not pay the necessary taxes to sustain these services, so common citizens and small business are buried with the weight of sustaining them.
Now is the time to make more changes, let’s focus on these normal citizens, let’s find out what kind of help is necessary for the working class. Let’s see if strengthening education, health services, care for the environment, housing, security and wellbeing is good for society, for the whole of society not just for a few.
What do you think? Can we create a new society with better social justice?
Can we create a moral environment where we can live without fear of the “other”?
Where we can see each other as members of a family, the human family.
David J Terrell 