2009: What We Have Learned

I have been thinking of a way to summarize the year of the things that we (should) have learned.  As the year started with a terrible recession where some are say its over (it's not) and the triumphs of hope are fading.  Allow me in both an outraged and controlled way highlight some important truths.

1. We are going to need a lot more than hope to "fix" the things that are broken.  The Audacity of Hope has turned into many things, like the audacity of nope, maybe, and lessons unlearned like Wall Street triumphing over Main Street. For 2010 add an extra helping of faith to that hope. The too big to fail banks are bigger and with most of them repaying their TARP loans the insanity begins again.  Here's hoping that Timothy Geithner either grows some teeth (and a pair) or is fired and replaced with the more capable and knowledgeable Elizabeth Warren.  
2. The Real Political Party Civil War was the one with the Democrats.  In November 2008, the American people rallied behind the Democratic Party to bring change that we believed in.  Yes, I said that in past tense.  The Democrats managed to implode on itself and we saw that fragments and not the whole party.  With health care reform, the Democrats began to look like a three ring circus with Pelosi and Reid being ringleaders.  And yes Roland Burris somehow survived.
3. The real leaders of the Republican Party are not in Congress.  Rush, Cheney, Beck, and O'Reilly has more of a pulse with their party than any elected member of Congress with the exception of a former Governor who went rogue, wait I thought she went rogue last year.  All the real leaders of the Republican Party did was to derail most of what our new President wanted to do.  I call it the Just Say No way of governance. No votes on the stimulus package or health care (short one fearless vote in the House), and not really contributing to the solutions of the problems that they had a large role in creating.
4. The Banks and Wall Street were saved to the doom of everyone else.  The largest banks that were saved which include my former employer (for disclosure purposes) are now finding new ways to generate money--out of us.  They are sidestepping a new law that is supposed to limit credit card fees and most of you may notice interest fee hikes before February 22, 2010 when the new law is to take effect.  They are still charging unbelievable overdraft fees while their CEO's (retired and un-retired) are making more than ever.  That's a huge that's for the "low interest loans" that we gave them. Foreclosures are still happening even though most grew heart choosing not to foreclose on people during the holidays.  I say break them up AT&T style and don't allow them to slowly merge back together.
5. The price of fame and fame-seeking are too high.  From the newly jailed parents of ballon boy, Jon and Kate, Lindsay Lohan, Michael Jackson's death, Tiger Woods, The Kardashian Sisters, are all the result of a tabloid media keeping presses and internet pages alive.  Some like MJ's death were tragic, but I didn't need the marathon of coverage.  We are obsessed with celebrity, gossip, and scandal.  The sad thing is that it is only getting worse.
6. Sore Losers will say anything to keep up their unjust and unfound causes.  Tea Parties and birthers flocked to television and rallies protesting how our tax dollars are spent.  Most of these  people were really just upset with the election of President Obama and doing all things to discredit him.  The last administration spent all of the money, committed us to two wars, one just and another unjust.  Other chose to question a birth certificate which is real and declared it fake regardless of the information just to keep the story alike.  It's 2010, Obama is President, get over it!
7. We are violent, afraid, and things like that happen everywhere.  Stop the denial, we are a violent nation where murder, rape, kidnapping, many other heinous and unspeakable acts happen. Policemen are shot, pregnant women are a in a high danger demographic, children are murdered and harmed in horrible fashion while countless witnesses and onlookers stand and do nothing. We are still obsessed with reactionary steps to prevent terrorism. We still live in the reaction of events after the fact instead of prevention. The truth is on Christmas we were shown that even with the information and intelligence, incompetence and the lack of execution are still a danger to national security. During this last event we should have learned we are still the victims of our own fear and money alone cannot protect us.
8. We are nowhere close to a post-racial society.  The Professor Gates controversy with a Cambridge police officer was a reminder that we still prejudge.  A cold beer can do a lot but there is still work to do.  There are still mistreatment of citizens from police.  There are still terrible stories of racial profiling and it only the birth of YouTube and online media that brings this to the forefront.  It has been a year since Oscar Grant was murdered by a BART police officer.  The election of Barack Obama as President brought us one step closer to racial harmony, but the road is still long, uncertain and cannot be taken for granted.
9. Ignorance is STILL Bliss.  The best way to kill a great idea like a public option for Health Care reform is to dumb it down and confuse people. Congress write bills long enough (in the thousands of pages) that it takes half a day to read them during a legislative session.  Playing stupid is still unfornately one of the worst tricks in the book not only in the aisles of Congress but everywhere else. As Chris Rock once said (paraphrasing) "Agreeing or disagreeing about a bill or policy solely based on whether you are a Democrat or a Republican makes you an idiot."  I am amazed how our politics resembles high school or really bad reality television.  

I hope that some of you take deep a thought or two about this while drinking large quantities of alcohol or getting over hangovers.  Happy New Year everyone and it's twenty-ten, not two thousand ten.

The Outraged Citizen