(@ 5 – promoted by NLinStPaul)
(edited and cross posted from big O, where it got little attention)
Some people like playing the “my group” game. It’s an interesting game, because everyone who plays, loses. Not only that, but they make people who aren’t playing lose, too.
The game consists in trying to decide which group of people got screwed the worst.
You can start off like this….
The Blacks got screwed the worst! Slavery!
The Jews got screwed the worst! Shoah!
The gays got screwed the worst! No marriage!
The women got screwed the worst! No vote until 1920!
and you can write one for your group, whatever group it is; heck, there are even folks who say that men, Whites, and Christians have it badly (really!). And then you can have another round, and then we can start yelling at each other. Then you can get into which group got dissed by Obama (or Biden).
You can
I won’t.
I won’t even play the “Wall Street” vs. “Main Street” game. When the Dow drops 777 points in a day, it hurts all the streets, and there are plenty of millionaires (even billionaires) helping Democrats and liberals.
I don’t care who had it worst. I care about making it better.
Yes, we can.
But not apart.
You see, apart… well, when they tear us apart, they pick us off, one at a time, until there is no one left to speak up. The people who hate insert your group here well… they also hate insert my group here; trust me on this. Haters like to hate. Jews, atheists, gays …. They’ll come for you, and then me. Or vice versa. Or they’ll claim you’re starting class warfare.
And they’ll win. The bastards will win.
But together? Yes we can.
Together,
we will march in such numbers that the stomping of our feet shall cause the very Earth to tremble
Together, we will sing a mighty song
Together, we will rock the vote.
Together, we will not only take our country back but rebuild it, better and stronger than before. With all the groups.
In New York City, they have a poetry contest in elementary schools. One year, this one won:
The races of the world
Are like the colors of a rainbow
Would a rainbow with one color
Be beautiful?
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I’ll be around for about an hour, then back in the PM (Eastern), but things seem a bit slower-paced here than daily Kos, so I should have time for dialogue
…about “my group” was that it wasn’t exclusive, that it was open to all, that anyone could join. But I also didn’t check my history and identity at the door…so they mostly stayed away in droves. They either didn’t want to be associated with me or they didn’t want to be identified as people who would associate with me.
All that is to say that although I agree with your philosophy, it seems to have some problems when one tries to put it into practice.
…”my group”, for each of us, is a window on priviledge. If you can see the ways you don’t have it, you can see the way others don’t, either.
Where oh where have you been?
Thanks for this. I’m happy to see you here.
… but definitely underpaid, underemployed middle-aged male academics have it worst. I mean, I’m getting to work on a fracking Bike! In the United States of America? How fracked up is that?
8-)#
… OK, maybe this solidarity thing has something to say for it.