Cuckolded by Our Legal System

In reflecting on the reluctance of my generation (of baby boomers) to confront corruption in the U.S., or respond to violations of our civil, legal, and human rights, I must say I was puzzled for a while. Were we all just blind? Or stupid? Or really didn’t care about anything except our own measly lives? Why couldn’t we see what was happening?? I didn’t want war, or for everything to collapse, but I did want enough change to get rid of the rampant corruption, to change the direction we were heading. Why weren’t we dealing with what was in our face?

Then it dawned on me. We baby boomers were the flower children of the 1960s. We were the ones who thought everything could be handled with love and peace. We were the ones who demanded the end of the Viet Nam war. We were also the first ones born from the survivors of World War II and maybe we were reacting to the never-ending nightmares, tensions, and anguish witnessed in the grandparents who lost children to the war, or parents who came home but never got over the guilt and pain of having killed other young men and women, or bombed their towns and children to smithereens.

Suffice it to say, I don’t think the generation of boomers alive today is ever going to deal with the destruction of the earth, poisoning of water, loss of free speech, new laws that give government the right to imprison people without charging them, the pretense that a corporation is a person, the refusal to label GMO foods, the obstruction of new forms of energy, the murder of more than a dozen natural medicine doctors, the constant propaganda that passes for mainstream news, the de-education of American children, the total absence of common sense in everything the government does, the constant string of wars, and dozens of others issues. Our children are doing a few things to fight back, but it will be our grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, who will be forced to set things right again.

Yes, I know that there have been dozens of campaigns, marches, protests, legal fights, and fund-raising for what-not over the past decade as people have slowly awakened. But much of this has been completely ineffective and laws continue to be put in place that ignore what we want. Why do we keep on marching and protesting? Because people seem to think we still have a democracy…and we don’t. They think if they get out and march or protest, those in power will see what we want and will care enough to respond – but they don’t. When they don’t, we do it again…harder.

I love the rule of law, but isn’t it obvious that we are being cuckolded with our own legal system? We have an intimate relationship with our laws, but those in power are making fools of us with a constant stream of new laws designed to benefit only themselves. As with the typical cuckold, we are complicit in the agreement because we can’t deal with the disruption, embarrassment, or potential violence associated with having to challenge the ones screwing our legal system. We are left looking like old fools hiding behind a façade of peace and respectability. If you go back to the end of the first paragraph in the blog entry before this one, you’ll see the façade right there: we have a little more time to figure out how to make a positive change in a kinder, gentler way…time to build new systems that work better…and the chance to let natural changes press forward…because nothing is as sure as change.

Yes, I admit, I wrote those words. I am part of that generation. I don’t like violence. But there might be a heavy price to pay for this position. Certainly, there are questions that arise… Are we maintaining peace – or avoiding the truth? Do we have a working plan for our future – or are we drifting toward disaster? Do we think we can turn things around without conflict somewhere down the road – or will there be a time when it is too late and we are imprisoned in a system we can’t stand? While we are running around hoping everything will be okay, do we have our heads in the sand, unable to see and admit that nothing is working well – if at all? If we tell ourselves we don’t mind supporting our adult children who can’t find jobs, don’t have houses, can’t afford the children they’ve birthed, and never have enough money for decent transportation or a minute to relax and think clearly, what will we tell ourselves when we find we are also forced to support our grandchildren…and then our great-grandchildren? How much will we be able to do for them when we are eighty-five and need help ourselves, and they have nothing to offer? If our grandchildren and great grandchildren revolt and everything falls apart, will we look back and wish we had dealt with our issues when we were younger, healthier, and had more energy for dealing with disruption?  After all, how far can you run with a cane and where can you hide with a walker?

The Shiny, Red Prius and I

A month ago I was driving home from Kalamazoo with my son, Nathan. Traffic was very heavy, and I had to get into the lane to my left or I would have been stuck in a ‘turn right only’ lane. There was just enough room, so I put my blinker on and pulled over. However, the instant I put my blinker on, a bright, shiny red Prius tried to speed up to try to block me from getting over. The driver literally laid on the horn, but I kept merging, thinking, “No…I need to get over now…and there’s enough room…”

I drove along for a few miles and through several more traffic lights, noticing that the shiny new Prius was RIGHT on my bumper. When it was time for me to turn, the Prius turned right with me and I thought, “Oh, she’s going in the same direction I’m going!” There was a second right turn I was supposed to make, but I missed it because it was sooner than I expected, so I went down the street to the next right turn, thinking I would have to find a spot to turn around. When I made that second right turn, the Prius was still right behind me. I noticed this but was busy looking for a place to turn around.

I spotted a driveway and turned left into it. I put the car in reverse and started to back up just as I looked in the rear view mirror – and just as the woman in the bright red Prius laid on the horn again. I slammed on my brakes to avoid backing into her and naively thought, “Oh! I wonder if she lives here and wants to get in her driveway.” She was still laying on the horn and her car was half-turned, which left her blocking both lanes of traffic. She had me pinned in, so I sat there thinking, “Lady, how can I get out of your way when you’ve got me blocked in?”

At that point Nathan became irritated. He snapped, “Mom, she’s been following you for miles!” then hopped out of the car and went back to yell at the woman in the red Prius. She was a big, blonde woman who opened her car window and the two of them began a shouting match. The windows of my car were barely open so I could hear the loud voices, but I couldn’t make out what was being said. When the shouting match went on long enough to stop several cars in both directions, I got out of my car to see if I could calm things down. But the woman in the red Prius suddenly jammed her car in reverse and took off, special finger high in the air, her words trailing back at me, “Get off the roads…you’re dangerous!”

When I was finally back home again, I reflected on the whole incident. How could that woman have been so angry that she would follow me for miles, intending to…to what? Yell at me? Why would anyone be so upset at not being able to position themselves 20 feet farther ahead on the road that they would irrationally drive miles out of their way to try to punish the imaginary offender?

In the end, I realized that Americans are ridiculously, dangerously angry. I see it in the way people treat one another as if everyone is an enemy, a threat, or a competitor. I hear it in the way people talk to one another with demanding, disdainful or imperious tones and words. I witness it in the way people act out their vengeance, their greed, their selfishness, their fear. I feel it in the arrogance and the automatic assumptions that others bear us nothing but ill-will and judgment.

At this point, probably half of the anger is the unrelenting corruption that everyone is swimming in and doesn’t know what to do with. The other half is the diet that people eat that has no nutrition in it. Without plenty of magnesium, you will not want to be touched physically and will become defensive and angry if someone touches you. Without calcium, you will be fatigued, irritable, and impatient. Without potassium, you will not be able to perceive correctly what is really going on around you and will be unable to stay ‘present.’ Without sodium chloride, you will not be able to recognize patterns or put facts together in a way that alerts you as to proper behavior. Without zinc you literally will have dim sensory input from this reality and will spend an inordinate amount of time in daydreams or outright delusions. Without iron, you will not want to move your body, thus exercise never happens and frustration builds up. And these are only the 6 major minerals. What happens when the major vitamins and the many trace minerals needed are not present either? You get criminal behavior!

How can we work together – cooperate, collaborate, communicate – to build a new world if we are all angry? People are NOT bad, they are just sick, mostly from malnutrition. When we are healthy, we are naturally joyful and at peace within the self and with one another. Whether the internet goes down or not, whether the financial system crashes or not, if we want a new world that works better, we’re gonna have to get some real food into us…food without GMOs, Round-up, or other harmful stuff in it…and that’s just a start. A new world means a lot of personal responsibility!