“The American public does not want to be uplifted, ennobled–it wants to be amused.”
-Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935). novelist. social worker. and teacher
Alice was a poet, journalist and political activist. She was among the first generation born free in the south after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Alice and I have much in common. She knew what many of us are aware of…I wonder what she would think if she was here today?
The Twentieth Century Fund estimates 40 billion dollars per year for total recreation expenditures in the United States could easily be supported. So, it is apparent that Twentieth Century agrees with Alice. Keeping the population entertained is high on the list for those few men who control all our activities.
Who doesn’t ‘just wanta have fun’? You work hard all day at a job you’re not crazy about; for a boss who doesn’t appreciate how brilliant you are; then you come home too exhausted to cook; so you through an empty of anything nutritious excuse for food into a microwave; which kills any remaining nutrition; or you open up a carton of ice cream to satisfy that hunger you just can’t seem to satisfy!
Contemplating this, I tear myself away from a recorded segment of ‘Saving Grace’! Me, I’m just another willing victim.
I read a lot. I do research for my writings’ and I’m interested in what our great leaders and writers in the past thought about our country and the direction we took and are taking. President Woodrow Wilson made a disturbing statement; what’s more disturbing is knowing what to do with the knowledge that “The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men”. I believe President Wilson. There are too many others that confirm his statement. President Woodrow Wilson said upon reflecting on the passage of the Federal Reserve Act.
“I am a most unhappy man, I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominate men”
And then President Thomas Jefferson said:
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
Our children are ‘waking up homeless on the continent their fathers conqured’! My question, who has the power to ‘take ‘The issuing power from the banks and restore it to the people, to whom it properly belongs?’ I believe Kennedy talked about doing this, he certainly had the power, but look what doing so got him! But then his voice was very loud, he had the attention of our nation. No other President has spoken of doing such a thing since. And me, well, I’m just another trickle in the bucket.
Sometimes I feel like drowning myself in ‘fun’. I don’t want to face the realities that I dig up. But then the ‘fun’ gets to feel so shallow and empty. What should I be doing with my time? What do I have the energy to do with my time? The majority of us are under paid and work long hours just to barely get by.
My administrative page on WordPress would not open. I then went to the opening page of my site to see if it would open; it did. The title of my latest post glared at me: ‘Ineffable Hunger: Nature a Daily Fix’. The post is about getting away from the static that surrounds us 24/7; and of course the benefits of leaving technology behind us for awhile.
It’s was hot and sunny when I wrote this and I had missed my opportunity to hike in the cooler part of the day. So I waited a few hours to go for a hike. In the meantime it is important to know that I have choices to make about how I will spend these few hours. Having choices about how I spend my time is an incredible luxury. One I do not take for granted. Isn’t that what we all want? You get to do what you want; when you want! Making the decision about how I will spend my time, makes me feel rich. But then, my ‘level of rich’ may be very different from someone elses.
It’s the little things we can choose that make a difference in how our individual world looks… and perhaps the little things are the only things we have the power to change.
Happy Trails!
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