I know I am not Alone
Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges; hence the conclusion of such a narration is apt to be less finished than an architectural finial. Herman Melville
Today I am frustrated and even slightly demoralized, not only as a result of my personal economic situation but also because of what it says about our nation as a whole and where we are headed. Allow me to explain. Over the past year, I went from full-time employment with a regular pay-check and benefits at UConn to part-time employment as an Adjunct at both UConn and ECSU. This means I get 1/3 of the amount of money for doing the same work, plus I have lost all benefits and get no money over the winter and summer breaks. As a result, all summer I have been on unemployment (at least we still have some beneficial socialism) – getting the highest amount possible, $443.00 per week – 1/2 of what I was earning as an Adjunct. Needless to say things have been very financially tight and then to top it all off once I start working next week I won’t get paid for three weeks. Therefore, to ensure we pay our mortgage on time, I will have to borrow money from someone who does have a job making me fortunate to have that social resource - many don’t. I have a Ph.D and two M.A’s and yet the best my society can come up with is to pay me $443.00 a week not to work, because seemingly there is no full-time with benefits work for a highly educated and skilled educator who spent over $75,000 to get these advanced degrees and still owes all of it, plus interest. And I am obviously not alone with the CT unemployment (those who are still looking for work) rate currently at 9.1%, about the national average.
I am sharing all of this to make a larger point that connects to today’s New York Times Op-Ed written by the philosopher Cornell West titled “Dr. King Weeps From His Grave.” In this timely piece, West highlights that the sermon Dr. King was to give the Sunday after his assassination, in 1968, was titled “Why America May Go to Hell”. The sermon was to focus on what King saw as the increase in “economic injustice, cultural decay and political paralysis” resulting from the high degrees of militarism, racism, poverty and materialism that continually infected and still infect our nation. For example, if we take the amount of money the State of CT has contributed, and is contributing as I write, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (see http://costofwar.com/en/state/CT/) the amount is $23,275,739, 000 +++ and counting. Now I am not a numbers person but it is obvious that somewhere in this vast amount of tax payer money (a.k.a ‘our money’) there is enough money to pay the full-time salaries for many more educators like me throughout the public school and university system. Thus, when public school and universities state that they have no funds to hire new instructors, even as the numbers of students continues to increase, we who work in these institutions or who rely on them to educate our children need to be clear and state out loud about why there are no funds, where they have gone and who among us has benefited and who has not. As West so eloquently states, “Militarism is an imperial catastrophe that has produced a military-industrial complex and national security state and warped the country’s priorities and stature...” By accepting this economic, political and social situation we as citizens are implicated in the madness, seduced by narratives of righteous conquest and a seemingly endless supply of material goods that are in essence the glittering booty that blinds us to our global piracy. As West continues “Materialism is a spiritual catastrophe, promoted by a corporate media multiplex and a culture industry that have hardened the hearts of hard-core consumers and coarsened the consciences of would-be citizens.” In short, we the people are guilty of selling our citizenship for what is best termed as fool’s gold.
Having written that didactic sentence above I felt the unnerving possibility that such a sentence could’ve been written by a member of the Tea-Party or by the likes of Michelle Bachmann (assuming she has skills). So I went to her web site that is focused on garnering financial contributions for her presidential campaign and read “She is a Constitutional conservative who understands that our Founding Fathers established a federal government to preserve and protect the nation while fostering an environment where dreams could flourish. It is Michele's single greatest calling in public service to ensure that the liberties enshrined in our founding documents are handed down from this generation to the next”. Other than being so vague it is almost meaningless there is nevertheless an important lesson hidden in its hyperbolic drivel. That lesson is a key attribute that West identifies about Dr. King, that he “never confused substance with symbolism”. What Bachmann and other Tea-Party right-wingers are selling is nothing more than symbolism – flaunting buzz words like “Constructional Conservative”, “Founding Fathers”, “nation”, “preserve and protect”, “dreams”, “liberties”, “enshrined” and “generation”, all the while violating the foundation upon which each of these words rest and that is social, economic and political equality. As West again states about the right-wing’s economic agenda that it “would lead to hellish conditions for most Americans”. I of course agree but I would change “would” to “has led to”, for myself and for so many others who are even worse off.
So, any fears that my saying we have ‘sold our citizenship’ sounds like those on the right has been allayed for their words have no past or present historical context, no social, economic or political analysis and thus, no substance. They are written to symbolically, hence emotionally, appeal to the vast numbers of uneducated and the uninformed citizens– those I could’ve potentially spent my summer teaching how to see through the hyperbole, had anyone been willing to pay me. But as I say to my students (when I have them) keeping citizens ignorant of what is really going on is all part of the tyrannical package King identified. And of course there is no better way to do so than to slash your public educational budgets, thereby furthering social, economic or political inequality. Thus, the issues of social, economic or political inequality should be the benchmarks by which any society / nation evaluates its moral worth and its success in terms of human progress. In this manner, evaluative discernment becomes the norm. For example, even as it is important to recognize that Obama’s presidency symbolizes systemic progress in relation to race/racism his administration nevertheless, as West states, “gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable”. In sort, “Our two main political parties, each beholden to big money, offer merely alternative versions of oligarchic rule”, while so many of us are in or are headed to social, economic or political “hell”.
West ends his Op-Ed by affirming that King’s response to such a pitiful situation in the ‘home of the brave’ “can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a re-evaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.” Amen. I for one affirm this view every chance I get, including here and in my classes (maybe that is way I can’t get a full-time job…??). And although it is important for ‘us’ to take responsibly as citizens for “our priorities”, “our values”, and “our way of thinking and living”, it is also important to recognize the degree to which THEY have manipulated and deceived us. As such, if I can’t find anyone to borrow any money from in the next few weeks my current frustration and demoralization may help me to heed West’s call for “extensive community and media organizing; civil disobedience; and life and death confrontations with the powers that be”. For some this may sound extreme but when you can’t afford to live and you get a bill for over $3,000 as a result of an unexpected 5 hour visit to the ER, then something has to give. And if I were the only one, then you could say I am to blame but fortunately (in an ironic way), I know I am not alone.
Phoebe C. Godfrey
