This is Sparta!

Reading the Paul Ryan "healthcare plan"..looking at what Betsy Davis wants to do to public education, all while adding money to the already largest and most capable military the world has ever seen...and I'm starting to understand. This is becoming the movie "300".

These doughy, over fed rich white men imagine themselves the ripped and cut heros of Sparta. Strong with their sixpack wallets full of the gains of a rigged economic system,  full of overpriced wine they can brag about but not appreciate and with none of the character or dignity of any of the leaders of our storied past, they swagger in front of the masses, proclaiming all who lack their capabilities as "weak".

THIS IS SPARTA!! They say to single women without access to birth control or healthcare, to the children in poverty without access to a decent meal or public school, to the children with leukemia in a family without healthcare.

To the old or aging..to the veteran returning from war. To the manufacturing worker made obsolete by factory closings or automation.  To the full time workers in poverty due to an inability to make a minimum wage a living wage. THIS IS SPARTA!!

To drug offenders corralled and brought to private prisons..their only crime trying to profit in the same way big pharma does selling oxy to the desperately poor and disenfranchised. A never ending war on the poor.

THIS IS SPARTA!! Is the rallying cry as we kick all these people to the edges of our culture, ignore the plight of the systematically oppressed, their children and all those who in the course of their lives sustain a tragedy from which they cannot recover or continue without help.

This is the culture of our overfed, over indulged, over tolerated congress and political class, enabled by the very people who are being kicked to the curb - sold the lie that they are Spartans and that its the OTHERS who are the weak free loaders.

Here's the truth - its a fucking movie. A myth. None of us are Spartans. None of us never fall. None of us are beyond a life destroying tragedy. None of us are beyond the risk of unemployment with all that that entails. We will all get sick, grow old, die, lose loved ones.

We don't throw our children out to a freezing wilderness with a spear, and hope they return having killed their first dire wolf. Most suburban mothers I know check parental references for play dates. So clearly we are not Spartans.

All of our children need to grow up in safe, nurturing environments - with access to healthcare, education and all the tools that will help them make a go of this life.  Not all of them have parents who are Spartans either.

It's so much easier when we can look at those who have less or are homeless and tell ourselves a story about how they did that to themselves, how we are so much better. How do you know who you would be if your roles from birth were reversed? How do you know what you'd be willing to do (or give up on) if brought to desperate enough circumstances?  THEY ARE NOT SPARTANS LIKE ME!! THEY ARE WEAK, I AM STRONG! THIS IS SPARTA!

...no...not really.  There, but for the grace of God, go I..go us all.

With income disparity at highs not seen since the age of the robber barons, and a President channeling Charles Lindbergh and his fascist "America First" bullshit, the first things we can think to do is take even more away from those who have the least, and expand the military so the strongest of them can serve in future wars for oil.  This is not America. Not even close. It's not even Sparta ..which wouldn't allow itself to be led by men who cowered from any opportunity to serve their country.

This is a con job, defrauding millions, run by con men selling a dream that has been eroded to the point of non existence....and we are easily conned, having discredited education and the wise. We lack the courage to help the oppressed, and so are easy to oppress. We lack the tenacity and wisdom to find the truth, and so we are easy to lie to.  We lack the courage to face each other and decide to change our country, and so we are divided by those who have power.  We lack the courage to care, and so grow to expect we are not worthy of care.  Most of all, we have forgotten to aspire to a dream of America, that all men are created equal and are truly free..that we welcome others to join us in this grand adventure that is our country.

We are not Spartans. We are not even Americans. We are the conned sheep of a billionaire class. Helplessly fighting for a place at an ever diminishing trough, all the while blaming our fellow sheep for want of anything to eat, without an ounce of compassion for those left in the cold.

There but for the grace of God go I.

A quiet acknowledgement of our shared humanity. This is a phrase one can build a human soul on, and with enough human souls, a country with a human soul.  One with mercy, compassion, wisdom...and from those things...courage. To stand and defend the weak, that is a warriors code.

We are not Spartans.

There but for the grace of God go I.