Snow in Texas

Yesterday Boston was paralyzed, buried in 12 inches of snow and ice.  In Chicago my daughter did not get home from work until after 9 p.m. her commuter train stalled by frozen switches.  train.

Outside my window snowflakes swirl through the air.  Through the dancing snowflakes, I look down from my third floor apartment and see the roofs of the houses across the alley covered with a light blanket of white.  How deep will it be before it ends?

Not something I usually see in this Garland, Texas, retirement home.

At breakfast Sue said, “I know it is worse somewhere else, but I don’t like it being so cold right here.”  

I dread having to bundle up in heavy jacket and mittens to go downstairs for lunch.  When the cold hits my legs, pain grabs my calves, making every step torture.  I don’t think of my daughter in her heavy coat walking from the train station to her office with Chicago’s icy wind stinging her face.

We all see things from the perception on our own place in the World. 

The other day I saw a young woman on television say she became a Republican because they “cared about people.”  She said she opposed big government because she did not want Obama telling her what to do.   

She was serious.  She was also mixed up in her thinking, her mind buried as in a snowbank by the Republican propaganda machine. . 

Yes, the Republicans are big on “individual rights.”  They make a lot of money, and they want to keep all of it.  The Koch brothers have convinced people that government regulations are bad because they want to keep polluting the air with their oil refineries.  Big corporations talk about “right to work” because without unions individuals are helpless in negotiating for higher pay, and the bosses make more money by employing cheap labor.  (C.E.O.’s take home 200 times as much as the average worker.)  Walmart opposes raising the minimum wage.  Drug companies give millions to Congressional elections to make sure the government does not curb their profits. 

Republicans want “individual rights” – for themselves.  They do not care about anyone else.  

The old lady with enough income to live in a comfortable retirement home does not worry about the unemployed.  Unless she has a son who lost his job a year ago. 

Snow is falling over much of the U.S., even in Texas.  Blizzards happen.  So do hurricanes and tornadoes.  We can not do anything to prevent natural disasters.  The economy is a mess right now.  As individuals we can not do much about that either.  But our government is big enough to help -- if it were not controlled by the 1% of billionaires who own Big Business.