
By Bill Weisberger – January 10, 2017
Barack Obama gave his farewell address to the nation tonight. It was a call to action, and it was a tearjerker at times. I would have been emotional seeing Obama leave regardless, but the fact that Donald Trump will be taking his place is what really kills me. In fact, it’s because the country chose that hateful, money-grubbing schmuck to lead us that I started this blog.
Obama’s main message was that we, the people, can make this country better if we try. “Yes we can.” In fact, I decided months ago, after realizing that the world was going to crap, that I couldn’t sit around and watch without doing something. So, I tried to figure out what should be done.
As I see it, what follows is a list of statements that everybody agrees are true and bad for the country, and yet nobody talks about because we all believe that’s just the way it is.
#1: Corporations run the government and protect their interests through lobbying.
#2: People who earn anywhere near the minimum wage do not make enough money to live.
#3: College is prohibitively expensive.
#4: Medical care is prohibitively expensive.
#5: Black and Latino people are much more likely to be poor, unhealthy, and incarcerated.
Bring these things up and people roll their eyes. “Yes, that’s true. Yes it’s bad. We should change them. But we can’t.” Well not anymore. I’m going to fix everything.
Har har. I know sitting on my couch and posting things to Facebook is the lowest form of activism, and I’m aware that it’s completely insane to think me typing will change anything. But in a world where despicable people can leverage fear and fake news to win control of the country, I needed to get involved somehow. And I believe that we can fix these problems.
So, I actually am going to do something besides sit on my couch. I’m going to run for a position with the Denver Teacher’s Union (DCTA) where I can represent multiple schools and their teachers. And I may start a newspaper at our school to help give our students a voice. And who knows what else.
The point is that I’m going to start actively trying to fix it. And it will probably come to nothing, but I’m tired of feeling powerless, because I don’t think we are.