|
Paper cuts can be painful too, I've had quite a few of those and lived through every one. Usually I don't equate stabbings with paper cuts even though both are painful. Paper cuts cause minor discomfort while stabbings are potentially fatal, but yes both are painful.
Many people make sacrifices. Each day thoughtful youth sacrifice their seats on buses to frail elders. Each day young soldiers sacrifice their lives on battlefields for their country.
Our political language needs greater clarity. Blurring the distinction between the types of pain and sacrifice different Americans are being asked to accept is like blurring the distinction between sardines and sharks. Under the "shared sacrifice" scenario now being discussed, some Americans will get stabbed, others might get paper cuts.
Americans will die as a result of the "painful cuts" and "sacrifices" being talked about on Capital Hill. Tens of thousands of Americans will die as a result of cuts that slash at the social safety net we struggled so hard over the last century to build. These are the lethal cuts, they are the fatal stabbings. Those cuts do not threaten the wealthy, they are class specific genocide.
No one is going to die over the capital gains tax rate. No one will go homeless over plugging Big Oil's tax loophole. Some might have to forgo buying an extra vacation home. Some may need to trim the number of vacation getaways they take to Europe. Painful, perhaps; lethal, no. Somehow it seems important for that distinction to be made.
How many additional deaths must we accept for the Koch brothers to give an inch? How should we honor those Americans who will make the ultimate economic sacrifice so we can seek a balanced budget that preserves the ornate privileges of the elite? If we are knowingly sending Americans to their death don't they deserve to be honored for their patriotic sacrifices?
We could declare a National Budgetary Heroes Day to commemorate those who fall between societies legislated widening cracks to their death for their nation. We could issue Black Heart medals to those who sacrifice their sole source of income so that their jobs can be outsourced overseas. The lethal cuts being talked about in Washington will cause thousands of Americans to make the ultimate sacrifice. We could at least be honest about what we are doing and drop offensive political inanity about how everyone is going to need to feel a little pain. Talk about the lethal cuts.
|