Shame on You

Hold onto your hats.

I can't keep it inside anymore. This started out as a two-sentence response to something I read tonight.

And now it's evolved into a tome. This post exceeds 10,000 words -- crushing any previous post -- but I hope emphasizes how strongly I feel about how badly our society has gone off track.

Someone I hold dearly posted a truly genuine and touching plea to contact politicians about the draconian cuts to a program within the Massachusetts budget, and how it will directly impact my friend's family. Aside from this friend, there are another two other people in my little universe who will be touched by this and similar cuts.

I get it. I really do. And thereby my gut reaction was one of sadness. Then after a moment of contemplation I got frustrated, disappointed and eventually angry.

While I wanted to reply in the comments section of the blog which instigated these thoughts, I feared my words would have been misconstrued as unsympathetic. But nothing could have been farther from the truth. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought "shame on you."

Yes, you. Shame on you.

It doesn't matter in which state you live, but especially Massachusetts.

It's got nothing to do with any one particular issue. None at all. In fact, you pick a subject. Go ahead. Name it. Any subject about which you care. Whatever. The environment, education, the arts, transportation, whales, green energy, cancer research, homelessness .... anything. It's not the point at all.

After reading the blog I felt a crushing disappointment about how we, collectively, as citizens of Massachusetts are about to hurt people that need, deserve, and depend on the support which our society provides.

It is your fault.

Yours.

Shame on you. It's my fault too. I haven't been as vociferous as I could have been.

It's all of us.

We continue to elect -- seemingly mindlessly and without effort nor care -- power hungry politicians that continue this spiral of shame. If we have reason to complain, then each and every one of us need to look in the mirror and accept responsibility. For some reason we have failed to force politicians to accept term limits and forgotten the Jeffersonian concept that our governmental representatives should be gentlemen farmers.

You are now reaping what you've sewn.

Let's face it. Last-minute pleas for assistance are futile and are a waste of our collective political energy. Borrowing my teenage son's words, "don't hate the player, hate the game." Get involved before your interests are on the cutting block. Use that political time to make a difference.

[Author's note ... the person giving me the creative spark to write this post has been an absolute monster about being involved and engaged on a public and governmental level. I'm talking to the rest of you who get pissed off from time to time.]

So what exactly is my point, you ask? Glad you did. My point is that I'm thinking about my experiences growing up and now raising kids in Massachusetts. The services with which we are provided today were always available (for the most part), but without the gnashing of teeth over budget woes. Massachusetts taxes are relatively in line [23rd in tax burden at just under 10%] with other states, yet today more than ever you'll hear citizens use the term "Taxachusetts."

My son wants to participate in high school soccer next year. While I am biting my tongue so hard that it's bleeding about his choice of sports, that's fine. Maybe I'll get him a tattoo and a motorcycle for his impending 17th birthday. I digress.

Here's what really pisses me off, and I'm sorry for that grammatical train wreck. It's going to cost me hundreds of dollars for him to KICK A FRICKIN' BALL AROUND ON A FIELD. Are you kidding me? Seriously? Really?

I sincerely want to know. Please tell me why this should cost me hundreds of dollars, and why this used to be an included portion of my town's educational program merely three years ago.

There are literally millions of people around the world who are, at this very exact moment, kicking anything even remotely spherical toward an ambiguously-shaped square representing a goal. For free. For the fun of it. And I have to pay $250 to watch a bunch of 17-year-old boys kick each other in the shins over a shiny new Nike soccer ball? Really? Are you f*ing kidding me? I am f*ing shocked and wicked pissed off.

Goodness gracious ... I just realized that I don't have the self-control to hold back what will surely be the Old Grumpy Man persona to which I swore I would never succumb.

Where did Massachusetts go so wrong? How did we spiral so wildly out of control? Why are paying for all these things which used to be just accepted as part of life "back in the day?"

I now pay $400 a year for garbage disposal (and that's not for curb-side pick up .... I have to f*ing bring it there myself and pretend to f*ing "recycle" under the watchful eye of the uni-brow Dump Witch). That used to be included in my taxes until a few years ago. I have to pay $300 for my kid to ride the f*ing bus to school. That used to be included until a few years ago. But what a bargain at $500 for two kids to take the bus! Yippee!

This year I'll have to pay $50 to swim in our town's lake. That is perhaps the most ridiculously infuriating slap in the face. It's a God-given right to swim in any lake you'd like, wherever you are in the world, never mind the fact it's a lake in my own damn town. Thoreau is surely rolling over in his grave. FFS ... I have to pay to let my kids splash around in a glorified septic tank?!

I'm now paying $7,000 a year in property taxes on a $350,000 house in 2009. It was $4,700 in 2003. Where is all this f*ing money going? I always vote "NO" loud and clear on spending increases. F*ing learn how to live within a budget, people!

Hey, it all adds up to only $200 a month. So what's the big deal?

But listen to me very, very carefully. Please. I beg you to keep this in mind when you step into a voting booth, answer a pollster's phone call, and for all of humanity's sake before you write to an elected public official.

$200 a month is a LOT of money to your fellow citizens. A lot. I dare venture that I should have said "most" instead of "a lot."

It's okay if you just squinched up your face and thought "Really? It's only $200!" Really, it's fine. It's not derogatory. Good for you! Really. I'm not kidding nor being sarcastic. High five. Seriously, I wish I were you.

Deval Patrick is perhaps the worst governor in the history of Massachusetts. Don't even get me started about all of the corrupt groupie/zombie "yes sir" Democrats on the Hill. Tax. Spend. Make cuts on things that really matter. Go ahead. That leaves more money for our esteemed Governor Patrick "wiring a $175,000 job for an early political supporter," although the position had been deemed unneeded and thereby vacant for over a decade.

Tax some more, but don't call it a state-wide "tax." Make more painful cuts on things that really matter, which impact the quality of life for families. Let's lower support to the towns! Great idea! Spend some more on things to keep the Democrats in control of the purse strings. Bribery and bra stuffing. Influence peddling. Toll collectors earning $90,000. More taxes! Wheeeeeeeee! Who cares about anybody outside of the elite Route 128 belt ... let's face it ... they're all hicks and farmers. They are "those whom we support with our incomes [in metro Boston]."

Oooh! Here's another good idea while we're spending more money! Let's do a study to support the concept that we should, in our almighty moral authority, make it illegal for people to enjoy tasty food prepared with trans fats! Thank you, Mr. and Ms. Stalin for saving me! I don't mind about spending the estimated $250,000 to reach the conclusion that I'm too stupid to take care of myself while dining in Brookline!

Tax some more. Spend some more. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. $150,000 "board members" and their 90% retirement plans ... at the ripe old age of 42 ... for the rest of their lives. Tax. Spend. Make cuts on things that really matter. Multi-million dollar high schools built in the lock-step methodology of the "McMansions." Tax. Spend. Heck, we'll throw a million your way because we think you're cute out there in Shrewsbury.

Here's a f*cking recommendation. Make cuts on things that don't matter. Put that money toward what the citizens say are important. Let us decide how to spend our own money. We are the people, we are the government, we won't be ignored like children as the Massachusetts House of Representatives would like us to be.

I think I just answered my own question about how we've gone so wrong. The citizens of Massachusetts need to throw a bucket of cold water over their heads and realize why we've (until recently) historically elected some great Republican governors. With a nearly unanimous Democratic House of Representatives and a sickeningly incompetent Democratic governor, things are becoming a mess and getting worse every day. A one-party system just doesn't work.

Regardless if you're a life-long Democrat, Republican, Independent, Socialist, Libertarian, or whatever ... this is a serious problem. I vote. I vote independently, intelligently, and with my kids' future in mind. I dare you to say the same.

Let me solve everybody's woes and worries right here, right now. Set a tax rate of X%. That's what we have available to spend. Spend it however we the citizens decide to spend it (since our Democratic representatives choose to ignore and over-ride our votes regarding taxes, this might take a bit of force for them to understand). And then that's that. There is no more money. None. Deal with it.

Now that it's been settled .... let's take a look at our needs. Do you know of a particular program which would benefit people like my friends? Who need our collective help? Yes? Great! Call your representative and your senator. Tell them to fund these programs by cutting the waste.

If you're just reading this and then close the window while thinking "hmmm ... that was interesting .... I'm going to Dunkin' Donuts now," well then go f*yourself. No wonder there's a sad and shocking series of budget cuts looming on the horizon. Our money's being pissed away because the majority of Massachusetts citizens don't give a shit and vote for the name they know instead of the causes about which they care.

Shame on you if you're one of them.
Good for you if you actually care.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)