Forum Post: Ten Gallon Day

After watching the latest protests and their aftermath, I finally had enough. I am broken. I have no voice. I sit and watch our children become soldiers and I am helpless to answer their disheartened questions and I continue to see them suffer for us. Compared to the days when they were small and vied for our attention when something spectacular was discovered! “Mom, Dad look at this”! Maybe it was a Macy’s window during the Christmas season, or at a soccer, baseball, football or any other sport event we as a family were involved with. Maybe it was a spelling bee or a class play. Whatever it was we acknowledge them and rejoiced or cried with them and together we grew with the knowledge that everything in our world is as it should be. This world no longer holds the traditional promise we make to our next generation and through civil disobedience, they are trying to get our attention. Well they got my attention. What can I do? I have no voice with our government to try to influence them to listen and pay attention to what our children are screaming about. I have neither power nor due my neighbors and friends together have a voice. My government can’t or won’t listen to me. My vote at the ballot box has no effect. No matter who is chosen to answer and steer our concerns in any direction away from the iceberg, it is to no avail. Our vote no longer has voice. We all see it. Every day we are bombarded with the pressures to buy and sell, to consume and to want more, to need more. Our government is also caught in this vortex of greed and consumption. They can’t hear us over the thunderous roar of un-reigned affluence. Money is what they are tuned into. Money comes in deafening effect against our vote. That is why it doesn’t matter that only sixty five or seventy percent of the eligible voters exercise our duty to choose for ourselves, our future. The gerrymandering of districts and the newest approach to curtail citizens of their voting rights are nothing but insults from our government to us saying, “You people are stupid and powerless, so shut up stop complaining and get in line”. I don’t make much money anymore. I use to. I use to make enough to buy a house, raise a family, recreate and enjoy life. I still have enough to continue my retirement, but I’m told that my security is in jeopardy. Considering what I see around me, I can’t argue that possibility. But I also still have enough to buy ten gallons of gasoline on December 31, 2011. That’s all I’ll need for that day. I wonder if everybody can get buy on only ten gallons of gasoline or less on December 31, 2011? That’s New Year’s Eve! Won’t I need to go somewhere? Will I stay home and watch the ball drop on TV at Times Square? Will I party down with my bro’s and bro’sets at the local tavern? Maybe, but I’ll only need ten gallons of gasoline to get there. Just think of it. When everybody in the country only buys ten gallons of gasoline for one day, who the hell do you think might hear that noise? Maybe to the one% with all that money who keep our government from not hearing our voices? Come ‘on folks, you gotta go with me on this one. I’m not asking you to not buy any gasoline on December 31, 2011. Truckers and public safety are exempt. All I’m asking is to limit our purchase to ten gallons and let’s see what happens. The attention span of those boxes of rocks in Washington and every state capitol in the US of A will be awakened, at least for a day. And if that works, we’ve found a way to help answer our children’s future.

Thanks for Reading BaBaLou Weott, California