Who doesn’t like the feeling of being needed? It’s so romantic. Lately, I’m needed by a cast of characters daily. They fill my inbox with their neediness. This morning I received an email from the President himself.
He said he really needed my help. He said he believed in me, and that the outcome depended on me. Best of all, he said five dollars would suffice. I hit the delete button.
That’s my habit when I get email asking for money. I’m retired, and can’t afford to squander my pension on politics. That money is for necessities and eventualities.
Anyway, if this election is about who has the most money to spend, I may as well give the five bucks to my dog, and tell him to spend it wisely.
What is my five dollars against ALEC, the Koch brothers, and others of their ilk: heads of corporations, right-wing think tanks, the lying liars at Fox News and other media puppets who labor in the service of obfuscation?
By now, you’ve heard of the Koch brothers, those scum-sucking bottom dwellers who own half of the United States and most of Congress. Those boys have made a prodigious investment, not so much in Romney, but in a future where they will be free to drain the rest of us, unencumbered by pesky regulations.
My five dollars are better spent on fresh veggies from the farmers market, or parts for our ’87 Toyota Land Cruiser. Hm. That sounds a bit greedy.
I can spare that money, and more, if I’m honest. I don’t have a problem dropping cash on wine, do I? Or books for my Kindle, or expensive dark chocolate.
Don’t I spend a few dollars on lottery tickets, when the jackpot grows obscene? More importantly, don’t I have a stake in this race? What if I were to lose social security or medicare benefits because I couldn’t bring myself to donate? This is the lottery we in the forty-seven percent actually have a chance of winning.
Perhaps we can’t afford not to give.