"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

How often have we been told that America is the land of "rugged
individualism?" American capitalism through the media bombards
us day by day with the idea that we have to satisfy all our individual
needs and wants with the thousands of products put in our faces to
buy. Life is often trivialized by the American TV shows and movies,
and even "news," leading us to believe that "it's all about us," what
things we have, what things we do, and what things we like and want.

I believe there is a deliberate intention to keep people "in their own
little bubble," so to speak, to keep them self-centered and content
with the accumulation of things. It keeps them from paying close
attention to the injustices committed by the government - corporate
machine and its manipulation of the comfortable and oppression of
the poor.

We celebrate a holiday for Dr. King today, but do we hear his
words that "whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly?"
Are we reminded that there are millions of Americans suffering
today from a lack of basic necessities while our Government
has given billions of dollars to bailout powerful corporations
and subsidize the millions of the millionaries? Are we reminded
that our Government is spending trillions of dollars on wars and
interventions in poor countries, with thousands of resulting
deaths while much of their populations care only about getting
enough food and drinking water for the day? And are we
reminded that our Government is spending billions of dollars to
keep the wealthy and powerful more "secure" in their "homeland"
while spreading fear and harassment to working class people
who just "scrape by" with enough to live on every day, with over
50 million who still don't have health insurance "security?"