Can we imagine how bad it was to live through WWI, worldwide flu epidemic, the first effort of the religious right to oppress us (Prohibition) The Great Depression and WWII? It was bad enough so that world governments, including the U.S. took major steps to avoid the series of disasters happening again. And while it was bad for white people, the time was worse for POC, other minorities, disabled, really anyone who was different. As world governments pulled whites out of the quicksand, they finally started throwing ropes to others as well. I can remember the milestones we passed: civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, enforcement of legal treatment of criminals, extending help for education and medical bills.
I remember when my grandmother and great-aunt first got Medicare, in the mid-60s. My grandmother was thrilled for the sudden help for herself and her aunt.
I also remember the crushing medical debt my parents incurred when one of my siblings after another developed unusual and expensive ailments. They had no medical insurance and within a couple years, our standard of living dropped from middle class to poverty.
Maybe if every single person had a perfect life, perfect response to any problems, perfect children, perfect marriage, perfect education, the countries in the world wouldn't have to create and maintain a floor under their populations. But there is no perfection and for my whole life, the drive to ease the suffering was a benefit for all people in the world.
Somehow the human community has become perverted with the idea that a few people need to hold all the wealth and power, and the rest us can suffer, it seems, to their delight. The Spanish Inquisition didn't last forever. Margaret Thatcher's government didn't last, Poland's extreme right is failing, even if it has taken years. I hope Americans will learn from other countries how to throw off the yoke of rwnj extremists and fatally flawed billionaires and get us back to a government that has tried for half its existence to be by the people, for the people.
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