Kakahead

Something is very very wrong here…

Last week the Supreme Court overturned the ban on political spending by corporations.

Is that cool or what??

Having been on the planet for 55 years, nothing much surprises me anymore.  As a boy I was taught that elected officials were supposed to be working for US, not for big money.  Silly me; little did I know…  The longer I get to hang out on Planet Earth, the more labels like politicians, corporate executives, corporate board members, special interest groups, and mobsters seem to mean the same thing.

Being the idealist that I am, I started to feel pretty good about electing a president who advocated change.    Don’t get me wrong; I never assumed that the new guy was going to be able to reverse a few centuries of greed and corruption in four years.  Then again, we have to start SOMEWHERE, don’t we?

Please?

Last thing we need is for corporations to have even more political clout.  God knows we already have way too much corporate everything bombarding us from all sides.   The influence has been woven into the fabric of western culture.  And what is Number One with all too many corporations?  Well money of course.  People are not valued for who they are but for how they perform.  Sure, our immediate peers are not generally in this boat; I’m talking about the executives and the board.  The ones who really run the place.  To illustrate:  remember the “old days” of work when you first hired in, or if you had a matter concerning you or your family?  You would go to the Personnel department.   That term is obsolete, and has been replaced with “human resources.” So what, I’m not a person anymore?  No.  Not according to the company.  I’m an asset with a first and last name.  At least that’s how it feels quite often.  Rare is the company executive or corporate board that actually treats their “human resources” like family.

Another example:  corporate names are being assigned to buildings, places, and events.   Here in Michigan, Tiger Stadium has been replaced by Comerica Park.  We used to go to concerts at Pine Knob; a power company has renamed  the place after themselves:  The DTE Energy Music Theater.  All over the country, the names of stadiums and parks are having their old names dumped in favor of corporate monikers.  Football games are played on artificial fields with huge commercial messages painted on the fake turf.

OK that’s enough…

So maybe if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  Huh???  No, I don’t really mean that.  I think we all need to buy locally (from Fred the honey guy or Zelda the baking lady) and act globally.  But if the changing of names of sports venues, etc. is going corporate, why not rename our pets or even our kids?

“Honey, I need to go to the store, do we need anything?”

“Yeah babe, Alcoa needs his diaper changed and we’re all out.  Also I bet your daughter wants to go with you.”

“OK Almond Joy, give mom a big Hershey’s Kiss and let’s get going.  When we get back, we’ll find the leash and take Chrysler for a walk through the Town and Country.”

“Ha ha Dad, you’re so funny.  We can’t walk through the Town and Country…  Oh wait, maybe if we open both sliding doors… but that’s not a very long walk.”

“I know, just checking to see if you’re paying attention.  But let’s get a move on, the Exxon Comedy Hour is on tonight and I’d like to be back inside by then.  After that we can Google up something else to do on the computer maybe.”

Sad thing about that silliness is the term “Google” is gaining favor in our daily vocabulary already!

I’ll remain the idealistic tree hugger  / farmers market shopper / home veggie grower guy;  in spite of my job in manufacturing.  And yes, I am very grateful to have a job.  I‘m fortunate, I get treated very well by my boss, my boss’s boss, and my boss’s boss’s boss.  I don’t mind being a worker ant.

But the priorities of capitalism really sadden me at times, and I pray often that we humans don’t completely destroy this beautiful planet the Great Spirit gave us.

So here’s another toy… I found a video of an old song I fell in love with the first time I heard it.  It says a few things about where we might end up if we abandon all care and place money first.  Again, I apologize to my friends with dialup internet:  unless you are very patient you may not want to harm yourself by clicking on the video.