Homeless J, 8

This is a work of fiction. The views expressed are not necessarily condoned. We still have freedom of speech in the USA.  Even though the economy has buckled under the rampages of greed; even though oil gushes into our Gulf, ruining coasts from Florida to Louisiana; even though we are weapon-heavy and we sink from the weight of two idiotic wars over oil, we still have this precious concept at our disposal: free speech. What the Masters have learned, though, is that when the masses are properly trained, free speech is nothing more than a pacifier. Make people worry more about money than ideals, and you can control what they think and say.  The fake White Armor of Wonderful Wonder Bread America shines.  Who in America (USA) cares about free speech more than getting a job? A huge cross-section of citizens would give up their free speech in return for a good steady paycheck, even if it involved cutting off the heads of sea turtles and serving them to BP oil executives on soup plates. That’s how disgusting and selfish we have become. Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee.   That’s what we use their free speech to say.  Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee.  So many of us yearn to sign a contract with the corporate Mammon so we can afford to buy expensive polo shirts with status logos, shirts made by slaves in countries run by dictators of our Government's choosing. The miracle of human life, given in a lucky lottery by sperm and ova, is ours to squander.  In our rush to obey and get money, we have forgotten this:  that busyness is the enemy of hard work.  We have forgotten that one of the most important jobs is to transcend pettiness and its mental rat wheel? I  myself have time to sit and listen to chickadees. What fine music the universe has given their effortless arias. And yet these birds, and many more, will die and go extinct, sacrificed to the ravages of Gimmee Gimmeee Gimmeee.