What We Can Be

"What We Can Be" by fervent Bernie supporter Chris Lockett

Bernie heads a moral movement with roots in Occupy, and prior the labor - and social justice movements. Bernie supporters are not free loaders, are not simply upset about not having gotten a raise or not having advanced in to the middle class or up from wherever they find themselves on the social climbing pole, for laughing out loud.

I believe the US needs a fundamental change, a re-evaluation of our values. Corporate control has to be reigned in. Citizens United has to be reversed.

US manipulation in foreign affairs for it's own good has to come to an end. Unquestioned support of Israel has to give way to a more fair appraisal with an insistence that Palestinians are given a fair shake. Money funneled in to the military complex, 601 Billion in 2015, more then 50% of the overall US budget, should be drastically reduced.

Let us redirect those funds in to a commitment toward a fossil fuel free, green, sustainable future that advances alternative sources of energy. The US could and should lead in it's scientific research, it's implementation and creation of green product lines. I would like nothing more then for the focus of our nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory to shift from the defense industry to developing green energy. Climate change is real and Bernie is the one that makes it his top priority.

Let us be bold and rebuild our crumbling infrastructures and create jobs for Americans. Let us create social support systems such as a single payer health care system for people in need rather then profit for the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Let us make education a priority and start with free access to Community Colleges. Let's stop the profiteering of loan sharks from students. There ought to be a cap in the single digits of what is legal and fair profit made off the poor.

Last but not least, as a 'Recovered Catholic' I am so very grateful that Bernie Sanders unlike every repugnant Republican presidential nominee, has not forced religion down our throats. I can relate to his sense of us being in this together, of feeling the pain of another and of synchronicities that seem to guide his seeking the presidential nomination.

What I can not relate to, is Republicans taking away women's health care with their unwarranted attacks on Planned Parenthood, with closures of abortion clinics, with wanting to take away women's choices in pushing to make abortions illegal, going as far as even wanting to criminalize the women choosing an abortion. While the loser finds a return to coat hangers acceptable, women find the repugnant Republican stance on women's rights absolutely unacceptable. We are moving forward, not backward! 

Thankfully Bernie polls best in defeating the repugnant current front runner for the presidency. Imagine vane, vindictive and thin-skinned Drumpf in control of nuclear power and the most powerful military in the world! Strangely this option is not an April 1st joke.

Change is possible. It will not happen over night. It's a process that asks for our engagement and the political will to carry it forward.

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." Arundhati Roy

(All images off social media.)