Gina Bonanno-Lemos

It occurs to me that with all the bluster and blather about rugged individualism that we've been fed for 50 years, or 80 years, or whatever - everything they've hit us with for as long as I've been alive - it's nothing but a sales pitch, filled with empty promises and illusions designed to keep us in thrall to an unfulfillable dream.

We're not looking for handouts and unearned benefits. All we really need is to feel that somebody has our back. That we'll have some way to bounce back when our inevitable fall comes from being enticed to take the risks that end up destroying most of us while serving no real purpose but putting more dollars in billionaires' pockets that are already overflowing.

We had that kind of backup system once upon a time. But it's been all but completely stripped away, and we're being blamed for the problems created for us by powerful people we're not even allowed to see.

But we may be seeing the beginning of a turnaround now, in favor of some of the old school aspects of a society that knows we have to look out for each other - at least to a certain extent. 

Maybe we can get back to arguing about the extent, instead of whether or not we should even give a fuck about each other at all.