Observation

• We watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and cheered for Jimmy Stewart
• We watched Norma Rae, and cheered for the union
• We watched All The President's Men, and cheered for the underdog reporters
• We watched Star Wars, and cheered for the resistance
• We watched V For Vendetta, and cheered for the resistance
• We watched The Matrix, and cheered for Neo and Trinity and the resistance
• We watched Divergence, and sided with the resistance
• We watched Hunger Games, and cheered for the fucking resistance

Somehow, when it's a movie, we understand - we identify with the plucky band of rebels who fight for justice, or at least to be treated a little better.

But when it's the real thing - like now - we come down on the side of the powerful? The establishment? The boss who schedules a guy for three extra shifts and then tells him there's no budget for overtime? The cops who have no regard for the law? The giant corporations who spend billions buying coin-operated politicians who put laws in place that keep us chained to jobs that don't pay the rent, and wear us down to nothing?

I fight so my son can be a merchant

He fights so his son can be a poet

Where are you, America?

Nothing of real value is ever just handed to us, even as a legacy. Somebody fought for it. Somebody stood up against the odds - went against the grain - against the wind - and fought. They put something on the line - sometimes everything they had, everything they loved, and everything they were. They fought very real battles against very dangerous enemies so we could fight in a different, less deadly way, and go home to sleep safe and warm in our quiet comfortable beds.

That quiet time is gone now.