I
often hear people repeat the adage, “money is
the root of all evil.” My response is always,
give me a ton of money and I’ll show you what
good can be done with it! I understand the
sentiment because it seems the people with
money use it to get more wealth and more power
for themselves at the expense of the masses.
The working class has been conditioned to
believe their money is not as powerful as the
rich elites'. It’s time to debunk that
dangerous myth.
My
view about taxes and money sharpened after
watching the docuseries, “While the Rest of Us
Die: Secrets of America’s Shadow Government.”
I knew about some of these truths that are
revealed in the series. A number of the
government’s despicable plans over the last
100 years have been exposed and de-classified.
The power of this documentary is how it
chronicles the way that the American public
(and the world) has been duped into buying
into the doomsday theory that in turn, allows
the military budget to grow exponentially.
Government
spending has been substantially reduced in
critical areas like social services, education
and watchdog agencies. It’s not because fewer
tax dollars are coming in. It’s because the
neo-liberalism policies have forced
privatizing of vital services so that
corporations get the benefit of our tax
dollars on the local, state and federal
levels. Trillions of dollars have been
funneled into the military industrial complex
so that the U.S. maintains its global economic
and military dominance.
This
explains why human needs have been totally
neglected, why the infrastructure is in
shambles and why the government has turned its
back on relief from natural disasters. One
tragic example that brings this all together
is the levees breaking in New Orleans twenty
years ago. The Crescent City is still a shell
of its former self, and the total costs of
lives, livelihoods and personal property have
yet to be assessed. “While the Rest of Us Die”
reminded us that FEMA is part of Homeland
Security, a companion agency to the Department
of Defense.
When
I think of Wesley Bell’s campaign to unseat
incumbent Cori Bush, I think about the
millions of Zionist dollars that poured into
his campaign. The American Israel Political
Action Committee (AIPAC) threw down almost $9
million and other pro-Zionist forces
(including Democrats) added another couple of
million.
Upon
his inauguration, Bell joined the Black
Congressional Congress. He’ll be in good
company, most of them support Israel. Cori
Bush was the first of her colleagues - Black
or white - to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, a
big reason to block her return to the Big
House.
During
the holiday season, a meme was circulated
encouraging consumers to use discretion when
they spend. Businesses like Amazon, Kohl’s,
Chick-fil-a, Home Depot and several others
were on a no-buy hit list. We saw these
companies and others falling over one another
to pay for the presidential inauguration while
the Black invited marching band from
Mississippi Valley State University had to set
up a GoFundMe page to cover its $350,000
expenses to Washington, DC.
Yes,
indeed. Money can be a mover of people and
ideas. We must pay attention to the dollars
that we control because they really do
influence the game of politics. Where and how
we spend our money has got to be the first
step in flexing our collective muscle. Meeting
the challenges of 2025 calls for a more
sophisticated consumer who understands the
power of their dollar. This means not going
into debt to buy the capitalists
overproduction just because they have a sale.
Second, it means keeping your dollars local,
supporting small businesses that give back to
the community. Third, it means supporting
candidates with a proven track record of
service, not those with false promises of
future change.
A
convicted felon will soon be in charge of this
country’s affairs. He’s told us his plans. Now
we have to show him and the MAGA thugs our
power. We must be intentional about how we
organize to use our mighty power: our money,
our voice, our time and our energy.
