The word disproportionality has been on my mind a great deal lately.� The definition of disproportionality is the state of lacking symmetry or proportion; of being out of proportion, as in size, shape or amount; of being unequal.� In order to better understand the concept of disproportionality, consider a punishment of ten years� imprisonment for littering.� Now that�s out of whack.� That�s disproportionality.

Unfortunately, when you look around you at life in the United States, at the culture and the politics of the place, this country is rife with disproportionality.� And it seems as is if this dysfunctional state of affairs has been normalized.�

Children are introduced to this concept in public schools, with zero tolerance policies that lead to the expulsion, if not the imprisonment, of students for minor infractions and silliness.� At the same time, troubled youth� lacking outlets, encouragement, self-esteem, and a person who will listen� have not learned conflict resolution skills.� Their approach is to react to all arguments and perceived disses through acts of violence, you know, just like nations do.

America�s criminal justice system certainly is disproportional.� In the land of the free, 5 percent of the world�s population boasts 25 percent of the world�s prisoners.� Bad drug laws and sentencing guidelines fill the prison cells with nonviolent offenders.� The vast majority of these prisoners are black and Latino, not to mention poor and uneducated.� The vast majority of the judges and lawyers are white.� And not only are these poor black and Latino inmates warehoused in rural white districts, they are counted in the population of those districts, thereby benefiting those areas.� In the days of the Great Recession, state governments are smothered by the prison boom, as corrections spending competes with education and social welfare, and aims to win.�

Disproportionality reigns supreme in our economic, social and political systems.� In America, guns are in abundance, while millions of people cannot find a job or afford to keep their home.� There is a right to own a weapon, but no right to employment or shelter.� Such is the state of affairs in a banana republic such as the United States, equally bankrupt in finances and ethics.� And a small group of people have all of the money, or most of it, at least, with the top 1 percent owning 42 percent of the wealth.� Corporations are people, too, with just as much freedom of speech as the average human being, and just as much of a right to pour millions of dollars into a political campaign.� Banks destroyed that artifact once called the American middle class, yet were rewarded for their failure and greed with a bailout.� We were told the perpetrators needed that money, or else the entire economic system would have collapsed.� But where is the bailout for the victims?������

These days, the U.S. Senate is one of the more blatant examples of pure disproportionality in action.� In this august body, great ideas find their final resting place, and laws are sold to the highest bidder.� Under Senate rules, the minority has the power to control the game, although they lost the election.� An individual senator can become king or queen for a day, a petty dictator with the power to shut down the entire joint by simply blocking the body�s ability to vote.� One person�whether through a manifestation of greed, vanity, cruelty, ignorance, mental instability, or other�can deny a million people an extension to their unemployment benefits, furlough thousands of federal workers, block a White House nominee, or shoot down crucial health care or financial reform.� These are things of which crumbling empires are made.���

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Disproportionality from within, disproportionality from without.� A nation that is supposedly broke has adequate resources to fight two unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and accounts for 41.5% of the world�s military expenditures.� America maintains military bases in many countries, including wealthy and technologically advanced countries such as Germany, Japan and South Korea.� And as their children are groomed for a high-tech world of computers, millions of America�s children are hungry, undereducated, and groomed for a life behind bars.� And yet, the U.S. has to protect these nations because they are vulnerable?

Am I the only one who is concerned here?� Perhaps I�m just blowing all of this out of proportion.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, David A. Love, JD is a journalist and human rights advocate based in Philadelphia, and a contributor to The Huffington Post, theGrio, The Progressive Media Project, McClatchy-Tribune News Service, In These Times and Philadelphia Independent Media Center. He also blogs at davidalove.com, NewsOne, Daily Kos, and Open Salon. Click here to contact Mr. Love.