On Tuesday, President Obama will address the nation, to remind anyone who may have been in a coma, that we are still in deep shit. But, although there will be a continuing propensity for protracted pain and suffering, we are on the road to recovery. He’ll mention the things his administration has accomplished that make him all warm and fuzzy and outline his plans for future warmth and fuzziness. He probably won’t mention the fully recovered, excessively bonused bail-out recipients who are neither suffering nor in pain, (unless you include the strain of hefting wads of cash into their wallets), who remain free, unpunished and well on their way to creating the next historic financial disaster. He will, however, trumpet the dawn of a new era of cooperation and bipartisanship. Translated from political-speak to plain and honest truth, this means that he has accepted the reality that corporate America will never succumb to idealistic blathering, and since the Supreme Court has given free reign to the buying and selling of policy and politicians, (and he has already begun running for reelection), we can expect only that which satisfies the agenda of the worst polluters and perpetrators of human and economic abuses. Journalists call this, ‘governing from the middle’. (Damn…that even sounds harsh to me.)

What he should say is that it’s time to open our eyes to the preposterous acceptance of world-wide austerity; that the cost of progress and reasonable forward mobility, (paid for, incidentally, by monopoly money that we or some other country simply print at will), pales with regard to the price of dismantling education, ignoring the care and conservation of our natural resources, allowing the continued degradation of our water, electrical and transportation systems and pursuing military solutions to philosophical problems. The road to a healthier America will not be paved with the residue of slashed budgets and freer enterprise, but a vigorous, united reinvestment in our future that minimizes waste, graft and redundancy, and embraces fundamental equality, racially, ethnically and sexually. In a free and peaceful society, freedom must be defined by sage and sane criteria and its defenders must resist undue influence from manipulation by the wealthy or intimidation by the loud and scary. Abuse cannot be tolerated by those who can afford its token consequence and blatantly inappropriate weaponry should never be bullied into acceptance by the Constitutionally challenged NRA.

I checked with Wikipedia, and I’m right about all of this. However, my saying it doesn’t carry the kind of weight as say, the President. C’mon, Barry! Surprise me!