When you see the National Guard ask yourself why we had not been using that energy to solve the greatest National Security challenges of our time,
1) Education
2) Healthcare
Imagine where we could be if we were a physically and mentally stronger nation.
That’s not even dealing with infrastructure and how much harder it would be to fool us if we invested in enabling our young people; preparing them from childhood with the wonder and know how to travel.
I wasn’t even able to travel until my mid 30s and it made me into a much better person. As Ghandi felt in South Africa and Fela Kuti felt in Los Angeles, I didn’t even have a true sense of my identity as an American until I left America and became friends of so called foreigners on their soil.
When I became a legal alien and debated with Tories in Britain and reasoned with Rastas in the Yards of Jamaica, I came face to face with what our place, our triumphs and our disgrace really means out there in The World.
We are about to see for better or for worse the power of Military forces on our soil on a scale not seen since The Civil War.
Forgiving our student debt is nothing. You just give tax credits to those that paid already and the economy will rally. But that is a 1.3 trillion dollar nut, and that’s alot for a few to let go of for the greater good. But the tell is whether our economy can really just rally by November and wisk Trump to another go round by badly solving yet another problem he created like an infant claiming credit for the Sun and Moon.
To say our student debt of 1.3 trillion is too big to forgive, begs one to offer why a nation could be charging so much interest on something our first 13 years prove we could really just provide for free, like Germany.
Our budget of 639 billion for our military that outspends a couple of mankinds is interesting half of what we claim we owe ourselves for our own education.
To forgive it would make us poorer on paper while driving a wave of homebuying and economic growth could get us out of this mess Trump virtually created with a few horrific “speeches” that turned a workable recession into what could become the queen mother of Great Depressions.
To keep the student debt on the ledger leaves us richer on paper, but trapped under the weight ironically of a debt, that after the Second Super Tuesday, is most definitely never ever getting paid back.
Imagine if you will as you see the power of a hidden army we had deployed overseas during disasters during Hurricane Katrina experimenting with becoming the first nation ever to have a go with endless war while slashing taxes, what could be done if we bailed out a few generations of the standing army that truly drives the Stock Market, our Work Force.
…and imagine the explosion of hope and prosperity if we invested in those who never had a chance to go to college, to experience higher education, and even better a chance to learn the trades we desperately need to fill. Especially since we see the risk in depending so heavily on now supply chains from China we could sever as an act of national security.
But what do I know? I just write silly little songs. But as a young teen that played basketball in China I did experience the common humanity and kindness of the average citizen of China.
And that experience armed me with the wisdom of knowing the difference between the folly of prejudice towards fellow and the machinations of a Government that had such a startling influence over the thoughts and measured words of its people towards a foreigner.
It was a feeling I never felt here until these last few days as everything escalates at the pace of computer models and fear as we move into higher gears. Not even 9.11. Not even when Dubya and Gore gerrymandered one another into a tie with Al holding a kitchen knife and George with a pineapple grenade.
Then again we had no social media then. Just cousins and whispers, and talking heads on cable TV telling us what was rotten in Florida.
It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out as we meet our own GI Joes; fellow citizens militarized, remnants of the last state Militias.
Be safe. Be good. Be smart. Stay healthy. But when you stare at such spending, imagine what a Space Force could do if such a force were educated like William Riker, instead of the William The Wanker we are becoming as social media capitalizes upon our fomenting and over fermented minds.
…I’ll be in strumming my guitar letting her weep as my plans of returning to Europe this June are dashed up the Cliffs of Dover, as Pax Europa clings to a proverbial branch upon a knife’s edge.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. Davin’s recent song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube: Tuff Gong Television. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
