Post by kafisch38 on Nov 16, 2011 18:13:08 GMT -5
All I Do is Win
Living in a society like America has become oppressive because with capitalism few reach the top. For the majority they simply struggle to survive. In the poem “America” by Tony Hoagland, he describes an America in which, “Each day you watch rivers of bright merchandise run past you/ And you are floating in your pleasure boat upon this river/ Even while others are drowning underneath you/ And you see their faces twisting in the surface of the waters/ And yet it seems to be your own hand/ Which turns the volume higher?” Hoagland narrates a story in the shoes of a, “Student with blue hair and a tongue stud/ [who] Says that America is for him a maximum-security prison.” He rebels against corporate America, a place, “Whose walls are made of RadioShacks and Burger Kings,” and where the only thing on everyone’s mind is money. Reflecting a similar disillusionment, is an organized protest across the country known as Occupy Wall Street, which is an assembly mainly consisting of middle and lower class citizens fighting corporate America, just like Hoagland.
The people of Occupy Wall Street feel, “Wronged by the corporate forces of the world,” and believe that the corporations and their employees have more benefits than that of the average citizen, simply because they are politically and financially superior (nycga.net). Protestors deem that the corporations watch the 99 percent drown beneath them, and do nothing because they are the 1 percent that is excluded, and stable. Hoagland speaks of our citizens who are, “Buried alive, captured and suffocated in the folds/ Of the thick satin quilt of America,” the security blanket of our country, made of an expensive and confining material. Rather than making Americans feel safe and secure, our security blanket is stifling us. Under the Occupation, the people of America assemble to speak out against the powerful corporations whom, “Extract wealth from the people and the Earth, and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power,” (nycga.net).Once corporate America began to control American economics, it began to control our politics and democracy. We now have people in positions of power all living lifestyles far superior to that of the average citizen. These powerful representatives make decisions for those less superior, and often their decisions do not benefit the majority. The protestor’s write, “We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments,” (nycga.net).
We as a people have always centered our lives on the subject of money, and the success in which it brings us. Money is achieved through capitalism, which controls the American society. One succeeds by surpassing those whom they compete with, often in the most dishonest and dirty ways. Money has turned our culture into an unfriendly and aggressive environment in which greed gets the best of us. When Hoagland writes, “Thank god--those Ben Franklin’s were/ Clogging up my heart-- / And so I perish happily, / Freed from that which kept me from my liberty,” he reveals the truths of having too much money and that centering your life around money truly restrains you from living what you were given, a life of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. America has lost its way in giving all citizens equal opportunity to succeed, especially when some of us have had such a head start in the race.
www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/
Word count 582
Living in a society like America has become oppressive because with capitalism few reach the top. For the majority they simply struggle to survive. In the poem “America” by Tony Hoagland, he describes an America in which, “Each day you watch rivers of bright merchandise run past you/ And you are floating in your pleasure boat upon this river/ Even while others are drowning underneath you/ And you see their faces twisting in the surface of the waters/ And yet it seems to be your own hand/ Which turns the volume higher?” Hoagland narrates a story in the shoes of a, “Student with blue hair and a tongue stud/ [who] Says that America is for him a maximum-security prison.” He rebels against corporate America, a place, “Whose walls are made of RadioShacks and Burger Kings,” and where the only thing on everyone’s mind is money. Reflecting a similar disillusionment, is an organized protest across the country known as Occupy Wall Street, which is an assembly mainly consisting of middle and lower class citizens fighting corporate America, just like Hoagland.
The people of Occupy Wall Street feel, “Wronged by the corporate forces of the world,” and believe that the corporations and their employees have more benefits than that of the average citizen, simply because they are politically and financially superior (nycga.net). Protestors deem that the corporations watch the 99 percent drown beneath them, and do nothing because they are the 1 percent that is excluded, and stable. Hoagland speaks of our citizens who are, “Buried alive, captured and suffocated in the folds/ Of the thick satin quilt of America,” the security blanket of our country, made of an expensive and confining material. Rather than making Americans feel safe and secure, our security blanket is stifling us. Under the Occupation, the people of America assemble to speak out against the powerful corporations whom, “Extract wealth from the people and the Earth, and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power,” (nycga.net).Once corporate America began to control American economics, it began to control our politics and democracy. We now have people in positions of power all living lifestyles far superior to that of the average citizen. These powerful representatives make decisions for those less superior, and often their decisions do not benefit the majority. The protestor’s write, “We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments,” (nycga.net).
We as a people have always centered our lives on the subject of money, and the success in which it brings us. Money is achieved through capitalism, which controls the American society. One succeeds by surpassing those whom they compete with, often in the most dishonest and dirty ways. Money has turned our culture into an unfriendly and aggressive environment in which greed gets the best of us. When Hoagland writes, “Thank god--those Ben Franklin’s were/ Clogging up my heart-- / And so I perish happily, / Freed from that which kept me from my liberty,” he reveals the truths of having too much money and that centering your life around money truly restrains you from living what you were given, a life of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. America has lost its way in giving all citizens equal opportunity to succeed, especially when some of us have had such a head start in the race.
www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/
Word count 582