Frustration

Today I did a lot of reading for one of my journalism classes (communication theory and criticism with Carl Bybee) about how uneven our society is, economically, and how crummy our education system is. I already knew a lot of what the articles were about, but every time I read this kind of stuff I get a little more frustrated. One statistic: the richest 225 people in the world (worth $1 trillion) have the same amount of wealth as the poorest 2.5 billion people. Another statistic: 1% of the US' richest people control 40% of the nation's wealth; the next richest 19% control 45% of the wealth, and the poorest 80% of the population controls a mere 15%. Usually I don't believe statistics are great in arguments and they can almost never stand alone without explaining why they are important, but in this case they work. I was disgusted. These economic "gap-crisis" articles tied in to the education articles. The rich get the tax cuts, the poor get poorer, and the nation cuts social programs like education so that the masses can continue to dumb down. Finally the poor have nothing to look forward to but dying and going to a magical place up in the clouds. I know this has been going on for thousands of years all over the world, but it just pisses me off. What's the point of studying history when we continue to keep making the same planned "mistakes"?

After reading all this sickening information, I went to the class and Professor Bybee lectured on the monster that capitalism is and the terrors that it has inflicted on our society, sucking the life out of 99.999% of Americans, trampling the third world countries, and polluting the world. He didn't actually say that, but basically throughout the entire class I could feel my blood pressure rising. This is usually the stuff I like to talk about, things that interest me. I should feel motivated to DO something about it, but lately it has just been pissing me off to the point where I don't want to have anything to do with this damn country. Apparently Dick Cheney hasn't been getting my suggestions that I keep sending him via email.

And to top the day off (it was already a stressful day and all this political stuff just made it that much worse) I went home to read the Oregonian. After reading the 2 articles about Blackwater, the budget cuts to children's mental health care, the unsuccessful and tempered protesters calling for impeachment (and the pannzy democrats in office that don't want to upset the republicans), and the logging companies contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight measure 49 and finish turning the world into a parking lot, I decided to skip to the food section. Food always makes me happy, so I began reading about pies and I felt a whole lot better. This was also after I went into the kitchen and smashed a mug on the floor to let out some steam. This is why I don't know if I'll be able to be a good journalist. The more I learn the more angry I get. And the only "activist" thing I can think of doing in my rage is to go down W 11th and throw some rocks at Wall Mart. I see why Americans would rather read People magazine than something intelligent. Ignorance is bliss. And besides, I'm really interested to find out what Paris Hilton is up to these days...