Wake up, People!

What are you going to do with your economic stimulus check?

Buy a tank of gas? Maybe buy some groceries?

There are 256 days left until Bush is out of office. 256 long more days. The reason that the citizens of the U.S.ofA. voted him in a second time (technically only the first time since he wasn't the winner of the first election) escapes me. I'm not sure if everyone thought that he deserved a "do-over", but it was a serious mistake. Look at where we are now. For that matter, the people who still drive around with "W 2004" or "W" stickers on their vehicles leave me perplexed. I want to shake them and ask if they're blind, deaf, or dumb. I want them to wake up and realize the way things are. And Gods help us all if we somehow vote in mini-Bush-wanna-be.

Unfortunately, those that drive the SUVs with "W" on their back windshields aren't GOING to wake up. When things are comfy and cozy for a person, he or she usually does not venture outside their own bubble long enough to realize that just because things are going well for them, things aren't going well for the majority of people. As long as they're able to afford to buy, fill up, and continue driving larger vehicles to their favorite expensive restaurant, only before stopping to buy more meaningless crap for their $350,000 houses, they will never understand that most of us are suffering as a result of today's carelessness and self-centeredness.

Do you all realize that in every war in the history of the USofA, there has always been a sacrifice on the part of the US citizens? Remember war bonds? Remember the energy crisis in the 70s and gas coupons? Do you realize what all those were for? The government asked the citizens of this country to make sacrifices - just for a little while - so that we wouldn't end up with a bazillion-dollar-debt like we've got today. It's amazing how much the little things have helped us in times of upheaval and uncertainty, yet the president's too goddamn stupid to ask for sacrifice, and US citizens are too goddamn lazy and spoiled to give their time or the resources that will soon run out in the grand scheme of things.

They've even mentioning suspending the gas tax for the duration of the summer to give us all a little relief. Do all of you realize that it will make our lives a teeny bit comfortable in the short-term, it's an ignorant choice in the long run? All we'll do is give the country an even deeper deficit as if we're not in one large enough to begin with. All we'll do is have to pay for it later – whether it be losing education in schools because they've lost federal funding or if it be our soldiers fighting, ill-equipped, in this pointless fucking war, because they've cut the wrong PART of the defense budget while simultaneously raising the wrong part of the defense budget.

We are shooting ourselves in the foot, people.

We want more and more and more and more when, in actuality, less and less is available to us. And we don't want to pay for a damn thing. We want nicer roads and parks, but don't want to pay the state taxes required to pay for the stuff. We want better schools but don't want federal taxes raised. Now don't think me brash – we're all in a shitty economic condition right now and none of us can really afford to have any more money taken from our paychecks, but there has got to be a BETTER WAY for us to manage our incomes, time, and needs. It's a very basic principle – nothing in life is free, and you get what you pay for.

There's also got to be a better compensation system. We've got to make sure that the economic gap between the rich and poor stops widening. I don't know how . . . I have no clue . . . but we've got to find a better way.

So are you walking around, going day to day, complaining about gas prices but not really being introspective as to what's actually happening around you? If so, here is your wake-up call.

Personally? I'm ready for CHANGE.