the teeth

     The world  has teeth.  I realize that now, I understand.  I didn't know as a kid, I'm sure most kids don't.  You don't see the teeth as a kid, things protect you as a kid.  You're far away as a kid.  That's the way it should be.  But you get older, you go places, you plant roots, you make connections to people and places.  Then the biting starts.
     The first bite is loss.  For me it was my grandmothers.  I lost both of them within a year.  Like pieces of meat ripped off a bone they were just gone, only it wasnt like that.  I watched them fade away.  The teeth chewed slowly.  They like to do that when they can.  make you watch.  make you feel it.  Let you know that you aren't far away from them anymore. 
     You also realize, as I have, that the bites never stop.  The gnashing maw is tireless, ceaseless and hungry.  Ever so hungry, and it has tasted blood.

Perhaps you will lose your job like i did
      bite
perhaps you will lose your health coverage like i did
      bite
Perhaps cannot find another job liked i cant
      bite
perhaps, after countless fruitless interviews, you will begin to watch those you love around you slowly lose their faith in you
      bite
perhaps, due to errors, both human and built into the system designed to keep people out the teeth, there wont be any help from the government for you.  perhaps you'll be all on your own.  staring down the maw alone.
      bite
perhaps you will get sick, or injure yourself like i did
      bite
perhaps it wont heal like mine won't, and you'll be faced with tough choices like I am
      bite
do you pay the electricity bill or go to the doctor
      bite
do you get medicine or pay the rent
      bite

     The teeth have tasted of me, drank of my blood, and demand ever more.  I am so close, I feel the hot breath of the maw, I hear the teeth as they scrape and grind, waiting  to consume me. The bites never stop.  The more they clamp down the harder it is to break free.  Soon it will be impossible.  Perhaps the worst is that as they sink in, as you feel them dig ever deeper into you, you realize, with abject horror that as a child, it wasnt that you couldn't see the teeth, they were always there, it was just that your parents had taken your place.  They were getting the bites for you all those years, as their parents had done for them.  They never stop, and they are always hungry. 

     There are people, a fortunate few, who never experience the teeth.  They never gaze into the maw or feel the bites.  They never hang precariously on the edge, gnsashing biting teeth below, the tattered, ripped threads of stability thay they cling to wrapped so tightly around their hands that it cuts in, blood drips down, teeth chomp, awaiting the fall.  They've never clung by these tattered threads to the one last dream or hope that keeps them going, hoping and praying that they dont fall. 

     I will begrudge no one for their successes but it remains that these people have never been in a place without hope, without options, without choice.  They have never been in a place of teeth only.  Therefore I deem these people, fortunate as they are, unqualified to determine the fate of people who feel the teeth, the people being chewewd on, the people who are hurting. 

     These fortunate sons and daughters seek our votes, our elected offices.  Their wealth and influence has kept them far away from the teeth, of course they have experienced loss, but thats only a small part of it and it touches everyone.  But the chewing, the constant biting, the bledding, they know nothing of it.  They talk of the problems, poverty, a broken healthcare system, an ineffectual government, but they dont understand.  How could they? they've never felt it.  You think a ridiulously wealthy former governor has been close to the teeth?  You think he's ever had to decide between going to the doctor or paying his bills?  Hardly.  So how is he qualified to make decisions about the people that have? 

     There exists a net, a system put in place by presidents past that is designed to keep people out of the teeth.  To give them money when they do not have jobs, to help them find work, and see doctors and help us when we get old.  The fortunate few who seek to run this country dislike this net, this system we built to help people.  They say they have better ideas, a better way, a stronger net.  But their ideas really only amount to feeding the teeth.  Worse still, their ideas would just add more teeth.

    I suppose the difference lies in what we think the purpose of government is.  I feel that fundamentally, government has a responsibility to do for people what they cannot do for themselves.  That includes speaking for those that do not have a voice, protecting the rights of all citizens, including minority groups, and providing, at least on some level, when people cannot provide for themselves. 

    The fortunmate few feel that this job is too big for government, and these responsibilites should be stripped away from it, and the job of helping the needy should be left to the people.  The people, while great and good im sure, have only thier interests in mind.  They are busy workign hard to keep themselves out of the teeth, and probably do not have the extra resources needed to keep their brothers and sisters out of the teeth.  Government has to do it because people can't. 

     We can, in this election, put people in power who will stengthen the net, and work to put more distance between us and the teeth.  They want to heal the bleeding and strengthen the threads we we cling to, the threads that tie us to our dreams.  Or, we can put people in power who will work to remove the net, who will only add more teeth.  Who will use their wealth and influcene to increase their wealth and influence.  Thats not going to help anyone except them. 

     I dont want a world where no one gets bitten, and honestly I dont think we can ever have a world like that.  I want a government that can help people when they get bitten, and that will work to make sure the bites stop eventually.  This is an achievable vision and right now everyone can make it happen.  because whether we like to admit it or not we live in a world where anyone, even the fortunate few, can get bitten, and bitten, and bitten, and bitten, through no fault of their own, and end up in the teeth.  bleeding and clinging to that last tattered thread of hope. 

    Now theres a net, barely, but its weak.  The fortunate few want to take it away.  But what we really need to do is make it stronger.  The teeth have been fed enough.