The Hog Dilemma

Ted Folkert

September 25, 2018

Jim Hightower, a much-admired writer, speaker, and progressive prognosticator, the editor of the publication “The Hightower Lowdown,” tells us what he learned in Texas as a child, that “the water won’t clear up until you get the hogs out of the creek.” We southerners and midwesterners call that good old down-home cowboy wisdom.

Well, in a few weeks we have a chance to help clear the water by removing some of the hogs from the creek, a chance we may not have again in such large measure until our laughing-stock-of-the-planet president attempts, by reelection, to extend his demolition of the common good of the country in exchange for a richer and more powerful upper class, while the middle class and lower class are losing ground, struggling to make ends meet under the strain of higher prices due to unnecessary trade tariffs, lack of wage equalization due to lack of collective bargaining, and painful impacts on social programs.

So, how do we get some of the hogs out of the creek? How to we gain more assurance that our election process will not be attacked in the same manner as when this, least-desirable-of-all, candidate was chosen by the election manipulators to grasp the power of the presidency, a role which provides many opportunities to make derogatory changes in laws, policies and enforcement thereof, to the disadvantage of the working-class with, and sometimes without, congressional approval.

The way we can help to assure success at the poles in November is to show up and vote. The way to have the votes required is to talk up the issues in an intelligent manner, not with right-wing sound-bites such as “I don’t want anyone taking my money and giving it to someone else.” Such an attitude is not well thought out and not in the best interest of a democratic republic which must maintain an attitude of helping each other and everyone chipping in to the cost of maintaining a vibrant and equitable society with equality of opportunity and social programs to assure the continuity of a well-educated and healthy populous.

And the step before urging everyone to vote is to urge everyone to register to vote. There is nothing wrong with asking your neighbor or your co-worker if they are registered to vote and telling them the steps to achieve registration. Such a question does not infer any political persuasion. That can come later. Besides, no matter your political party preference, the damage that has been done and is continuing to be done doesn’t separate political parties. It affects everyone simultaneously, without favoring one party or the other. The only difference in the effect on voters is by the level of income and wealth. Now the rich are getting richer and the poor and middle-class are, as they say in the South and Midwest, sucking hind teat.

And when the day to vote becomes imminent ask your neighbor or co-worker if they need transportation to the polls. Give someone a ride, don’t go there alone, take a neighbor. That is the only way to assure that everyone votes. We need everyone to vote and if everyone understands their best interest and votes their best interest we can take back a large element of our governance.

This election is more important than perhaps any in our lifetime. We not only have a fragile economy which has not fully reflected the damage done by the current administration. We also have a much longer range and life-threatening challenge – global warming – that disastrous environmental reality which, without drastic changes in lifestyle, will render the planet unable to support human life and eventually life of any kind as we know it. And with our current administration considering global warming a hoax and unleashing more coal mining and oil drilling which drastically damages our oceans and our atmosphere, this exacerbates the problem and moves us faster into a point of no return, a point of too little, too late, a point of the damage being irreversible, one in which the pace to uninhabitability accelerates out of control.

If we don’t act while we can, population control will never be the problem we anticipate. That problem will likely take care of itself.

Think about it!