are we trying to level a playingfield, or a mountain?

Subject: are we trying to level a playingfield, or a mountain?


This whole propaganda about "leveling the playing field" has bugged me ever
since I first heard it.
The picture is that out there is a nice big playing field with plenty of
action going on. But we blind player-wanna be's can't get onto the field
without some modification, or "leveling".
And off we go, shovels and picks in hand, doing our best to figure out just
how to "level" the darn thing.
This process has been going on long before some of you were hatched.
And how successful have we been at this "leveling" process? Does 70%
unemployment ring a bell?
Isn't one definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over while
expecting different results?
Just how many more years are we going to pretend that we can level a playing
field built to the specifications of the very powerful? Can't we see that
this field is not just a problem for us blind folk, but it is a problem for
the Lower, Working, Middle and even the Upper Middle Classes.
In fact, it isn't a playing field at all. It's a tall pointed mountain.
We've been deceived by smoke and mirrors into believing that there is a
field where that mighty mountain stands.
And who lives at the tippy top of that mountain? The owners, of course.
The view is much better up there and they can sit and watch the rest of us
trying to "level" the playing field.
Below the Owners are a group of folks who think that because they can also
look out over the valley that they are very important people. But of course
the Owners know that they can simply give them a shove and send them
clattering down the mountain side. At the remaining altitudes the rest of
us scramble for hand and toe holds. It's a steep, treacherous mountain and
one missed footing can end years of struggle and put us back on the bottom.
Notice also that there are vast more numbers of struggling folks at the base
of this mountain. Many of our people, along with other disabled, elderly
poor, and immigrants are mixed in among the disenfranchised, the outcasts
and the addicts.
And what do we do? Rather than joining forces and developing a plan to turn
that high and mighty mountain into more livable foothills, we turn on one
another and try to fool ourselves into thinking that just because we have a
bit higher foothold on this steep mountain side, that we are somehow
"better" than the struggling climbers behind us. And we kick them in the
face and stomp on their hands if they get too close to us. And all the
while we are chanting, "One bright day we will level this playing field."
Good luck with that one.

Carl Jarvis

*****

"We do not inherit the land from
our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."