Steven Michael Kudelko

I haven’t written online in quite a while.  I’ve also never written online about anything remotely involving politics, current events, or controversial elements of pop culture.  I hesitate to do so for very many reasons.  I fear becoming the idiot young adult who goes around telling everyone they see how Palin and Putin are similar sounding names and that proves that 9/11 was an inside job and Obama is secretly a communist.  I don’t ever want to become that fucking stupid.  I read a lot of blogs from friends and people who used to be my friends, or people who used to be my girlfriend, and the complete disregard for intelligent argument and realistic perspective completely blows my mind.  It fills me with a stomach sickness similar to the feeling you get when you find out the restaurant you ate at three weeks ago has just been closed down for serving rotten food.

I’ve remained quiet because I admit I am not informed enough to write 300-paragraph essay about income equality, or healthcare reform.  I recognize that I don’t know everything there is to know about these things, and also that I don’t know enough to be well informed.  That’s the key.  Protest, free speech, petition, rebellion… those are all fantastic, but if the core of those arguments is incorrect, or non existent, then they will never be taken seriously.  I am 100% in support of the 99% movement, but the exponential rise of similar movements across the country makes me fear that spur of the moment, hastily organized protests could result in a “boy who cried wolf” appearance.

Despite the cringe-worthy moments where I watch a news clip of some bearded idiot spouting clearly uninformed dogma, and the unfair propaganda delivered to Fox News viewers that leads people to the conclusion that “Occupy Wall Street” is a bunch of uneducated, bitter, lazy people, I am incredibly excited for the possibilities the future of these movements bring.  Humanity, human rights, decency, and fairness is the heart of these movements, and that is something I can relate to and write about.

When I see police in riot gear beating the shit out of protesters at the request of a mayor whose name is synonymous with Wall Street, it blows my fucking mind.  These are public employees, every day people, with average salaries, average families, and average looking daughters.  They work hard, they’ve been wronged.  They are the fucking 99%!!!  So to be unleashed like dogs whenever their boss in a tailored suit demands, crossing the line, destroying property, purposely breaking things like tents, sleeping bags, canteens, and other things that are critical to survival, it makes me realize just how sad things are in America.  We are beyond the point of wealth inequality.  We are beyond high poverty, high unemployment, and high homelessness.  We are a country that has lost the fundamental decency, compassion, and common sense that is crucial for a healthy and prosperous society.

This isn’t a dictatorship.  The police are public employees.  The injustice they face every day, the moment they step out of their uniform and step into their homes, is being challenged, and highlighted, and crusaded against by the very people they’ve beaten and displaced and assaulted.  They aren’t Waffen-SS paramilitary troops that are bound by oath to attack and silence any dissenters.  Mayor Bloomberg isn’t Adolf fucking Hitler.  But things certainly seem that way.  And yet, the very people who were beaten and hurt and silenced come back even stronger, every single time, and continue to fight for all Americans, even police.

How can someone intentionally hurt their economic doppelganger?  How can someone living paycheck to paycheck, supporting their family, working long hours standing on tired feet take orders from someone much better off than they are that involve using violence to stop someone from standing up for those living paycheck to paycheck, supporting their families, and working long hours standing on tired feet?

That very question hurts my brain tonight.  Human decency shouldn’t be political.  Right and wrong, fairness, love, compassion, support, and community should not be for sale.  Republicans, Democrats, wealthy, poor, middle class, average, ugly, beautiful, thin, fat, black, white, citizen, immigrant, tourist, manager, banker, teacher, police, cashier, Walmart greeter… every single person, profession, and political party should be bound together to make the coming changes, revolutions and elections as peaceful and universally prosperous as possible.  Until that idea is the largest movement in this country, nothing will ever change.