We are all 99ers

The voices of the people are getting louder, emboldened by Tunisia, emboldened by Egypt. 99ers aren’t going to suffer in silence any longer, aren’t going to fade away to dust without a swirl of energy, without a loud cry for help that can turn heads and change minds.

They aren’t looking for a handout; they aren’t lazy, as has been suggested, as has been bought by some as fact and truth. The 99ers helped build this American machine, this economy, and now they only want to bask in the glow of its recovery, and live in this America, surviving this hardship like everyone else.

There are more than 1.4 million 99ers; more than 34,000 join that number every week. Those are the latest numbers but they are deficient and lacking in their ability to tell the whole story. That’s 1.4 million stories of shattered dreams, 1.4 million struggling families; the kids can’t go to college because the college fund had to be drained. The house, the home is gone because the mortgage couldn’t be paid and the creditors won’t stop coming and you don’t have enough money to pay them, your utilities, your grocery bill or even file for bankruptcy.

That’s 1.4 million victims of poor fiscal policy, of greed; victims of a tidal wave that washed them into a floorless ocean.

It’s so random and it can take any one of us down. Unemployment isn’t a paid vacation, it’s a vicious pay cut that barely helps keep you alive and when the benefits run out staying alive becomes less a certainty and more a hope.

Hunger and homelessness are the inevitable last stop for many who have no money and no ability to find a job in this economy, a tireless search akin to seeking out a speck of dust in a mountain of sand.

And yet still action and relief stall. Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Bobby Scott are the latest legislators trying to help. H.R. 589, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2011 is a good bill that could quite frankly save lives and yet it languishes absent any GOP support to this day.

Republicans have made it clear that they will not support any Democratic proposal for an extension. But simply rejecting this bill and continuing to ignore the problem, the people, and their scream for help in the face of the torturous fires of irreversible poverty is needlessly cruel.

Propose an alternative, work with Democrats to save the lives of 99ers who stand every day on the razors edge of existence.

Enough games, enough theatrics. These two sides must come together and not just thoughtlessly reject, or worthlessly propose solutions. Go nowhere bills, press releases, and statements of solidarity are all so very nice and all so very useless to someone staring at their home from the outside next to a foreclosure sign on what used to be their lawn.

Well intentioned promises won’t fill a stomach any more than the GOP’s hollow promise of jobs will, and they won’t keep the lights on and if that’s all Democrats and Republicans can or will offer then what good are they?

This country has always been made to move by the fuel of protest and so it must again.

All across the country groups of 99ers gather, online or in person and protest peacefully. These brave men and women made sturdier by harsh times are willing to sacrifice, willing to endure for the restoration of their American Dream but they will not die for the dreams of others and they will not exist as faceless numbers, empty talking points, or partisan footballs any longer.

Yes 99ers must keep writing, faxing, and calling their Senators, their representatives in the House but they must also put heat on the media. It is their job to report the news, their job to shine a light on this problem and question those in power.

Keep telling your story and help others tell their own online and never forget that you are an innocent fighting for your survival. Never forget that you worked hard to get where you are and that you are worth more than a shrug, worth more than someone simply writing off your demise as a consequence of bad luck.

And if you are not yet a 99er you must sadly realize that it can happen to you.

No one expects to be laid off, but after the initial shock wears off the fear is coalesced with a sparkle of optimism, “I’ll find a job soon” you say. But soon doesn’t come and as the Tiers of extended benefits fall one by one like dominoes you pay closer and closer attention to this stalled economy, and those warring factions that seek only each other’s defeat and not our collective victory and you know that you are forsaken.

When you see a President who was supposed to rise above such games fail to save your life because he is being pushed into giving billions of dollars of your tax dollars to million and billionaires, you know you are forsaken.

President John Kennedy once stood in Berlin overlooking a large crowd of people, divided, and hungry for the full measure of freedom and he spoke of Rome. “Two thousand years ago -- Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum” Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner." I am a Berliner.

We live in a very different world now, one where individuals can get lost in the shuffle, in the distraction that comes when you move as fast as we do.

“I am a 99er” is not a boast of pride, but it is one of defiance. It is a boast that tells the world that you are aligned with a cause, with a group of people who want only to be free from the strain and fear of poverty. A group of people who want their hard work and their diligence justified by a nation that will not give up on them; a nation that will help them rise once more because that is what America is.

I still believe in that promise, still believe in our ability, our instinct to stand together when the winds jar us from our chairs. You know and I know that if Washington can deem one of us insignificant, if Washington can declare by its inaction that more than 1,400,000 of our fellow citizens are just numbers, unworthy of aid, that we can all be similarly discarded, that we can all be forsaken.

As John Kennedy said near the end of that moving speech, “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.”

Today and until salvation is at hand let us all proclaim no matter our present state, “I am a 99er, and I will be free!”

Event Announcement:

Tuesday 2/15 at 8PM EST we will join on twitter for a chat about the state of the movement. #99erAID seeks to join 99ers and 99er advocates, and it seeks to give them a forum to tell their story, seek answers, and effect change. Fellow Examiners Mike Thornton and Donalee King are helping me get out the word, and with their help and the help of countless others we are anticipating a sizeable number of participants. But we need more, so please Tweet or Facebook this event, and remeber thats hashtag #99erAID 2/15 8PM EST hosted by me, Jason Tabrys (@99erAID)

Please use the comments section to suggest what you'd like to talk about during #99erAID and please try to keep it positive.