seats. And that first night I turned it on it was only a matter of minutes before I was reminded why I hadn’t watched it for so long. The thing was barely warmed up when a newscaster said his network had been running a seven day critique of Enough is Enough . The messenger-boy/announcer said that this one was the final installment. He then went on to fill millions of viewer’s heads with the network’s take on Thomas Soles and his book.
“Tonight we are going to summarize Mister Soles’ chapter about Wall Street. He says, and I quote, ‘The single most destructive force to the faltering working-class is the greed-driven stock market and its major investors. Think how much better off the huge majority of Americans would be if all corporations were owned by all the people rather than just those with the most disposable income. The trillions of dollars that are bilked from the over-worked, under-paid populous every year would go into their own pockets rather than those of the chosen few who control two-thirds of this country’s wealth. No longer would it be necessary to artificially inflate the cost of goods and services every year for the sake of dividends. Not only would the price of everything, from fingernail clippers to housing, not rise, they would tumble to levels you would not dream possible.
How much do you think it costs footwear companies, for example, to put together a pair of gym shoes assembled in some third-world country for third-world wages? The very same sneakers that sit on the shelves of another company’s store until you buy them for sixty, eighty, a hundred dollars or more. The cost of production probably isn’t more than six or seven dollars—if that. Why is it that the information concerning such corporate costs are more closely guarded than the U.S. Government’s top secrets?’
Up to that point in the broadcast, the news anchor had been strictly business. He’d read the excerpt in as professional a voice as he could muster. But then he changed his tune as well as his tone. It had become time to slant. He first took off his glasses and slowly lowered them to his desk. Then he looked straight into the eye of the camera and America, and massaged his temples as if exhausted and blown away by what he’d just read. Finally, in a far gentler, down-homey voice that was meant to endear his audience, he said, “Friends, it is the belief of this station that words such as these are nothing short of national threats. They are treasonous. In this blasphemous book I am holding in my hands, Thomas Soles has singlehandedly attempted to discredit our tried and proven capitalistic system. He is trying to diminish our system— our method of doing things that has built this great country into what it is today. No wonder this book is being yanked off store shelves everywhere. No wonder Mister Soles is on the run, hiding out. I’d be hiding if…”
By that time I’d had it. I shut off the television, lowered Solace from my lap to the floor, and went to the kitchen area to make popcorn. As the kernels popped and the brown bag expanded in the microwave, all I could do was pivot my head side to side ever so slowly.
Here’s a multi-million-dollar puppet in a two-thousand dollar suit telling the rest of the country how good they have it—at a time when so many of them have been priced out of their last dream. What may be even scarier yet is that hoards of those very same people are buying what that carpetbagger’s selling. Yup…I’m sure he’s succeeding. His sponsors and all the rest will love him. I’m sure there are a few million more people who now consider me a modern-day Benedict Arnold. My god, how do they keep petting the same dog that keeps biting them ?
Chapter 10
The next day two unfortunate events took place at The Carolina Oaks Campground. Number one, Dixie Mae said goodbye to me. For the first time in over twenty winters she had to go back to Virginia
“Tonight we are going to summarize Mister Soles’ chapter about Wall Street. He says, and I quote, ‘The single most destructive force to the faltering working-class is the greed-driven stock market and its major investors. Think how much better off the huge majority of Americans would be if all corporations were owned by all the people rather than just those with the most disposable income. The trillions of dollars that are bilked from the over-worked, under-paid populous every year would go into their own pockets rather than those of the chosen few who control two-thirds of this country’s wealth. No longer would it be necessary to artificially inflate the cost of goods and services every year for the sake of dividends. Not only would the price of everything, from fingernail clippers to housing, not rise, they would tumble to levels you would not dream possible.
How much do you think it costs footwear companies, for example, to put together a pair of gym shoes assembled in some third-world country for third-world wages? The very same sneakers that sit on the shelves of another company’s store until you buy them for sixty, eighty, a hundred dollars or more. The cost of production probably isn’t more than six or seven dollars—if that. Why is it that the information concerning such corporate costs are more closely guarded than the U.S. Government’s top secrets?’
Up to that point in the broadcast, the news anchor had been strictly business. He’d read the excerpt in as professional a voice as he could muster. But then he changed his tune as well as his tone. It had become time to slant. He first took off his glasses and slowly lowered them to his desk. Then he looked straight into the eye of the camera and America, and massaged his temples as if exhausted and blown away by what he’d just read. Finally, in a far gentler, down-homey voice that was meant to endear his audience, he said, “Friends, it is the belief of this station that words such as these are nothing short of national threats. They are treasonous. In this blasphemous book I am holding in my hands, Thomas Soles has singlehandedly attempted to discredit our tried and proven capitalistic system. He is trying to diminish our system— our method of doing things that has built this great country into what it is today. No wonder this book is being yanked off store shelves everywhere. No wonder Mister Soles is on the run, hiding out. I’d be hiding if…”
By that time I’d had it. I shut off the television, lowered Solace from my lap to the floor, and went to the kitchen area to make popcorn. As the kernels popped and the brown bag expanded in the microwave, all I could do was pivot my head side to side ever so slowly.
Here’s a multi-million-dollar puppet in a two-thousand dollar suit telling the rest of the country how good they have it—at a time when so many of them have been priced out of their last dream. What may be even scarier yet is that hoards of those very same people are buying what that carpetbagger’s selling. Yup…I’m sure he’s succeeding. His sponsors and all the rest will love him. I’m sure there are a few million more people who now consider me a modern-day Benedict Arnold. My god, how do they keep petting the same dog that keeps biting them ?
Chapter 10
The next day two unfortunate events took place at The Carolina Oaks Campground. Number one, Dixie Mae said goodbye to me. For the first time in over twenty winters she had to go back to Virginia
Similar Books
