Fifty-five years ago on this very month, for thirteen days America, as well as the rest of the world, held their breath and prayed would they live to see another tomorrow. Would there be another sunrise with their children? Would their children have a future? The fate of this nation as well as the rest of the world and for thirteen days, the world waited and hold its breath collectively. Thank God, in the end, we had a young president with the moral conviction the strength and the courage to lead us out of that crisis.
We survived and the world survived and now we are faced with what I think is an even greater crisis. It seems like we fail to realize just how important life is or how important everything really is. If anything, that crisis should have taught us then as it should now. Looking back, life is a very precious commodity; it should be treasured and treated with the respect. Simply, this means that the people of this nation, whether black or white, matters not. We should not have to suffer from inadequate healthcare, poverty, or social injustice of any kind. We should be working together and not just simply by passing blame on one or the other.
I stated before we should be working together for the public purpose so that people do not have to live in places like Michigan with no water or places where the prices are so high that what they are making doesn’t even go that far. I feel that the only solution we have is to bring about the end of the two-party duopoly and bring a third-party into existence. Now, I’m sure many of you will read this and wonder, what does the Cuban Missile Crisis have to do with any of this? Well, if we look back again at that moment in time, we were at a great peril. We had no idea what could happen, considering the situation in which we were in. I’m working towards the goals of a good job for everyone, free healthcare for all and the like. The crisis that we are facing now will only erode society and get worse unless we do what is right: put our legislators’ feet to the fire and making them do what is right for all and also electing progressives who see the vision for America, for what it is and what it can be. That is our great challenge and always will be!
If we as a nation who could survive a potential nuclear holocaust, surely we must look at these events and say again that life is too precious. We cannot look at people as though they are commodities but as part of the human race: to be treated with respect and dignity. Instead, we should be giving them the things that they need to survive and not totally ignoring them as we walk on by wondering… Why there are so many homeless people? And we have the temerity and the gall to say… Why are they homeless? Why are they living out in the street? Why don’t they get a job? Why don’t they have something? Let’s stop passing judgment and realize that unless we pass a Green New Deal where everybody has a chance for quality of life and put progressives in office, then the crisis will just get worse and they will just wither up and die!
If that’s what we want as a nation, that is a pathetic blight on us and we only have ourselves to blame. In the end, we can either have the strength to stand up and solve the problem just as our young courageous president did a 1962; or, we can continue to do nothing, turn a blind eye and hope it all goes away. We are the masters of this ship: we can either get it away from the rocky cliffs and sail into smooth waters or let it crash. Remember what Ernest Hemingway said, “Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee!”.