There Must Be More Money?
I happened to come across an old book from my childhood that contained 32 short stories written by famous authors who had hoped to communicate timeless lessons about human nature to the generations. One story written almost 100 years ago with an embedded refrain of “There must be more money” seems very relevant to today in an era when the selfish rich are inflicting insufferable pain on so many at such a cost to our true values and our very humanity.
For only the deluded believe that the senseless shuttering of valuable government agencies that create so much good for our American community and the world at large is being done in the name of “efficiency.” The deception becomes especially clear when looming on the horizon for this “newly found money” are even more tax breaks for the richest individuals and corporations in America. Yet the harmful sudden firings are still shrouded in lies of doublespeak claims that money is being found for us because “there must be more money, there must be more money,” all the while concealing the dirty truth that the money is for the emerging oligarchy, and not for we the people. And even worse than the theft of our dollars, our employment, our fine communal government services, is the attack on our fundamental moral values of love, compassion, and caring for all, especially for the old, the sick, the physically challenged, the hungry and the poor. They are the victims of the incessant greed of the rich.
So while the DOGE and the president clamor deceptively that they must find more money, they must find more money, essential government services are stopped in their tracks, families who live paycheck to paycheck are suddenly faced with the terror of not being able to pay their rent or afford food, and starving and sick children across the globe die needless deaths.
The family in D.H. Lawrence’s 1926 story The Rocking Horse Winner is consumed by a selfish greed which compels an innocent child, who naively and sincerely wishes to help satisfy this perceived vital family need, to sacrifice his life for their insatiable hunger. And even after his death, an uncle brags about the son’s winnings and hints that his death is a good thing even for the child, to leave a world where he must suffer so.
America and the world are suffering now under this horrid administration. Our values and ideals are being destroyed in an ugly calculus of profit and loss for, not all, but only for the rich.
We do not deserve such an ugly world and we, who are wedded to our ideals of what makes America truly great, will not be forced to leave it. We will resist the crass greed of the oligarchs and shine the lights of truth (not lies), empathy (not selfishness), and love (not hateful divisiveness) upon this ugly era of the selfish cries of “There must be more money, for the rich and the rich alone.” Together, we will craft a better world for all. There must be more truth, there must be more empathy, and there must be more love.
Steve Cickay, Newtown
