The American Way Pt. 1

Part One - Has The American Way become, kick a man while he’s down?

It’s been just about a year since I’ve published, What Is The American Dream? And while I ended that article on a positive note. There’s been many times over the past few months that I’ve questioned whether The American Dream is indeed still alive.

What is the American Dream?

I’ll speak a little bit about this in this week’s Jukebox post as well — I’ll share it with you next week. Big guys and little guys and how we can all do our part to make this a better world.

But it’s feeling more and more like these days: The American Way is to kick a man while he’s down.

Hank Cotton’s even getting in on it!

“If only,” Hank said. Then kicked him in the stomach twice before grabbing Jenny by the arm, snatching her up from the floor. TUD Ch. 12 excerpt

While I was in Mexico, one of the main differences I noticed was that not everything seemed to revolve around money. I mean, it’s not like they’re worry free down there economy wise or anything. It can be mighty hard to get by. But still, it just doesn’t seem as if more money is the primary goal in life. As opposed to here, Americans seem to be obsessed with money.

Money, or rather greed, can seem to be at the base of almost every single aspect of American life at times. And I despise it. It’s disgusting the way America uses money to punish and deprive its citizens — to kick’em when they’re down.

Since we’re talking about money, I’ll start with the Banks. Overdraft fees are the first thing that comes to my mind when discussing how the Banks take advantage of us when we’re struggling. And it’s become so prevalent in our culture that the Banks now advertise, “No Overdraft Fees” for qualifying accounts. Too bad that the ones that need it probably won’t qualify.

It’s almost as if, extorting its people, has become The American Way.

Take a look at how law enforcement interacts with citizens these days. Most of the time it feels far from Peace Officers here to Protect and Serve. It’s a lot more like, Harass and Extort, are the topics of each morning’s brief.

I’ve noticed while traveling that in many other countries world wide, the Police force actually drives around with their blue lights on at all times. Not here, though I have seen a few cities that do.

While in Mexico my Sweetheart asked me about it. “Why do they always have their lights on?”

I told her that I think it’s so that they can easily be identified, and it blew her mind. “You know, like they’re providing a public service.” She couldn’t even imagine it.

Here they drive unmarked cars and lay in wait, so that they can ambush their prey. Then they’ll most likely toss any rights you may have aside, and say anything they can in order to incriminate and search you. And you are very unlikely to get away without a fine of some sort at the very least.

I’ll use Mexico as an example again here. It’s not that extortion doesn’t live there too. They’re just more open about it.

At least in Mexico when the Federales pull you over, you can go ahead and pay your fine right then. Here, they attach a never-ending list of fees alongside the damned fine. And if you want to dispute it, good luck. You’ll have to take a day off of work and spend it in court. Unless you know somebody of course, but I bet that’s how it works pretty much anywhere. It’s always, “who you know,” right?

And to put it simply, I don’t need to be Policed. And I doubt you do either. I would however love to be able to ask their assistance when needed, without immediately becoming a suspect.

And though I won’t get into it, the pseudo private company I work for isn’t any better. If this 250 year old American staple was a person, they’d be nobody’s friend. And though its slogan has long touted its service to the American People, that seems to be the very last thing that it’s concerned with when it comes down to it. Not the employees, and as sure as hell not the customers. I have been rebuked and threatened for showing compassion towards an elderly customer.

And while all of these complaints might seem rather trivial to some. They’re are many American families that are struggling to cope with this ever present foot on their throat. In this article and the accompanying video interview, my friend Chris B. Writes gets very emotional about the difficulties he and his family have faced when dealing with the insurance companies.

A Very Special Episode: The Raw Truth Behind Caregiving for My Son Bray Bray…

If you’re pushed for time I recommend jumping to the 18 minute mark.

But all may not be lost, yet. Just when I began to question whether or not we as a nation had gone past the point of no return, something happened. It wasn’t remarkable. But it has given that flickering light just a little bit more shine.

Maybe The American Way isn’t always to kick a man while he’s down. Maybe not every company out there is looking to extort its customers. Maybe, there’s hope.

I made a big booboo while we were off on vacation. I forgot to pay the power bill. I thought about it before we left, and I’d checked the side of the refrigerator. There hadn’t been a bill there, which confirmed in my mind that it had been paid.

WRONG. When we returned from our vacation there was a past due notice in the mailbox. 😒 Damnit, I’m thinking. I’ll have to take care of this ASAP.

Then the next day I received my current bill. Which had the new total amount due, including the past due amount and a new due date. At the bottom of the bill it stated that the service cutoff date was July 12th, which was a month away.

So since I’m so smart, I decided that I can just wait and pay the whole bill by its “new” due date on June 27th. I know how it works, and all the extra fees have already been applied. So as long as I bring the account back into good standing by the 27th, I’m good.

WRONG AGAIN. When I got home from work yesterday, June 23rd, it was 94 degrees(F) in the house!

I went over and grabbed the electric bills off of the side of the fridge. And sure enough, the cutoff date is still three weeks away. There had been some pretty rough weather earlier in the day, so I called and reported the outage. Within minutes, Terri, with Irwin EMC, was calling back to see what the issue was. Terri is not her real name, btw.

Now I’m going to pause this story here, in order to give you a little backstory on Irwin EMC. And to put it plainly, I’ve been impressed with this company since we’ve moved to Irwin County. The roads might be shit and the commissioners might be considered crooks by many, but by god the electrical grid is as well taken care of as anywhere I’ve ever lived.

I’ve even written them a thank you letter in the past, praising how they had handled the days and weeks after Hurricane Helene rolled through two years ago this October.

The reason is that Irwin EMC stubbornly refuses to turn their electrical grid over to subcontractors, in order to save a dollar. So while many of my family members that live in neighboring counties were forced to wait weeks for help to arrive. If I remember correctly, Irwin EMC had over 90% of their customers back online within five days. If not that #, it was close. Our home had power just three days after the devastating storm tore through our community.

Okay so back to the story at hand. Was Terri able to help me? Or was the machine too big to notice this minor little tick?

If you’re a free subscriber, you’ll have to wait until next week to find out. Paid Subscribers, The American Way Part Two is in your inbox now.

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Psst — this is the Hank Cotton story I was talking about 🤫

An Old Mexico Reading Attempt