Manufacturing the politic divide

The current economic strain is caused by greed at the top. The political divide manufactured by the same elites leads to a breakdown of the civil discourse needed as the foundation for retaliation. As people instinctivly turn on each other, the debate sounds like 'I’m right because you’re wrong because you’re stupid and I hate you.’ Long-term solutions, such as the wind turbine to be installed in Warwick, cannot be so easily dismissed as ridiculous in a few paragraphs to a newspaper. Debate and conclusions should be the final steps after all facts and variables and their complex interaction have been established. They include engineering, finance, the nature and purpose of grants, or the value of human life in countries whose oil we covet. We need to consider gas-drilling in areas of Pennsylvania once as pristine as Warwick, to replace incomes lost with manufacturing that has gone overseas. Not far, in the town of Jim Thorpe,Pa., the Old Jail Museum is where members of the Molly Maguires were hanged for their alleged connection to the murders of two mine bosses. With small pay and long hours working in dangerous mines, the men had joined together to force more pay and better conditions. You can also tour the mansion on the hill, owned by Asa Packer who built the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the 1850’s. At his death, his estate was valued at more than 54 million dollars! History is a great teacher. I think the biggest mistake we’re making today is where we’re placing the dividing line. It’s public sector v. private, union v. non-union, education v. “hard work” and small businesses are mistakenly aligning themselves politically with wealthy corporations. By the time we’re all done pulling each other down into the gutter, businesses will have run out of customers. Maybe the revolution needs to be in the way we think and behave, so we can access our most valuable resource - collective consumer bargaining power. If we can’t, we’ll continue to be entertainment for our owners as they look down from their mansions on the hill, and watch us play their game. Geraldine Hayes Warwick