Refloating Our Ship
Imagine you’re a travel writer, on assignment to evaluate an ocean liner on a round-the-world trip.
The captain proudly takes you on tours of spacious, light-filled cabins and sparkling recreational facilities. You join him and his officers for delicious meals, spend afternoons by the pool and relax with fellow passengers over cocktails. The service is excellent, and everyone is in a good mood.
As you sit down to write your review, you realize you haven’t seen the whole ship, so you shut down the computer and begin a long hike through the various decks, nooks, and crannies of the huge ship.
You soon realize that the cabins you first saw aren’t representative — on the lower levels they are cramped, with tiny portholes. Even farther down, there is no natural light, and the air smells bad.
You finally make your way into the very bowels of the ship and, in the stifling heat, you see sweaty men operating pumping machines. They tell you the hull is leaking but the officers have decided not to stop for repairs.
The exhausted men are working extra shifts to keep the ship from sinking. The pumps are old and haven’t been well maintained so the men worry what will happen if there’s a major storm.
Passengers on the upper decks aren’t concerned about what’s happening lower down. Most have never given thought to what the rest of the ship is like, or whether the hull is seaworthy. They are enjoying the amenities and the attentive service.
The seamen at the pumps wonder why the captain doesn’t send officers down to inspect what’s happening and take action.
They wonder why the hull wasn’t adequately repaired when the ship was last in port, and why the aging machinery hasn’t been replaced.
Those on the lower levels will probably be the first to drown if there’s a hurricane, or if the ship hits one of the icebergs floating off from the polar icecap. Those on the upper decks will likely not survive either, and in any case their vacation will certainly be ruined.
Our country, under this Republican administration, is a lot like this ocean liner. It brags about the views from the upper decks and the first-class service.
Meanwhile, the nation is operating under dangerous debt; we’re cutting investment in infrastructure and giving enormous tax breaks to those who have everything.
Those closer to the hull are working longer hours just to survive, and most don’t even have time to be outraged at the unfairness.
An objective travel writer would never give this ocean liner a good review. The dangers to everyone — from the first-class cabin dwellers to the workers in the engine room — are apparent if one looks at the whole ship carefully.
It’s risky for everyone aboard if the infrastructure, including the men operating the pumps, are neglected. How can the company justify devoting so much staff time to fine dining and attentive service while the hull is in disrepair, the pumps are aging and the men are becoming too tired to work them effectively?
Realists see through the exaggerated statements of our nation’s prosperity. They believe we should take steps now to prevent or at least minimize the effects of likely hurricanes ahead, storms that threaten everyone’s future standard of living: flu pandemics, terrorism, the nation’s debt, international conflicts over oil and water and food, global warming.
And yet our Republican administration cuts investment in public health, does little to protect our infrastructure from sabotage, increases the national debt even further by giving more tax breaks to the wealthy, is reckless in its international policies, and refuses to take real steps to conserve energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Unfortunately we have Republican administrations not only in Washington but also in a majority of state capitols.
Our Massachusetts ship’s captain and his officers paint rosy pictures of progress while infrastructure deteriorates and many who have full-time jobs can’t afford to live here, get preventive medical care or send their kids to public colleges. In some neighborhoods we can’t even depend on prompt assistance in case of fire or other emergency.
Because the Democratic Party works for the common good, if we were in charge we’d instruct the ocean liner’s captain to stop at the nearest port and make the ship seaworthy, not run the risk of drowning passengers and crew.
That would be the moral course of action, as well as the sensible way to proceed for all concerned, including the corporate owners.
