Read more about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.
It's the poison in the toy beads from China; it's the underfunded and underarmored soldiers in Iraq; it's the jaw dropping succession of cronies in government; it's the ping-ponging economy and the disingenuous disavowals of it's instability; it's the incessant enforced obsolescence of technology; it's the mercenaries for hire deployed to fight unnecessary wars; it's the corrupt and deceitful attorney generals; it's the abandoned hunt for the perpetrators of terror; it's the shrugging off of the anthrax scare; it's the rising oil prices; it's the housing crisis; it's the squandering of the trillion dollar surplus into the trillion dollar debt; it's the unending obfuscation and smirking and shrugging.
It's all the antics performed right in front of our gullible faces, all the blatant two-faced three card Monte artifice of loathsome George, tragic Hillary and frightening Rudy and THAT'S WHY IT'S NOT JUST THE WRITER'S STRIKE, STUPID.
All of us in every tax bracket, all workers who labor longer and longer hours to feed their families, who dream of owning a home, of alleviating personal debt, of being able to avail themselves of decent affordable health care, of decent affordable education, of breathing clean air, of living in a peaceful cooperative world safe from the extremists and zealots -- they are the ones that need to stop their own exploitation, abuse and open mockery by the gilded greed drunks, the men who care nothing for the efforts of the innocent laborers who themselves want nothing to do with fame or wealth or power über alles.
(Wait. I am pausing my polemic to allow the reader to take a quick Bias Check: when you've watched It's a Wonderful Life, who do you root for, Jimmy Stewart or Lionel Barrymore? It's basically that simple, folks. Okay, back to haranguing.)
They need to strike because they view the world from ground level level as opposed to lofty heights where the usurers dwell. They know that desiring the same thing their masters have in spades, that by kneecapping the creators of content, the hewers of material, the sculptors of tools, by undercutting the quality of the product in order to secure even greater yields, they would virtually ensure the end of, dare I say, all we profess to hold dear in this country.
The Writers' Strike. If only it were just about them. If only they were as their opponents would have the world believe: a bunch of already over-compensated pansy Hollywood types grousing about more cold cuts and cocaine. Yeah, and if only there were weapons of mass destruction. If only there was yellow cake. If only Bush was a compassionate conservative. It's way deeper: the striking writers are the nagging, enflamed tip of a much deeper, insidious infection.
America's greatness lies in its desire to battle tyranny from within, not without. Throwing its military might around without able pilots at the helm and to serve an imperialist agenda leads to where we have now found ourselves: out of money, out of friends, out favor and out of luck. What the WGA's strike symbolizes is the plight of the citizen against the tyranny of greed that is eroding the spirit of this nation.
So let workers of all stripes, in all forms, in all professions walk the line. It's not just their strike. It's yours.
Read more about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.