We sleep, somewhere a soldier wakes up, sirens wail as they hear the scream of missiles penetrating the onslaught of sounds barraging their drowsy mind, they dress themself and move to their position in case of a ground attack. They just wanted to protect their country, democracy, freedom, America – our most loyal client. Their brave sacrifice, and that of the others is just a small, necessary, misfortune in the grand scheme.
We sleep, somewhere a woman cries in her car, she has to tell her nine-year-old diabetic son that she cannot afford his insulin. She works a full-time job, and she cries to her fellow Americans, ‘how are you making it’. She is being dramatic, she can sell her car, her house, or take out a loan, insulin is one of our most profitable products in America – we spend a lot to keep it that way.
We sleep, somewhere a father slaves away at his second full-time job while his kids rely on free lunch to eat. He cries when he is alone because he feels he is a failure, he cannot give his children a ‘good life’ even though he works 70 hours a week just to afford their housing, food, and his transportation – minimum wage is not enough. He has to learn to pull himself up by his bootstraps, his needs cut into our profits.
We sleep, somewhere a family is homeless and displaced, with only the clothes on their back and the few household valuables they brought with them to their name. Their home burnt down only months after we canceled their home insurance – the risk of fire was too high. Profit must always come before people.
We sleep, somewhere a man is incarcerated, he is being paid five dollars daily to work for us. Today he is a firefighter, tomorrow he is a hard laborer, his five dollar pay is generous – he is not deserving of human treatment. Despite his expensive-to-treat mental illness and abusive upbringing, he should have thought of the consequences of his actions before he acted, surely treating him like an animal will show him why he shouldn’t act as one.
We sleep, somewhere a child cries, they are not normal, they hate themself. They have been branded as the enemy, they are one of our distractions. They just want to be treated as who they are, not as different or evil. They want to use their restroom, to be called by their name, to be referred to by their identity – but America fears them, so they hate them. Good, they aren’t us.
We sleep, in Washington D.C. our closest ally is being paid, they do as we say, they represent us, their voters cannot care, they are distracted, drowning, and scared. Good.
We wake, it feels good to live in our America, the gilded America, where we live life as we please, and are paid by our government for our mega corporations’ patriotic roles as America’s suppliers of weapons, medicine, insurance, prisons, and technology, but we do not give a penny back, why should we? Americans do not deserve handouts.