Dignity, That's What We Want

When I listen to the song Dignity by Bob Dylan, I think of how more and more people are deprived of dignity every day. Politicians and by extension the so called mainstream media pundits who follow the politicians' lead, either out of fear or complicity, would have you believe that the working class and the middle class are made up of free loading lazy whiners who feel entitled to handouts and benefits without contributing anything to society.

Sadly, this myth gets repeated again and again in the media echo chamber until even people in the middle and working class, who based on their own experience should know better, begin to believe this big lie. A lie designed and perpetuated by the wealthy and powerful to divide and conquer the majority, so the wealthy and the powerful can remain in power and continue to line their pockets.

The majority of the working class and middle class just ask for one thing. They want to live their lives with dignity. They want a living wage on which to raise a family and own a home. They want to be able to keep that home and live a life without the fear of foreclosure, due to the loss of their job, or predatory lending practices. They want affordable health care that is not run as a for-profit business. They want to be able to work at a job or career that will not reward years of loyalty and hard work by handing out pink slips and shipping their jobs to overseas workers who will work for next to nothing. They want to be able to retire at the end of a long career with the money they have contributed to their own retirement. Unlike the politicians and the media pundits who rail against them and promote the lie of the lazy free loader, the majority of the working class and middle class don't want to be handed these things on a silver platter. They are willing to work for it and earn it. All they ask for in return is a little dignity.

Click on the highlighted song title above to listen to Bob Dylan's musical take on the often elusive dignity.

Favorite Lyric:

"Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams
So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take
To find dignity."

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