What's Going On?

Years ago Marvin Gaye had a hit song called “What’s Going On?” Today that question should be heard loud and clear and should be asked by the majority of the poor and working class in this country. It seems that people are too busy trying to make ends meet to even stop and question, What’s Going On?

You don’t even have to read the newspaper, just scan the headlines and see if you don’t stop in your tracks and ask, What’s Going On?

We’ve become, unfortunately, a nation of sheep that is being led to wherever our money hungry leaders want to take us. Many think that our leaders are great and are keeping us safe, but in essence they are just waiting for the right time to take us to the slaughterhouse.

I’ve seen everything and I mean everything I use and purchase go up during the past three months. Thank God that it has been a mild winter so far, or I would shudder to think how costlier it would have been to heat my house – as it is my heating bill has doubled in December and January. Doesn’t anyone ask What’s Going On when our oil companies declared record profits last quarter? The only reason I can think of why only a few raised a voice was that maybe many who were silent were recipients of this good fortune – the investors.

I said to myself, What’s Going On, when I read in yesterday’s paper that this country has seen such a steady rise in sleeping pills that it is now reaching epidemic proportions. Don’t you want to ask, What’s Going On when you read stuff like this? Why are people becoming so dependent on sleeping pills? Has something changed in the atmosphere or water or food to create such a large number of insomniacs?

My gut feeling is MONEY. Drug companies profit. Doctors have become paid pill pushers. I’ve witnessed too many times the arrival of pharmaceutical salesmen in a doctor’s office. He comes bearing gifts in hopes of getting the doctor to prescribe some costlier and probably dangerous and less effective drug. This is basically a drug transaction. Is it legal? Yes. Is it ethical? You be the judge. If you say yes, I’ll wager my monthly stipend on guessing that you are a beneficiary of drug company profits. You are an investor.

It’s interesting to see these transactions occurring right before your eyes. Yesterday I had to wait ten minutes while the receptionist at my primary care physician’s office serviced and waited on these slick shysters before I could sort of check out. You watch and be on the lookout for them the next time you're in a doctor's waiting room. They come in impeccably dressed carrying a combination of briefcases and bags that generally have a bunch of medicinal samples that will be dropped off. They know the receptionist on a first name basis and finagle themselves in to do their dirty work. I’ve gotten so annoyed with them that they rank below used car salesmen on my list of least favorite professions.

Be careful what you tell your doctor next time you visit him because they are always ready and willing to prescribe another drug that will take care of what ails you. I recently drove an elderly lady to her doctor. When I went to pick her up she was lamenting that her blood pressure was elevated and said that her doctor had given her a fourth prescription for blood pressure medication. I wondered why the woman didn’t question her doctor. She should have said, “What’s Going On”, you have me taking three different medications for high blood pressure and they haven’t worked and now you are adding a fourth. I truly think that the doctor was the cause of this woman’s pressure to rise.

Another area where we have become like sheep is in following the results of all these studies. It seems like every week a result of a study is published that contradicts the original findings. What’s Going On?

Just today, I read that a major study has found, low fat diets do not protect women against heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer or colon cancer, contradicting what had once been promoted as one of the cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle. What’s Going On?

The first thing I’d like to know is who volunteers for these studies? They are people who need MONEY.

MONEY is the driving force behind everything. Beware when a supermarket advertises a buy one get one free sale. Are you really getting one free or have they jacked up the price of the item to where you are not getting any bargain. What’s Going On?

When you drive down the street and see four utility workers around a job site and only one working, do you ask What’s Going On or do you just drive away without ever giving the wasteful spending a thought. Maybe you don’t say anything because your brother-in-law was one of the three hanging around.

I’m afraid many people in this country have been beaten to the point of not having the strength nor the will to fight for what's right.

We are passing all our problems to the next generation. We had the GREATEST generation that came through the Second World War and got us back on our feet and now we have the BEATEN generation that’s wiping all of that away.

What’s Going On?