I'm tired right now but I'm also angry. I've been angry for the past few days. I'm tired because I've worked all night and even though it's my day off, I've been struggling to figure out how I wanted to say what I want to say without sounding shrill, without sounding like I'm looking for something.

Even now I find it difficult to focus, and I'm not sure if its because of the lack of sleep or the three days of anger I have felt. About a week ago, when the story of Wisconsin was not much of a story, a caller to a progressive radio station talked about how “The sleeper had awakened,” a reference he attributed to the Dune movie. Judging by the growing crowd of support, this would seem to be an apt assessment. There are quite a few, however, who have another word from the crowds and the people who support them. These folks call the protesters freeloaders. If anyone listened to Rush Limbaugh last week they would have heard him use the term over and over again. Anyone listening to FoxNews would have gotten a looking glass view of the event. Instead of being hailed as patriots, instead of being praised for their actions the protesters and those who support them have been called malcontents, lazy and criminal.

On a conservative radio show yesterday I heard a teacher call up and the host attacked her for being ungrateful for the 'excessive' amount of money she made. He challenged her on what she paid for health care, ridiculed her because, being a teacher, she only works nine months out of the year, not like 'real Americans, who work hard and don't get fat pensions for doing nothing.' What I must say didn't surprise me were the amount of calls he received saying he was right. A few years ago the same talk show host talked about how teachers needed to be respected. Today he trashes them for making too much money and not working hard.

Sometimes people can be so short sighted. We act so much like crabs in a pot, willing to bring people down when we think they're getting out of the pot. We're so concerned about what we think is someone else trying to cheat us, trying to do one over on us, we don't feel the heat coming all around us.

FoxNews, Rush Limbaugh and other pawns on the right are just that, pawns. They think of themselves as masters of their domain and as long as they can serve their corporate masters, they can rule over the cogs. Our problem is we are so blinded by our own pain we are unwilling to think and see what is going on. Like Cypher in the Matrix, many of us don't care that the Matrix isn't real. They are tired of the slop, of the dirt, of the grime and are willing to sell themselves out for the illusion rather than fight the real enemy.

I'm angry now because I'm done. I'm tired of listening to the lies, I'm tired of trying to convince people of the truth when they are so willing to stay connected as a battery. It doesn't take a genius to see the madness going on, but many are willing to follow the dictates of pawns. As tired as I am, as done as I am of trying to talk to the blinded masses, I can't stop.

I heard lots of stories when I was a kid about people who had to get along to survive in the South. At a young age I knew I couldn't live like that. I was stubborn, and the older I got the more I tried to do the good fight, to try and make a difference. Almost a year ago, there was an incident in my hometown with racial tension at UCSD. The fire grew inside me and went to Facebook to rally my old friends to send out the message of the injustice. I was like a general, ready to rush into the face of danger, however when I got halfway down the proverbial battlefield and looked back, I had no one. I was, to say the least, a little confused that people I saw who spoke so much about wanting to change the world couldn't when the time came. While I wanted to lash out at them, I had to take a good look at myself. I was ready to head in San Diego, but my job and my status at the time prevented me from physically going.

About six months ago, when I had a personal issue that was a bit traumatic, I made an unwise choice. While I told myself I was being responsible, I became a cog. I hated it, I didn't like it, but I embraced it so I could get along. For a while, I had myself convinced I was doing the right thing, but slowly I saw whatever I did to keep myself 'right with the world' was choking me.

Just before the Wisconsin event, I started to reclaim myself. It wasn't easy and I took some backward steps, but the Wisconsin event, and especially the reaction by conservatives, galvanized me. Wisconsin has inspired me to fight back, not because I want to rally people to a cause per se, but because people have to be made aware of what is being done to them. I might not get a lot of people to listen, but I have to keep getting the word out, keep fighting against those who would let us remain blind and slaves to the corporations.