The Happiest Place on Earth

Dear Mr. President,

Happy birthday! No way to ignore it. Campaign ads everywhere on the internet—Sign The Card! Happy Birthday Barack! Obama Biden 2012! I’m sure there’ll be a fancy cake for you, probably a big party, maybe those funny hats and noisemakers, balloons, gifts—rulers always get expensive gifts from friends and family and those who want favors, an ancient tradition. Some people like to go to Disneyland for their birthday but I doubt you will. You’re way too busy with war and re-election, choosing who to put on your Kill List this week and how to pay for all those shiny new killing machines—the drones and helicopter gunships and Hellfire missiles. But another reason you won’t be going to Disneyland—the Happiest Place on Earth according to Disney brochures—is that the citizens of Anaheim, the 99% anyway, are “restive,” protesting the police shooting and killing of unarmed young men, mostly Latinos who don’t live in the Happy part of the Happiest Place on Earth, but in the mean streets where poverty, unemployment and violence prevail and people have lost hope. For years they’ve endured and now, after the most recent police shootings, the citizens finally had enough and went into the streets to protest. As usual, they were met by police in combat gear—assault rifles, tear gas, batons—and sharpshooters guarding their headquarters (shades of Syria, Bahrain, Egypt…) and the protesters were also kept away from Disneyland so they couldn’t spoil the Disney experience for tourists. This is a microcosm of America, Mr. President, a place where the people have no voice and no representation in government, where their rulers give lavish tax breaks to developers who build luxury hotels but reject affordable housing. In Anaheim, the city council and the mayor, those who rule, live in the Anaheim Hills, the wealthy enclave of the 1% where they can’t see the widespread poverty down in the flats, the injustice and violence of everyday life where residents are afraid to go downstairs to do laundry because of gangbangers. Their city, according to an ex-mayor, is “one of the safest cities in the country”; the rulers have no connection to the average citizen. Anaheim and Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth. Obama 2008: Hope Change Transformation. The American myth, the American reality. Happy Birthday, Mr. President. I hope you take a few minutes today to think about the people out here who live without hope every day, people who almost never have a happy birthday.

 Long Beach Police guarding Disneyland