Read Online The Busting Out of an Ordinary Man by Odie Hawkins - Free Book Online

tried to convince all the rest of us that all we had to do, in order to change things was to vote for the Republicans if you didn’t like the way things were goin’, or the Democrats, whichever one was in power at the moment.”
    â€œI been a Democrat for twenny years,” Father Franklin shot in, not exactly delighted to hear his daughter run down the America he had voted for.
    â€œBut,” Lubertha continued earnestly, “what they didn’t tell us, the lil’ po’ dumb believers, is that the money people run both parties, and when it gets to a point of makin’ a decision about whether we’re goin’ to have good government or dirty money, it’ll be dirty money every time.”
    Ed Franklin fished a pack of cigarettes out of his robe pocket, lit up and looked at Lubertha with a deep frown.
    â€œHold on now, you done lost me somewhere … and I don’t mean about the money part; I know, for a fact that all them slimy politicians got they hands in the kitty but I’m still sayin’ that this system is still the best.”
    Lubertha rode past her father, knowing that she would get bogged down if she allowed him to deviate too much. “Daddy, let’s just stay with the money part for a minute ’cause that’s really what it’s all about. Those names they’ve stuck on these so-called political parties don’t really count. For all we know, a couple billionaires in Argentina or somewhere may have gotten together with a couple billionaires in the U.S. of A. to decide who was gonna be president for the next four years, or vice versa.…”
    â€œAin’t you forgettin’ somethin’?” he asked sarcastically, certain that he had a nail for her.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œWhat about the people? You forget, we vote whoever we want into office even in Miss’ssippi nowadays.”
    Lubertha gulped her beer and almost choked on it in her hurry to reply. “I disagree, Daddy. We think we vote whoever we want into office. In this day ’n age, television, meanin’ Big Money, makes the vote happen for whoever Big Money is behind.”
    Ed Franklin smiled at his daughter’s logic, liking and disliking her opposition. “Hmf! Sho’ is cold, daughter. Sho’ is cold. To let you tell it, the American voter ain’t got a leg to stand on.”
    â€œIt may sound cold, but facts are colder still. If the American voter had a leg to stand on, things wouldn’t be in the messed up shape they’re in now.”
    He shook his head slowly, picked up his can and drained it, thinking hard. “Awright, things ain’t as good as they could be, but we still got it better than most other folks in the world.”
    â€œThe reason why,” she answered promptly, “is because we’ve no, no, I can’t say we , lets say they’ve exploited, cheated, conned, warred and ripped off all the rest of the world for as long as they’ve been in power, the only things we’ve received have been the leftovers, the crumbs from the ripoffs and you can bet your bottom dollar that if they had a way of keeping the crumbs away from us, they would’ve done it a long time ago.”
    â€œThese billionaires you talkin’ about?”
    â€œUh huh, one ’n the same, some of ’em have English names, Spanish, Greek, Indian, German, Arabic, Jewish a lot of ’em have Japanese names these days. The point is, when they link up to exploit, their names are all the same, Exploitation.”
    Ed Franklin shrugged away the wild urge to snatch his daughter across the table, pull her across his knees and spank her. “Awright! awright! money rules! the rich run every damned thing and all the rest of us fools is just runnin’ ’round tryin’ to survive. Awright! I’ll go for it. Now lemme ask you this, since you seem to have all the answers. What other way could thangs be?