Dear Gloria Estefan, please shut the fuck up

Last winter, Gloria Estefan was interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning. Skip to the 3:18 mark to hear her epically offensive comment about which I am now writing: 

Quote: “It really irks me when someone says that the American Dream is dead because that could not be further from the truth.”

Ya know what really irks me? Clueless rich fat cats who are so fucking isolated in their little rich world bubbles and their own versions of “the truth” that they don’t see that, yes, the American Dream IS pretty much dead for lots of us who didn’t have the good fortune to luck out and become millionaires like she did. Seriously, how dare she try to tell me or anyone else who has given up that our realities are not real.

Comment from Bill Moyers' "The Long Dark Shadows of Plutocracy"

Here’s the thing. This new American economy just isn’t working for lots of us. It sure isn’t working for me -- my American Dream died when I lost my home in 2014 -- which is why I’m heading overseas to teach English. We are giving up because it would be stupid not to (that’s the definition of stupid, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results).

Sorry our reality doesn’t jibe with your little bubble in which you live, Ms. Estefan. Perhaps if you stepped out of that bubble, you’d see this is not the same country it was when you first made it big here back in the 1980s.

Yes, things were still great here back then. You could walk into any business and talk to the manager about whether or not they were hiring – and sometimes you’d get hired on the spot. Those days are over and they’re NOT coming back.

Here’s an enlightening video from Local USA (PBS) about hunger in America. Skip to the 8:30 mark to “learn about a family that is slipping out of the middle class and into hard times.”

 “…There is another side to DuPage County, one that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. It includes packed food pantries and crowds at the county welfare office. Candace King coordinates human services in DuPage County, and she has watched poverty grow. “It’s exploded. In the 16 years that I have been in my job it has gone from something that was rarely encountered in this community, and certainly no one thought it was here, to an issue that we encounter every day.” 

I certainly relate to the woman they interview at the 10:10 mark who has TWO master’s degrees and only earned $11,000 in the previous year. I sure know who CANNOT relate – a millionaire.  Yes, watch the stories of the people struggling in this video and tell me how it’s all their fault they didn’t become millionaires, because it’s so easy to do! How dare these experiences (and mine and so many others) not be completely identical to yours! 

Gimme a break. You became rich and famous because you got lucky – I have seen better singers on the early seasons of “American Idol” who didn’t have the good fortune to make it to the final rounds. And that’s what it boils down to, sheer dumb luck. Being in the right place at the right time. Nothing more, nothing less.

Hear how Leslie Caron became famous at the 1:38 mark:

"Good luck happens to a lot of people."

So, do us peasants a favor, Ms. Estefan, and keep your “let them eat cake” comments to yourself.

______

On a side note, it wasn’t long after seeing this segment that I decided I no longer had the stomach for CBS Sunday Morning, as it has become nothing but a spotlight on how this world spins for the rich. First, there was an episode with a segment about cereal cafes where people were paying $7 for a stupid bowl of cereal, followed by a segment about rich Chinese men buying Harley Davidsons. Then came an episode that was entirely dedicated to “lifestyles of the rich and famous;” the segments included a tour of Newport, house flippers (people getting rich off of the misfortune of others), golf courses, Dior, and Manhattan skyscrapers being built exclusively for rich fat cats. On that last topic, see what the "peasant" class truly thinks of the Central Park Tower on Bill Moyers' site.