BY SHARON MARTIN

We have guns. Nobody is coming to take them away, despite a vocal power lobby that wants you to believe that the Second Amendment is under attack.

We can worship as we please. Nobody will stop you from attending the church of your choice or praying in any public space. We have the right to be Christians. We also have the right not to be.

Does this all mean that our country is turning out to be just what the Founding Fathers envisioned?

Not by a long shot. They risked their lives and their fortunes to create a nation without a ruling class. George Washington didn’t want to be king. Thomas Jefferson warned that without a progressive tax system, eventually there would be a moneyed class.

They rejected the idea of a nobility. Instead, they wanted a country where anyone can get ahead.

We are in danger of losing what the founders sacrificed to build, but I don’t hear an outcry from the our-constitution-is-under-attack crowd. They’ve been bought off or brainwashed into believing that government from the bottom up is a bad thing.

The American Dream is a nightmare for some people. For others, it is just a fantasy. The country that was created by a band of immigrants wants to close its doors.

Our laws are skewed so that a disproportionate number of poor and people of color end up behind bars.

Democracy is at risk because money, not the common good, wins elections.

Our education system is being dismantled to create an educated class to rule and a trained class to work.

Union is bandied about like a dirty word. That bill of goods called Right to Work has people earning less and working harder.

The idea that corporations deserve our tax dollars but the children and the needy do not is perhaps the most insidious development of all.

Am I disheartened? Yes. But am I out of hope? No.

On Monday, teachers, parents, and concerned citizens of this state will march for education. We will try to wrest control of public education from those who want to destroy this centerpiece of democracy and replace it with a for-profit system. We say no.

If we save our education system from the grasping hands of those who’ll take it from us, we will save our country. Educated people won’t let themselves be hoodwinked and robbed. They will demand workers’ rights and access to healthcare.

We are all better off if we are all better off. Public education is the key.

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer