Unfortunately, I can't afford to take time off work or get arrested - so I'm going to Occupy my livingroom. Yes, that is cynical, and no, I really do not mean it, but despite my wholehearted support of these protestors, I can't join them. For a lot of reasons, financial, health and other.
But I do understand their message, even though it isn't being stated flat out and easily understood. I know their hearts are in the right place, in spite of all the negative publicity they're getting. They're not just "dirty fucking hippies" - and they're not looking for a free handout, which the 1% and their media lapdogs claim.
I wish I could explain this, explain it better and get the right words. I can't. But I do GET it. And I know that at least 1 person will come here and try to make out that he knows better and that the Baggers know better. And all I can say is - I know you aren't part of the 1% yourself, and that really is a shame that you can't see it. Hopefully this will work and benefit you and your family - but I know you won't get it.
I suspect you probably worry because they rail against "corporate" America, and your Dad owns a business and is probably incorporated - even though I doubt that he makes (after tax deductions) more than a million dollars a year - and probably would only see a modest increase in his federal taxes. It isn't corporations themselves. It's the inordinate amount of influence that a very few very large corporations have over the members of Congress and the President - and all of the candidates of BOTH parties.
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Did the trick-or-treat thing last nite. Gave away a bag of tootsie pops and a bag of miniature boxes of Dots. I fell in love with a little baby dressed up like a ladybug in a polar-fleece costume with little black dots on her face. There was one little moslem princess (Mom had on hijab) who didnt want the lollypop, she wanted the Dots - and was ever-so polite in asking for them.
It was fun. I even threw a few lollypops to Dads who were waiting at the end of the sidewalk.
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I need some vacation time, though. I really do.
I need a recharge.
Leave those protests and movements to the younger folks, it's their future so they can fix it. We only have to be cheerleaders, and take pot shots at those passing by to keep everyone alert. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe willingness of some to suffer greatly just so their owners and Masters can add to their riches amazes me!
ReplyDeleteOn a popular TV show over here one of our great politicians... hang on delete the word great... had a go at the protesters camped outside St Paul's. Since they were buying coffee at Starbucks and had bought new tents to camp in she seemed to say they couldn't complain about capitalism. Patently bonkers.
ReplyDeleteIt is here if you want a laugh - although this lady is an MP so maybe it isn't so laughable as scary. She is a romantic literature author and married to the manager of Metallica as well for good measure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WvAkhW-XNI
As you say the complaint is not per se against capitalism but some of it's excesses.
I suspect you are referring to me. No I am not the 1%, very far from it. I toil my ass off for the little I have. I do get embittered when I see my nieces and cousins who are healthy as horses collecting disability, food stamps, medication, cell phones, rent, even cars from the tax payers dime. My dime and yours. I get prolly as frustrated as you get when Warren Buffett starts fanning the flames of discontent when he talks of all the tax shelters he's abused over the years. And yes dad does own a business and pays out a lot in taxes, but does not clear a million annually. You're an accountant, you know how it goes for small business owners.
ReplyDeleteYou may not believe it, but I get it too. I don't disagree per say with the overall message of the Occupiers, although like you, I think their message is getting lost in the noise. Their message isn't part of the left or the right. It's common sense. It is believing that America needs to scale back the plutocracy that currently dictates what our government will do. I never claimed to know better, quite the opposite. I do know what hasn't worked. Everything that has been done up to this point has not worked. Big government, sleeping with corporations, all of it. It hasn't worked. We've gotten lost somewhere along the line. I think you and I aren't all that different at the core. We just disagree on how we are going to get there.
PS. Go eat a bag of dicks, Billy. Its your generation that fucked things up in the first place. Now my generation is left with a 3-ring fuck show to fix.
PPS. I am burnt too.
I've always voted for what I thought was the lessor of two evils, or idiots. We haven't had any good people run for office for many years. Even Obama is just one of the good old boys.
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