Help I've been kidnapped....by the ancient ways of pre-www life. Since our move to town I haven't been able to acquire Internet service. Working on that, but food and rent come first. We are all adjusting well to life in town, although EVERY time I hear a car door shut (which is often, considering this a duplex subdivision) I think someone is coming to my door and have the urge to turn off the lights and pretend I am not home...then it occurs to me it's just my neighbors going about their business. Living in the middle of nowhere spoiled me on the luxury of no traffic. But it is soooo nice to be able to run to the store or a drive thru or a the video store and be home within minutes! YES! For a homebody like me that is heaven.
So my topic of the day....OWS and what it means for society.
Life is good at the moment except for a drastic loss in hours at the job I love. The economy is shit and much like me, nobody can afford luxuries right now. So the luxury of eating at a nice restaurant is not high on every one's list. It has occurred to me that my children are being raised in what is essentially the second Great Depression. We might not feel so deprived because we all bought our laptops, iPhones, iPad, iPod and iEverything Else without acknowledging that the tragic snowball is growing bigger and rolling faster...but as I watch my kids play the Wii and all the games on my Android I am also rationing out milk, cooking as cheaply as possible while still trying to make healthy meals and traveling out of town as little as possible to conserve gas. When you are scrounging the house for money to buy gas...it's time to rethink the budget. But even recalculating doesn't seem to help...we are bled dry.
So am I the 99%? You bet! And would I be a part of the Occupy Wall Street movement if I could? Absolutely! But unfortunately I have no choice but to punch the clock and keep the wheels turning in this crazy life of mine. But I support these men and women....when they are told to "go back to work" or "get a job" their response is "We are too busy fighting for YOU so You can keep Your job!" And I completely support that idea! Thank you to the OWS movement for trying to push change. I don't want my children to grow up suffocated by the power of the wealthy. "We The People" means ALL THE PEOPLE!
Having worked in the banking industry for years I can attest to the four main categories a productive "99% American citizen" seems to fall in. Low income, working full time, paying taxes and STILL relying welfare for food and health care...and STILL not cutting it. (Me) Middle income people who are skating by without government assistance, but living paycheck to paycheck and literally one paycheck away from disaster (my status while married), Middle income Americans living comfortably with the ever present threat that they may fall victim to the economy and be forced to live on their savings...and that can only hold out for so long. From the outside looking in it's easy to assume those who fall in the last bracket of my categories really don't have it too bad, but financial safety is an illusion to almost every citizen in the US.....the true extreme is the 1%. And that 1%, because of it's wealth, has more power than any of us can fathom. Our rights as American citizens are influenced, infringed and sometimes completely removed by this small group of people whose power and money directly affect humans on a global level.
Until we decide to start giving a shit...nothing will change. So give a shit damn it! Even if all you can do is pray or send good vibes to those who are protesting for you. Even if you disagree with OWS...they are fighting for you anyway. Fighting for all of us. Change must occur if we want our children to live in a country where they can feed their own children with a true and fair government watching out for their interests.
*climbing off my soap box....ducking the rotten tomatoes*
So my topic of the day....OWS and what it means for society.
Life is good at the moment except for a drastic loss in hours at the job I love. The economy is shit and much like me, nobody can afford luxuries right now. So the luxury of eating at a nice restaurant is not high on every one's list. It has occurred to me that my children are being raised in what is essentially the second Great Depression. We might not feel so deprived because we all bought our laptops, iPhones, iPad, iPod and iEverything Else without acknowledging that the tragic snowball is growing bigger and rolling faster...but as I watch my kids play the Wii and all the games on my Android I am also rationing out milk, cooking as cheaply as possible while still trying to make healthy meals and traveling out of town as little as possible to conserve gas. When you are scrounging the house for money to buy gas...it's time to rethink the budget. But even recalculating doesn't seem to help...we are bled dry.
So am I the 99%? You bet! And would I be a part of the Occupy Wall Street movement if I could? Absolutely! But unfortunately I have no choice but to punch the clock and keep the wheels turning in this crazy life of mine. But I support these men and women....when they are told to "go back to work" or "get a job" their response is "We are too busy fighting for YOU so You can keep Your job!" And I completely support that idea! Thank you to the OWS movement for trying to push change. I don't want my children to grow up suffocated by the power of the wealthy. "We The People" means ALL THE PEOPLE!
Having worked in the banking industry for years I can attest to the four main categories a productive "99% American citizen" seems to fall in. Low income, working full time, paying taxes and STILL relying welfare for food and health care...and STILL not cutting it. (Me) Middle income people who are skating by without government assistance, but living paycheck to paycheck and literally one paycheck away from disaster (my status while married), Middle income Americans living comfortably with the ever present threat that they may fall victim to the economy and be forced to live on their savings...and that can only hold out for so long. From the outside looking in it's easy to assume those who fall in the last bracket of my categories really don't have it too bad, but financial safety is an illusion to almost every citizen in the US.....the true extreme is the 1%. And that 1%, because of it's wealth, has more power than any of us can fathom. Our rights as American citizens are influenced, infringed and sometimes completely removed by this small group of people whose power and money directly affect humans on a global level.
Until we decide to start giving a shit...nothing will change. So give a shit damn it! Even if all you can do is pray or send good vibes to those who are protesting for you. Even if you disagree with OWS...they are fighting for you anyway. Fighting for all of us. Change must occur if we want our children to live in a country where they can feed their own children with a true and fair government watching out for their interests.
*climbing off my soap box....ducking the rotten tomatoes*
0 comments:
Post a Comment