I finished up my day, and wandered into Steiner's for a pint and my Pork Charsu Bowl, because it's Thursday, and that's what I do. I sit down, put my $20 into the poker machine (I love Vegas), and order my "Diet Coors". A news blip on the TV gets a comment out of the lady at the bar, a 20 something female...about the "Occupy ___" movement. The comment was sympathetic to the movement, but no specifics on why. For the sake of argument, we'll call her "Libby". :)
I opine to her that I think the movement is just another excuse for uneducated, unwashed and unorganized unemployed to bitch about their lives. I shut it down after that, because it's a pub...and I get enough political discussions elsewhere. Then...this happens. "You're just lucky you still have a job, those poor people are just mad at corporate greed." And so the dogs of war are released.
NOTHING sets me off more than someone telling me that my success in life is due to fate, luck or the stars. If that were so, I surely wasted so much of my youth getting up at 4AM to go to fish markets in downtown LA, then spend the better part of the sunny Southern California days delivering meat and seafood to restaurants...before finishing the day/night at college. Luck? I made my luck, by being prepared for the opportunities that presented themselves. Fate? If I didn't know about my trade at 20 years old, I wouldn't have GOTTEN my opportunities. I went to college, wrote my economic thesis on 1860's Ireland, and still managed to work 50 hours a week. So don't tell me about luck. I sold dead fish for years out of a van and I never smelled as bad as these no-talent ass-clowns that are bitching about $5 surcharges on their accounts. Corporate greed is what gave us the Ford Assembly line, the Oil companies of the early 20th century, the IPAD, and yes...the housing bubble, the bailouts and the economic malaise we currently are in. You want someone to blame...blame whoever wrote the rulebooks that these banks have been following. After all, it's not the banks fault that Chris Dodd and Barney Frank told them they had to charge less for merchants to use their services...so the consumer got the price passed on to them. That's what happens when the government interferes with commerce. It's the law of unintended consequences, and it's rearing its head now.
Well, we agreed to disagree, and went back to watching baseball, and watching my 4 Aces not come up on the screen yet again. As far as the unlucky congregation who has the funds for weed, alcohol, camping gear and taking their time off from looking for work to sit in the streets...I want to ask them, what have they done in their lives to prepare for success? How many of these hobo/hippie/bums think that they are deserving of help or welfare. My father would sooner starve than ask the government for help, let alone complain about his lot in life if all he did all day was sit in his own filth and wait for luck to strike. America, we are at a crossroads between the haves and the have-nots...and those that have not, have nothing to blame but themselves. I have personally witnessed poor families from blue collar roots inspire their kids to study, be creative, and if they couldn't find a job, they CREATED one. People going door to door looking for yard-work, handyman work, or better yet, networking to become the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. It doesn't have to be computers, just because it's 2011. It can be a trade, such as seafood, automotive parts, pet grooming...you don't need Harvard for success. You need a work ethic, and that doesn't come from protesting companies that are trying to make a profit while playing within the rules our government sets up. You want change...I'll give you change. Change your underwear, change your attitude, and change your religious-like zealotry for the same two parties that have us treading water in our current situations. It's going to take local activists doing hard work to get the word out that R and D are for businesses, but L is for liberty, life and sure...luck.
Rev
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