In fact, I'm going to write about an agenda so hidden it's invisible and, quite probably, nonexistent! There are groups of people in major cities up in arms over the disparaging gap between rich and poor. They are protesting over the fact that the wealthy pay a lower tax percentage than the poor. They are protesting the foreclosure of thousands of homes. They are protesting the auto industry bail out (on that I don't necessarily disagree). I'm fairly certain they're protesting pay toilets, television programing (another I agree on...DAMN REALITY T.V.!), and Kotex with wings as well.
You guessed it. I'm talking about the "Occupy" movements in cities around the U.S.. Several days ago protestors clashed with police in Oregon and found themselves being pepper sprayed and smacked with shields and batons. Unfortunately some of those who were sprayed were high school students around the age of 16. I feel bad for them but, hey, if they'd been in school it wouldn't have happened!
The Occupy Movement in general intrigues me. In the sixties people protested in huge numbers. The difference is that in the 1960s people knew not only what they were protesting for but they proposed solutions for the problems! They marched against the Vietnam War. They demanded we pull out of Vietnam. They protested civil rights and segregation. They demanded equality for all races and the opening of all schools to all children. They protested unfairness in the workplace. They demanded Unionization.
Flash forward to over a year ago. People of all ages, races, colors, and religious back rounds began erecting tent cities in large parks from New York to Seattle. They vowed to live their without interruption until...no one is quite sure what they're waiting for. Their only clear motivation thus far is that (not to make them sound like whiners though they really are) THE WORLD ISN'T FAIR! They offer, in true whiner form, no solution. I see them on the news sitting around in their camp chairs, drinking there cappuccinos, railing against the wealthy because they don't have their own seven bedroom homes or a BMW in the driveway. I must wonder if the obvious has ever occurred to any single one of them. If you sit around in a park complaining about not being one of the 1% instead of going out and getting a job and working for it you will never have anything resembling prosperity.
Have any one of you yet figured out what their real goal is? Is it social change? Economic change? Open revolt against Donald Trump (I'd back that endeavor in a heartbeat if it would shut his mouth and keep him off Twitter!)? Burning all of Wall Street to the ground? I watch the interviews on television of various people throughout the camps from protestors to, and I use the term very, very loosely, organizers.
I have yet to hear a single interviewee give one answer that makes sense, or any two interviewees give the same answer!
The following are some of the replies I found memorable and the immediate thought I had while watching it:
"We're...uhh...here 'cuz the rich have all the money and...uhhh...", Learn English, realize most of them worked to get rich, and go back to flipping burgers.
"The wealthy hoard what they have while the rest of us scrape by every month eating peanut butter and Ramen Noodles and there's no equality in that!", Cut the dreads, lose the three inch lobe stretching ear thingy, and get a better job, and oh...much better English, and I like Ramen Noodles.
"The police murdered him in cold blood! We want justice and we're suing and we think this here park should be renamed after (name omitted) 'cuz of what they done to him!", first, wrong protest, that's two parks over, second if you really cared about this man you'd sue for justice and not for enough money to put you in the 1%, third your English is slipping back a bit.
"Things need to be redistributed! Change needs to be made! We demand equality!", redistribute what? What would you like changed? Equality for what? Could you be more vague?
"The people have the right to share what the rich have!", no, you don't. Only in communism is it required that all people posses exactly the same wealth and, if they come in to more, they must give it to their comrades in government.
"We have given up everything to be here in support of our fellow men and women who are members of the 99%." okay, so you left your job, your apartment, and all your security to live in a tent with a bunch of other people who wanted an excuse to do nothing. That doesn't make you "civic minded", it makes you broke, homeless, and quite frankly, stupid.
Get the point? These are the more intelligible comments. Meanwhile people are complaining about how all the illegal immigrants are stealing our jobs. In fact, they are not, and the fact they are working at all in this economy speaks positively to their motivation to work. Yes, they are taking jobs. They are taking jobs the vast majority of the 99% think they are too good to do. I don't know about you, but I was raised to believe that you take any job you have to in order to support your family. It's called work ethic and it is something sorely lacking in todays 20 and even some 30-somethings. When you drive by gas stations and home improvement stores how many Americans do you see standing out in blistering heat or extreme cold waiting for any chance to make a few bucks to put dinner on the table? Uhhhh-huh.
What gives me the right to speak out on this? Five years ago I hit a rough spot in my life. I had nothing. I was lucky to eat twice a week. Then one day I got mad. Not at the 1%, or the government, or God, but at the one person who deserved my anger. I got mad at myself. I had allowed this to happen. I pulled myself up and dug in, and in five years I've become a successful business owner who is very, very financially stable. I didn't sit around whining about haves and have nots. I went out and changed my own life. Those are my credentials.
So no, I can't take these people seriously. Their whole protest revolves around complaining. If I wanted that I need only turn on Jerry Springer. When they start offering solutions I may start listening.
In the meantime I suggest the media relegate these complainers to a single column inch in the op/ed section and let them slip in to oblivion.
Which is where they are headed...unless they learn that nothing is free, any job will feed you, a good work ethic will take you a long way...and no, life isn't fair.
Get over it!