Times truly are "getting hard"

[Worf101]

I've lived through several major recessions and have looked both up at and down on the various recoveries. I've been poor and broke and grew up as a child of the working poor. Folks are debating here in the States as to whether or not we're in a "recession". They key this to consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.

My measurents don't involve numbers but what I see. I currently work in utility regulation. I recently had to requisition flash resistant clothing and gear because THE THEFT OF COPPER GROUNDING WIRE HAS RENDERED MANY SUBSTATIONS AND UTILITY POLES UNSAFE!!!!!

There's enough induced voltage to fry my guys should they lean against a chain link fence (assuming that the fence hasn't been stolen). If that weren't bad enough, people have begun breaking into substations and yards and stealing every bit of metal not bolted down. Wire trucks have stolen, some hijacked at gun point and all manner of mayhem is taking place.

My son, who turned 15 in June has enough on his mind and plate without having to now worry about getting the chit shocked out of him because some bozo stole all the ground wires on the electric lines in the neighborhood.... sigh.

Da "worried and saddened" Worfster

[GMichael]

Numerically, we haven't hit a recession yet. We need to be at 0% for 3 months. We've been at 0.01%. Close enough for me though. As much as I see others driving SUV's and spending money like it's made of weeds, there are plenty of people tightening their belts. And more people are bending, if not braking the rules to make a little extra. I see it getting worse before it gets better.

Don't lean on the fences.

[kexodusc]

Hey Worf, not sure if the downturn in the economy has as much to do with the copper thieving as the price of copper tripling in the past 10 years has...
That's some serious coin available quick and easy to the masses of criminals and desperate poor folk that exist in society at any level of prosperity.

I never thougth they'd be stealing enough ground wires to make it unsafe. Geez. Wonder how many dumb criminals have turned into fried chicken trying to make a quick buck?

[Woochifer]

I think it's probably a little bit of both. Copper prices have zoomed upwards, but it's also fact that crime rates tend to go up during economic downturns.

Around here, I know that copper thefts from construction sites out here have been on the rise for a few years. It's not just the wiring, but the pipes as well. With the severe downturn in the housing market, a lot of unfinished housing sites have been abandoned, leaving a totally open house for thieves.

I've also heard of thieves targeting neighborhoods with a lot of foreclosures. They'll target those houses once the owners get evicted, and basically ransack the place for any resellable building materials.

With this economy, I guess if not for the abundance of foreclosed and abandoned properties out here, then these lowlifes might be targeting the utility stations as well.

[bobsticks]

So, if drugs were legalized we'd have cops forming a task force to stake out construction sites...

[RoyY51]

I work for Home Depot, and theft is now off the scale. Thieves will load up a flat cart with as much copper wire as they can push and make a beeline for the door. And, unless they run into something, they're home free. They are obviously aware of H.D. policy: they haven't stolen anything until they get outside, and once they're outside, WE CAN'T TOUCH THEM! It's worth your job if you try. We might as well post a big sign out in front: "Welcome Thieves!" Pretty soon we'll be asking "would you like a bigger cart?' or "can I help you to your car?"

I understand the reasoning behind this corporate mindset, but as a stockholder and an ethical human being, it still pisses me off. Maybe Singapore has the right idea after all.

[Auricauricle]

Re Kex: So we gather 'em up and tell 'em they're grounded??

[bobsticks]

Re Kex: So we gather 'em up and tell 'em they're grounded??

Wow. That's really bad.

[GMichael]

Wow. That's really bad.

I liked it.

This guy shows potential.:22:

[3-LockBox]

I dunno, copper thefts have been on the rise for at least 5 years now. No, its not as expensive as gold or silver, but copper is very, very common and prevelant in so many uses...its everywhere. I'd like to think that all theft was related to people just trying to get by during tough times, but I doubt it. Its a quick buck and a quick fix. The common usage of copper around construction sites and around the home makes for a convenient 'grab and go' scenario that appeals to substance abusers who are addicted to everything but work.

I think drug abuse is off the charts these days. I can't walk into a drug store and buy Benedryl off the shelf, I have to ask for it, and I can only buy so much...they have to keep it behind the shelves to keep people (mainly kids) from shop lifting it. Seems that ODing on it can get you high, or so I'm told.

[Auricauricle]

I liked it.

This guy shows potential.:22:

Thank you, GM (Good one, BTW...)!

Don't give me any static, 'Sticks!

[ForeverAutumn]

I think drug abuse is off the charts these days. I can't walk into a drug store and buy Benedryl off the shelf, I have to ask for it, and I can only buy so much...they have to keep it behind the shelves to keep people (mainly kids) from shop lifting it. Seems that ODing on it can get you high, or so I'm told.

I never understood that. All that Benedryl does for me is put me to sleep. :Yawn: :sleep:

I never realized that copper was so valuable. And that Home Depot policy is just silly.

My local health food store has rearranged the store to put all of the vitamins and supplements in one aisle and has hired a full-time security guard who stands and guards just that one aisle.

[Auricauricle]

Unfortunately, Benadryl can be and is abused. From what I understand, the high is rather unpleasant, and side effects are pretty nasty.

As they say, "When there's a way, there's a will...."

Or some such!

[GMichael]

I never understood that. All that Benedryl does for me is put me to sleep. :Yawn: :sleep:

I never realized that copper was so valuable. And that Home Depot policy is just silly.

My local health food store has rearranged the store to put all of the vitamins and supplements in one aisle and has hired a full-time security guard who stands and guards just that one aisle.

I still remember when they stopped making pennies out of copper. The story I heard was that the amount of copper it took to make a penny was worth more than 1 cent. So people were melting them down.

[Ajani]

I liked it.

This guy shows potential.:22:

Potential he may have... but that was still really bad....

:ciappa:

[bobsticks]

Thank you, GM (Good one, BTW...)!

Don't give me any static, 'Sticks!

Bring watchu got, headshrinkaman...

[Auricauricle]

Feelin' scratchy, 'Sticks?

I gotta can right here...

[GMichael]

You guys behave or I'm tellin' JM on ya.

:prrr:

[bobsticks]

I think drug abuse is off the charts these days. I can't walk into a drug store and buy Benedryl off the shelf, I have to ask for it, and I can only buy so much...they have to keep it behind the shelves to keep people (mainly kids) from shop lifting it. Seems that ODing on it can get you high, or so I'm told.

In the midwest it's actually not the kids but a seemingly never-ending line of middle-aged women. Not so much the Beney but the Meth dealio about which I'm sure you've all read. They're easy to pick out--wiegh about 79 pounds with a mouthful of disintegrating teeth--lovely.



And that Home Depot policy is just silly.
Yup. Welcome to the U.S., where the criminals have more rights than the victims. The amount of money lost on wrongful detainment and defamement/vilification suits dwarfs the petty theft, at least in the minds of the bizoids. Won't ever change.

[Auricauricle]

And the scourge creeps eastward toward the sea....

We are seeing increasing numbers of the sheepdip, here. It's prevalent in the northeastern cormer of the state, but is making inroads here on the coast, where crack and beer are the coctails of choice....

Ain't it all jus' lovely?

This is no joke. Anyone tempted should look before they leap...

http://www.drugfree.org/Portal/DrugIssue/MethResources/faces/photo_8.html

[Worf101]

And what saddens me is that it appears it's only gonna get worse before it gets better. I've no sympathy for professional thieves but I know too many honest, jobless hard working people who are inches away from losing all. I've an ex-GF who's inches away from losing house and car, I've hired her to clean and do laundry just to tied her over.... I offered months ago and at first she was insulted, then she demurred, finally she approached me and asked if the offer still stood.

She said, "I've been flush and I've been poor, but I've never been homeless."

Da Worfster

[Auricauricle]

I think you're right, Worfster....The deficit's boundaries are well beyond stratospheric and with everyone tightening their belts and keeping their wallets thin, we'rer going to see societal and economic divisions along strange and unexpected lines.

And I don't think this was inevitable. We are reaping a harvest that was sown many a year ago. Politically, socially, economically, etc., we pretty much proceeded as though we had no reason to consider our future. The "bad guys" were "over there", and corruption (name the place) was effectively dealt with in trotting out the occasional scapegoat or a megamovie that placated the masses for a little while longer....

I am excited that, at least on the surface, we are seeing a swelling of sentiment that would like to see things change. The fact that Obama has been given such a run (I never would have thought a African American would be pres in my lifetime) indicates something's afoot.

It may be a long time before the dust settles, but at least we're taking a good look at the road ahead....

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I think you're right, Worfster....The deficit's boundaries are well beyond stratospheric and with everyone tightening their belts and keeping their wallets thin, we'rer going to see societal and economic divisions along strange and unexpected lines.

No don't say that! Does this mean that Pix and I are going to find ourselves on the same side? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....I would rather be dead:yesnod:


And I don't think this was inevitable. We are reaping a harvest that was sown many a year ago. Politically, socially, economically, etc., we pretty much proceeded as though we had no reason to consider our future. The "bad guys" were "over there", and corruption (name the place) was effectively dealt with in trotting out the occasional scapegoat or a megamovie that placated the masses for a little while longer....

I have said this over and over again. America's appetitite for cheap low quality goods has killed its own manufacturing base. And because China is our new factory, and our new loan company, there is nothing we can say to them about anything, not even their human rights issues. If they decided to discontinue financing our debt, America as we know it would no longer exist. I think Madison Avenue has done a terrific job of encouraging the brainless American masses to consume, and consume some more as to take our eyes and attention off the fact that our government is selling us out by the six pack.


I am excited that, at least on the surface, we are seeing a swelling of sentiment that would like to see things change. The fact that Obama has been given such a run (I never would have thought a African American would be pres in my lifetime) indicates something's afoot.

It may be a long time before the dust settles, but at least we're taking a good look at the road ahead....

I hope you are right, we have a really bad fear of change, and another bad habit of voting in people who enjoy working hard for the rich and powerful.

[Auricauricle]

...So you got me up and over to the collection to search out Roger Waters...

and I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9ubMQX7WE

[bobsticks]

...So you got me up and over to the collection to search out Roger Waters...

and I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9ubMQX7WE

Hhhmmmn, that didn't look like th eRoger Waters with which I'm familiar.

Are you acquainted with "Ca Ira", Waters' double disc on the French Revolution? There are some similarities and while the times change, the times stay the same if ya know what I mean...

Sometimes I feel like the Fed is tellin' us to eat cake.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Hhhmmmn, that didn't look like th eRoger Waters with which I'm familiar.

Are you acquainted with "Ca Ira", Waters' double disc on the French Revolution? There are some similarities and while the times change, the times stay the same if ya know what I mean...

Sometimes I feel like the Fed is tellin' us to eat cake.

Yeah, dry over baked cake with no sugary icing on top.

[Ajani]

Yeah, dry over baked cake with no sugary icing on top.

Huh??? I thought they gave out cheesecake during the Fench Revolution.... Come to think of it, why would you revolt when you're getting free cheesecake? Those Frenchies are so strange....

[Auricauricle]

Are you acquainted with "Ca Ira", Waters' double disc on the French Revolution? There are some similarities and while the times change, the times stay the same if ya know what I mean....

Am I familiar with Ca Ira? No. I like Waters, admire his musicianship and ablility to produce amazing music, but find his righteous persona a tad irritating sometimes.

When I get into my More-Times-Change-the-More-They-Stay-the-Same funks, I listen to Daltry: Wont Get Fooled Again.

Now that's rock and roll!

[Auricauricle]

Sir T, AJ: I don't think the humble pie will be served....

[Worf101]

Normally I avoid political discussion online. I find it rarely enlightening and never civil for long so I keep away. I only know that my social barometer is dropping like a stone, there's a storm coming and it won't be pretty.

Da Worfster

[bobsticks]

Normally I avoid political discussion online. I find it rarely enlightening and never civil for long so I keep away. I only know that my social barometer is dropping like a stone, there's a storm coming and it won't be pretty.

Da Worfster

Sadly true, and from a perverse sociological perspective I'll be interested to see how the battle lines are drawn--black v. white, young v. old, haves v. have-nots, etc.

[GMichael]

Sadly true, and from a perverse sociological perspective I'll be interested to see how the battle lines are drawn--black v. white, young v. old, haves v. have-nots, etc.

My guess,
A little of all three.

[Auricauricle]

Yep, there is a storm coming. Here, on the coast, we have learned that storms can be seen as monsters to be feared or nature's way of restoring balance. Of course, the universe is naturally entropic, so the balance is a short-lived steady state that will slowly, and inexoriably disintegrate to chaos. So maybe, in other words, we have reached a "tipping point"....

[Woochifer]

Now these thieves have begun targeting cancer clinics!

Story from yesterday's LA Times says that a local clinic had to delay radiation treatments for 63 patients because thieves removed the copper plumbing used cool the radiation machines. :mad2:

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-copper1-2008aug01,0,5059869.story

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Normally I avoid political discussion online. I find it rarely enlightening and never civil for long so I keep away. I only know that my social barometer is dropping like a stone, there's a storm coming and it won't be pretty.

Da Worfster

I say let it fly. Keepin that stuff in just makes you want to bust. And when you do bust, it usually contaminates the environment(auditory wise) and grounds alot of people. Oh wait, I am talking about myself. :rolleyes:

Online political discussions are okay when you are dealing with intelligent folks who know how to read, then write. The motivation of the debate (and the OP motivation) also plays a huge role in its course. However, most of the time there is someone within the debate who takes things WAY too far, at that is usually where the debate gets derailed.

[Auricauricle]

But we are reasonable and intelligent, so do not let discussions get derailed, do we Sir T?!

[bobsticks]

However, most of the time there is someone within the debate who takes things WAY too far, at that is usually where the debate gets derailed.

How many times do I have to say "I'm sorry"?!

Honey, can we not have this fight in front of the Klingons? You know how it upsets them.

[Auricauricle]

You know what happens around Uranus!

[bobsticks]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545


:shocked:

[ForeverAutumn]

Good article 'sticks. Thanks for posting that. I've always lived in a big city with public transportation, so even without a car getting to work is never a problem. I never considered how difficult it could be if you lived in a city or town without public transportation. Thanks for opening my eyes to other's hardships a little more.

[Auricauricle]

Ya know....

It seems that it always takes a crisis to give (us humans) the incentive to innovate. Maybe it's the combined energies of urgency and creativity that has been buzzing around the head with no way out, but somehow or other this adapt or be overcome thing kicks in. Unfortunately, we are seeing a very hard road ahead for a great number of people. Like crippled wildebeasts on the plains of Kenya, some folks will be fodder for the strong and the greedy. Others will make it through--either by luck or pluck--and they will survive and produce a progeny that will make its own imprinteur, here, on Planet 3.

Will are at a crossroads, 'Sticks. This civilization of ours has only been around for a couple of hundred years: far fewer than many others whose presence here has been known and felt for many thousands. We act as though we are seeing the end of the world, but I say that we are only seeing a normal fluctuation of fits and starts that every civilization goes through in its search for stability and identity.

Through your scientific education, you have learned that stasis is not stability, that entropy is nature's true sense of homeostasis. Some compare the swings through time and event to the pendulum. I find the Taoist Yin and Yang a wonderful metaphor. Ebbing and waning, our energy and creativity accrues and dissapates like the moon.

I have no doubt that, in some shape, fashion or form, we will weather this one out. I think America has had to take one hard look at itself and had to admit that the Great Nation is not the Prime Mover that propels the Earth, but one nation and people of many who each share in their search for significance and meaning.

I know I am waxing mighty poetic here, Readers, and I apologize. All I want to say is that the fight is not over, the Fat Lady has not started singing and that we have heard only a snippet of the overture. We have many miles to go, and if we are going to make it out relatively unscathed and a little smarter, we're going to have to think differently about many things. And we're going to have to do it together.

Now, where's that Beethoven disc?

"O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.
Freude! Freude!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt”….

[Worf101]

Auri, I understand what you're saying. All empires fall, Persian, Roman, Ottoman, British etc.. nothing lasts, the center does not hold. What separates this empire from all the others is that, in their death spasms, the other empires couldn't take the rest of the world with them. When our time is done on top will we have the good graces to concede the game graciously, like the British, or tip the table over like a petulant child and start slinging nukes at our enemies.... real or imagined?

Da Worfster

[Auricauricle]

Well, so far it seems, we've been acting like the spoiled brat!

[budgetaudio76]

Yep, there is a storm coming. Here, on the coast, we have learned that storms can be seen as monsters to be feared or nature's way of restoring balance. Of course, the universe is naturally entropic, so the balance is a short-lived steady state that will slowly, and inexoriably disintegrate to chaos. So maybe, in other words, we have reached a "tipping point"....


and its going to affect every economic sector, to the point that buying food for the day is going to cost the days wage. no matter if you make ten grand a day, or 50 dollars a day. now what does that leave for the commute to work?

look at the price of crude oil. the volatility of cultural condition, with extremist islam controlling(at a certain point) the price of crude out of the middle east. with the slight expression of threat to the pipelines. then the traders going bat chit and raising prices for the percieved demand looming should the threat go through and disrupt supplies.

crude prices affect every aspect of our lives. just look around you. if its man made then it need crude in some form.

[Auricauricle]

...and AK should be wary. If you value your wilderness or your shorelines, you will remain vigilant. While I think that this situation may rev up the consideration of alternate fuel sources and encourage dialog we are, as you say, up to our chins in crude. Don't just blame the ME. We're all guilty....and we can all find a solution!

[bobsticks]

Wow. I think some folks really took this the wrong way.

Yes, it is true that one of the n'er thought of issues that Americans face is the vast expanse of our place. It's nothing for us to drive twenty, thirty, or fourty miles to work, which is something I think Europeans and sometimes Asians forget when discussing challenges in energy conservation.

I think, however, that this article highlights the very worst of America, the excuse-making, the lack of ingenuity or drive. I think it highlights how the absence of will to overcome simple challenges and minor inconveniences is ultimately bringing us down.


A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars.
Things change.


Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver's education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class.
Although the wisdom of having seven children is questionable it reads as if they are the product of good, hardworking citizens. Perplexing it is...perhaps they weren't given enough hugs and self-exteem.


Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family.
Ja, and it helps if instead of sitting on the couch all day, ereday, you educate yourself and make an effort.


Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job.
North Baltimore and Findlay are significantly closer, as are The University of Findlay and Bowling Green. This is akin to me saying I can't find a job in Detroit when living in Naperville,Ill.


Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.
So it's a family thang. Good to know where my tax dollars are going.



Nearly half of low-income Ohioans, or 47 percent, say that getting a well-paying job or a raise in pay is also major problem.
Well, excusing for a moment the fact that less than fifty percent of respondants were able to grasp the complexities of the question, isn't this fairly obvious? BTW, three-fourths of the population makes up seventy-five percent of the people.

And, what's "well-paying"? There's no God-given or Constitutional Right to an executive level job. You take a starting level job and work your way up, it's called competing.


Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.
This is the chit that makes otherwise perfectly sensible people Republicans. Forty and never had a job?!? A car wreck seventeen years ago...depressed?!? I had a fenderbender last week, can I take the rest of the decade off?

Good to see we're teaching the next generation. There's a special place in hell for lazy people.


Hernandez received her high school diploma and has had several jobs in recent years. But now, because fewer restaurants and stores are hiring, she says she finds it hard to find a job. Even if she could, she says it's particularly hard to imagine how she'll keep it. She says she needs someone to give her a lift just to get to an interview. And with gas prices so high, she's not sure she could afford to pay someone to drive her to work every day.
So, why exactly isn't she still at one of those several other jobs? The idea of saving for an automobile of her own prolly never crossed her mind...


People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child.

"A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"
God forbid. Yeah, let's continue the cycle.


They both reject that as a plan.

"I'm trying to get a job," Hernandez says. "I just can't get a job."
She'll be pregnant within a year, although I would imagine finding the guy will be challenging.


The only one with a car is Irma Hernandez, Nunez's mother. Hernandez says that with a teenage son still at home, the cost of feeding him and sending him to school is rising, and she can no longer pay for the car.

She's now two car payments behind.

"I'm about to lose my car," she says on her way to pick up one of her daughters to take her to Toledo. "So then what's going to happen to us?"
Ahh, so there is a car but grandma---and it's good to see that she was procreating well into later life---is too busy feeding her teenager to drive anyone anywhere to get a job before today. Maybe if several of them got jobs they could help her afford to keep the car...oh, but wait a minute, that would remove an obstacle from being a product and responsible member of society.


So Nunez and her daughter are mostly stuck at home.
...that clearly has no home gym...or sidewalks in the immediate surrounding areas on which to jog...or even floors upon which to do situps or pushups.


The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.
No ice cream? I'll send my check...wait a sec, I already have been for several decades evidently. This is just a repeating cycle of joblessness and illegitimacy (notice in three generations there's only one husband mentioned). It's absolutely clear that this last paragraph was thrown in as an explanation for the picture. Maybe along with the monthly welfare checks we should send asparagus.




I know I am waxing mighty poetic here, Readers, and I apologize. All I want to say is that the fight is not over, the Fat Lady has not started singing and that we have heard only a snippet of the overture. We have many miles to go, and if we are going to make it out relatively unscathed and a little smarter, we're going to have to think differently about many things. And we're going to have to do it together

Yup, and that means all sides are gonna have to contribute. Meaning some folks are gonna have to go through some unpleasantness...go through job re-training, start low and work their way up...gosh, maybe even do a job other than being a rock star or supermodel or movie actor.
Old man Hernandez worked for 45 years in a GM production facility to make a better life for his family. I doubt everday was a walk in the park but he got up and did it 'cause that's what responsible members in a functioning society do. I bet ol' boy is turning over in his grave.

http://sniggle.net/Images/norplant.jpg

[RoyY51]

When I was younger, my heart bled as much as anyone's. I was consumed by the plight of the huddled masses, yearning to be free. Then, as I became older and somewhat wiser, I gradually started learning where my hard-earned tax dollars were really going: supporting generations of families with no intention of ever working, who's only goals were to have as many government-subsidized children as possible. It is a sad, self-perpetuating cycle that our government is forcing the rest of us to pay for, and I don't like it one little bit.

Well said, Bobsticks. Well said.

[3-LockBox]

Well, I'm glad you said it first. I was wondering how anyone that engorged could be complaining about quality of life and worrying where their next meal is coming from.

I think this sort of thing stems from a unrealistic sense of entitlement. Everybody else has their's - where's mine?

I see other cultures come into this country and take a different approach. I see a family in my own home town (in particular) who have purchased a home (last year) and manage to afford a decent standard of living (in their eyes). They are living in a house with two families, with as many as 5 incomes, pooling their resources.

So...you can't get one of them there union jobs that pay prevailing wage? Then forget it, you may as well go on welfare. But two or three incomes might meet or exceed that elusive "good job w/ benefits" everyone talks about not finding. Those people I talked about in the preceeding paragraph have a different outlook on life - a different sense of self, a more realistic view on how to succeed, and little to no sense of entitlement. They may or may not have had government subsistance during their stay in this country, I don't know, but they're not holed up in their house, getting fat, thinking of how society has let them down.

As for the Norplant thing, we still live in a society where its classist, and even racist, to suggest that people who can't afford to have children, consider not having children. I actually think its a good idea to try to establish one's self financially before committing to procreate, but that's high mindedness to a lot of other people.

[Worf101]

As I expected, sooner or later this discussion would veer down the predictable path of wherein the poor are blamed for being poor. I have a different perspective being the son of a sharecroppers daughter and a bellhop/chauffer etc.. I grew up a child of the "working poor". I lived in Government housing and was the first child in my family to graduate High School, College and Graduate School. And while some would use me as an example to bludgeon my less fortunate peers (including my sister and late brother) for their laziness that would be unfair and an injustice.

1. Entitlement - I find this topic the most laughable of all. No one in this world has a more inflated sense of entitlement than the rich/newly rich and wanna be rich American. As a public servant I deal with them everyday in often pointed circumstances. They want the world their way right now and they don't care who gets rolled over for it. They want cheap gasoline without the cost and they're more than willing for your son/daughter to die so they can have it cause you know their kids sure as chit ain't goin to Iraq. They want electricity without the powerplants or electric lines, smooth highways without the road repairs. They want slave labour without the Mexicans/Latin Americans.

To even hint that someone on Welfare (which is radically different than what it used to be thanks to Prez Clinton) has some inflated or unrealistic sense of entitlement is ludicrous. How do I know? Cause for brief periods when Dad was out of work I was ON welfare and if you sunsa*****es think that it was some la de da picnic of overflowing wealth and pink ponies you're out of your bloody mind. NOBODY wakes up and says to themselves, "wow what a great day to be broke and on welfare!!!" It just doesn't happen. You can play by the rules, work everyday and still find yourself falling farther and farther behind.

Yes I know there are lazy folks who would ride the system for as long as they can and as hard as they can. But god as my witness there are plenty of folks with that same mentality in the offices of Bechtel and Haliburton as there are in any inner city. You ***** and moan about some mythical "Welfare Queen" while the rich old men in power rob you blind, pilfer your pension, tax you to death, run your bank into the ground and sell your mortgage overseas... The stupidity of the average American slays me.

2. Immigrant work ethic - Immigrants from third world hell holes do have a great work ethic. They'll live 12 to a room, pool their monies and work like slaves for us for pennies a day. Just like our forefathers did before they wised up, organized and unionized. This is another way those in power keep folks blind and divided. They talk out of both sides of their neck. They extoll the immigrant work ethic while savaging the immigrants. They praise the hard working illegal on one day and blame him for the decline of the American Standard of Living the next day. All the while they rape and pilliage with no bid contracts, corporate welfare and ship your job to Sri Lanka.

Instead of focusing on the provision of a "living wage" for all workers legal or illegal, they play us off against one another so that folks that won't work like dogs are considered fat, spoiled and lazy. The American middle class is waking up to the fact that due to a changing world, globalized corporate greed and their own complacency their lives and those of their children are going to be worse than that of their parents.

Instead of focusing on meeting this changing dynamic with common sense and thought they fall for the same ole garbage used to keep blaming the less fortunate in society while the real criminals slog them over the head.

3. Personal Responsibility - I believe in it. I'm socially quite conservative. I've only one child and I take care of him. I don't believe in folks just spitting out kids with no idea how they're to be cared for. But again people talk out of both sides of their mouths. You can have sex, hell we want you to have sex, we use it to sell everything we make, just don't have any kids. You can get preagnant, but you can't have reproductive choice. So since you're too broke to afford them kids, don't have sex. Or do have kids just make sure they can make those latte's the way we like them.

I'm sorry to go on this rant but some things cannot go un challenged.

Da Worfster

PS, Poor folks are FAT by and large in this country because cheap foods are fattening, NOT because they want to be fat lazy slobs. McRonalds is cheap but it's fattening and will have you up to blimp size in no time. To eat nutritious foods costs money and time, two things the working poor do not have in America.

[bobsticks]

Worfster, I can admire your sense of advocacy and, indeed, your sense of fairplay in defending yourself against a perceived slight. But, before we all drop into that Starsky and Hutch shoulder roll and ****hammer each other into Net oblivion may I point out that my post was not about people on welfare but about these people on welfare.

Nobody in this country has a harder time of it than the working poor. Nobody. Period, no caveats. I think our government and our society should be looking for answers and solutions on how to make life a little easier for them and addressing the wage situation within our economy may play a role in that.

But, you and I both know ya gotta get in the game. You said, " How do I know? Cause for brief periods when Dad was out of work I was ON welfare and if you sunsa*****es think that it was some la de da picnic of overflowing wealth and pink ponies you're out of your bloody mind. NOBODY wakes up and says to themselves, "wow what a great day to be broke and on welfare!!!"

Clearly, your pops fell on some hard times and needed some temporary help. I'm glad he got it because there should be Welfare and there needs to be a social mechanism to help our brothers who stumble...but it shouldn't be a way of life. From the way you phrased your dad obviously picked himself up, dusted himself off and made another go of it. You turned out okay and seem to do pretty well for yourself and you being a military man it wasn't always easy was it?

This article talks about multiple generations with multiple siblings and their significant others who are all on the dole. It speaks of people that haven't worked for decades...so I see the scenarios as completely different.

You said:
Yes I know there are lazy folks who would ride the system for as long as they can and as hard as they can. But god as my witness there are plenty of folks with that same mentality in the offices of Bechtel and Haliburton as there are in any inner city. You ***** and moan about some mythical "Welfare Queen" while the rich old men in power rob you blind, pilfer your pension, tax you to death, run your bank into the ground and sell your mortgage overseas... The stupidity of the average American slays me.

It might surprise you that I agree 100%. In fact, up north aways in the forum we're havin' another battle on just such a topic. It doesn't make the offenses detailed in this article any less egregious.


Worf, I'l allow that sometimes I can be a bit snide and even vague. I don't think I was this time out as I took some care to be fairly precise. If you misinterpreted the post as an attack on all forms of social aid in every situation then I'm sorry there was a misunderstanding. At the same time, I'm not gonna back down in my stance that this specific case is one of abuse of the system.

http://www.lurkerlounge.com/bolty/insp_fightmusic.jpg

[Auricauricle]

…And so another, well intentioned essay, falters and sinks into the abyss of resentful sentiment and toxic invective.

Well, maybe not, but here I go, anyway….

Having been raised in an educated, upper-middleclass family of some influence, I have an acute sense of responsibility for those in need. As a person who has never known hunger, need or want, I consider important the duty to serve others in the work that I do and in the conduct of my personal affairs. I am not a foolish person, who believes that everyone who has a hand out is deprived. Nor am I cynical and turn immediately away from panhandlers and drug addicts on approach, knowing that they are con artists and liars. Some may call my behavior risky or even naïve or dangerous, but I know how to handle myself if the need arises. So far, I have learned that unpleasant encounters are rare. The dignity of addressing another, without regard to station, position or penny effectively cuts through a lot of grief.

I became a nurse partly out of this sensibility. As Boy Scout and through my parents and grandparents, I learned the importance of developing the awareness of others. Having attended public schools in the South, I knew many children whose origins ranged from the comfortable to the miserable. I served four years in the Navy, where I met people of every stripe and form, and have lived in other parts of the country as my life’s journey continued. I have lived in my own, private gutter, and communed with those whose lives were marred by abuse and mental anguish. I remember these experiences vividly every time I walk into the clinics, hospitals and treatment centers where I have worked and will continue to work. As a student of Psychiatric Nursing, I am older than many of my colleagues who went right through college and graduate school “the right way”; but the experience and knowledge I bring to the table is peerless.

I am tired of the “us-other” discussions that decry the obtuse elite and the lazy poor. These dialogs are insulting to anyone who knows that categories are merely devices that obscure many simple issues and difficult solutions. There are stereotypical examples that fit within every mode, but everyone’s circumstance is much more complicated than what the snapshot depiction of their lives shows. The fellow, who looks like the aloof and oblivious idle rich man, is secretly digging his own grave, in alcohol and empty flings, of self-abomination. The guy in rags and old shoes who grins and jives with the passers by with the same hustle he was seen dealing last week has tuberculosis and tomorrow will be found in the gutter, dead. Both have their history and both deserve to be cared for, no matter where they come from, because they share the one trait that links us all: they are human beings.

Call me a romantic or an over sentimental schlock-meister, but I firmly believe that John Lennon’s, Imagine, addresses the important truth that class, religious, color-based, sexual, and other distinctions are made simply because we, as thinking, rational beings simply need a way to distinguish things from one another. We needed to do this to survive, to tell the edible from the inedible, the harmless from the lethal, and we do it today. Yet, when I all comes to the wire, the human-ness in all of us and in all that we do is a point of distillation that simplifies the equations and makes the muddy distinctions a lot clearer.

I am excited and heartened by the message that Obama and his optimistic ilk bring. I get depressed over the horror that we inflict on one another, all in the name of arbitrary reasons, and I am ready to live in a different world. I realize that the wounds that fester in the warlords run deep, and the sense of righteous indignation that inspires them to lash out. Yet, I also believe in the strength of forgiveness, the sure nature of karma and the importance of sincerity and dignity.

We are each endowed with self-determination, yet for many of us, this power to decide our fate an make our own choices has been beaten out, drowned out or removed in some shape or fashion and made unavailable. In my work, I try to remind people of this power, but for some, taking possession of oneself is not possible. Seligman wrote of Learned Helplessness after watching a dog, subject to shocks no matter what he did, no matter where he went, finally found a corner and lay, although the shocks continued. It is for these people, who know the shocks and the futility of doing anything to get away from them that I work and do what I do.

This is the way I was raised, and this is the way I choose to live my life. I may not get rich, but I am comfortable. I have a nice apartment; I have the love of a good wife and have a number of creature comforts to keep me pleasantly occupied for a long time. Knowing that there are so many out there who know little or no comfort, I wake up with a full day and a full heart. This is my path and it gets me through the day and back to the computer where I can tell you, my friends and readers, all about it, from the safety of my chair and desk.

[RoyY51]

Very well thought out. There are, indeed, two sides to every coin.

[Smokey]

…And so another, well intentioned essay, falters and sinks into the abyss of resentful sentiment and toxic invective.

Well, maybe not, but here I go, anyway….

Having been raised in an educated, upper-middleclass family of some influence, I have an acute sense of responsibility for those in need. As a person who has never known hunger, need or want, I consider important the duty to serve others in the work that I do and in the conduct of my personal affairs. I am not a foolish person, who believes that everyone who has a hand out is deprived. Nor am I cynical and turn immediately away from panhandlers and drug addicts on approach, knowing that they are con artists and liars. Some may call my behavior risky or even naïve or dangerous, but I know how to handle myself if the need arises. So far, I have learned that unpleasant encounters are rare. The dignity of addressing another, without regard to station, position or penny effectively cuts through a lot of grief.

I became a nurse partly out of this sensibility. As Boy Scout and through my parents and grandparents, I learned the importance of developing the awareness of others. Having attended public schools in the South, I knew many children whose origins ranged from the comfortable to the miserable. I served four years in the Navy, where I met people of every stripe and form, and have lived in other parts of the country as my life’s journey continued. I have lived in my own, private gutter, and communed with those whose lives were marred by abuse and mental anguish. I remember these experiences vividly every time I walk into the clinics, hospitals and treatment centers where I have worked and will continue to work. As a student of Psychiatric Nursing, I am older than many of my colleagues who went right through college and graduate school “the right way”; but the experience and knowledge I bring to the table is peerless.

I am tired of the “us-other” discussions that decry the obtuse elite and the lazy poor. These dialogs are insulting to anyone who knows that categories are merely devices that obscure many simple issues and difficult solutions. There are stereotypical examples that fit within every mode, but everyone’s circumstance is much more complicated than what the snapshot depiction of their lives shows. The fellow, who looks like the aloof and oblivious idle rich man, is secretly digging his own grave, in alcohol and empty flings, of self-abomination. The guy in rags and old shoes who grins and jives with the passers by with the same hustle he was seen dealing last week has tuberculosis and tomorrow will be found in the gutter, dead. Both have their history and both deserve to be cared for, no matter where they come from, because they share the one trait that links us all: they are human beings.

Call me a romantic or an over sentimental schlock-meister, but I firmly believe that John Lennon’s, Imagine, addresses the important truth that class, religious, color-based, sexual, and other distinctions are made simply because we, as thinking, rational beings simply need a way to distinguish things from one another. We needed to do this to survive, to tell the edible from the inedible, the harmless from the lethal, and we do it today. Yet, when I all comes to the wire, the human-ness in all of us and in all that we do is a point of distillation that simplifies the equations and makes the muddy distinctions a lot clearer.

I am excited and heartened by the message that Obama and his optimistic ilk bring. I get depressed over the horror that we inflict on one another, all in the name of arbitrary reasons, and I am ready to live in a different world. I realize that the wounds that fester in the warlords run deep, and the sense of righteous indignation that inspires them to lash out. Yet, I also believe in the strength of forgiveness, the sure nature of karma and the importance of sincerity and dignity.

We are each endowed with self-determination, yet for many of us, this power to decide our fate an make our own choices has been beaten out, drowned out or removed in some shape or fashion and made unavailable. In my work, I try to remind people of this power, but for some, taking possession of oneself is not possible. Seligman wrote of Learned Helplessness after watching a dog, subject to shocks no matter what he did, no matter where he went, finally found a corner and lay, although the shocks continued. It is for these people, who know the shocks and the futility of doing anything to get away from them that I work and do what I do.

This is the way I was raised, and this is the way I choose to live my life. I may not get rich, but I am comfortable. I have a nice apartment; I have the love of a good wife and have a number of creature comforts to keep me pleasantly occupied for a long time. Knowing that there are so many out there who know little or no comfort, I wake up with a full day and a full heart. This is my path and it gets me through the day and back to the computer where I can tell you, my friends and readers, all about it, from the safety of my chair and desk.

That is one best post I seen in while. Especially the part about John Lennon's song Imagine where artifical walls we have created for ourselves devide us all and prevent us from helping each other.

I remember watching the movie Oh God with George Burns and John Denver, where John ask Burns (as God) as to why there are so many miseries in the world and why God would let it all happen. And Burns (God) said that he did not let happen. The humans did! Instead of helping each other, the humans rather jump down each other throat with religion, wars, color and race as the cause.

[3-LockBox]

What ever shall we do to fix poverty?

I knew that suggesting impoverished people first address their own predicament would be seen as elitist. But who better to do something about it? Who you gonna trust to do it - the government? Hasn't worked and won't work - and I'm stating that as a fact, as its been proven over and over again.

I endured hardships as a kid, what with my dad being disabled by a massive heart attack when I was 12. No, my dad's heart attack wasn't my fault, but it damn sure was my problem. I'm not suggesting that welfare is a bad thing or that government assistance is a bad thing. But generational welfare exists. My comments were adressing the one article that Bobsticks posted, but of course, if someone says they're destitute, then that's that. I took my own steps to change my financial destiny.

My comment about immigrant workers was not some random statement, but based on experience. I work with a lot of naturalized immigrants and foriegn nationals, because I too, am among what you guys would call the working poor. The foriegn nationals I work with make the same rate of pay I do, some more. So if there are immigrants working for pennies, I haven't seen it.

Auricle, you are a hopeless romantic, and so are others like you, because its all rehtoric. Saying poverty is a problem that we all must address isn't good enough, and hasn't been good enough. Believe me, if there's a plan, I mean a substanitive plan out there, I'd love to hear it - I'm all ears. But until then, I'll address the problem myself because one of the real outrages of our time have been politicians pretending to care, pretending to have answers. I don't want to trust anyone else with my financial situation other than myself. Who should I trust? Politicians? The government? They have failed to bring us to that great society. Anybody can point out possible causes, but we've had a century of that noise - where's the big f*cking solution?

[Auricauricle]

You are right, 3-Lock to call me out on the mat about my pie-in-the-sky words. We DO need practical solutions, not vapid statements that sound great but offer nothing practical to address the problems.

Even as I wrote my words down the other day, I was (and am) going through a few thoughts to address the very issues you and others would present as I gushed and sspouted. Like you, I believe that politicians have done much to tarnish their images and disgrace themselves. The fact they have failed to do their duty and that we have countenanced thier sins and continue to give them licence to do as they please at our expense has been nothing short of suicide.

Simultaneously, I believe people can work together and galvanize support for one another far more effectively than we have in the past. Communities and cities and their representatives generally have worked hard to address their own, individual needs, but often these needs are usually held in abeyance while the needs and desires of the more visible mainstream and influential hold sway.

In this town, we have built wider roads, fancy aquariums, and encouraged the erection of more and more houses, condominiums and apartments to an influx of great number of people who have moved here. Town leaders tell us that encouraging the erection of such projects and the like encourages the influx of greater numbers of people and adds to the addition of more funds to the coffers. Meanwhile, the impoverished neighborhoods remain impoverished, the educational system continues to gasp and cough and the mental health centers can barely afford to stay afloat or staff themselves. Meanwhile, the local waterfront park gets a new pineapple water fountain and the new aquarium charges $15.00 a ticket for 12 year olds and up—too much for ma and pa who work for minimum wage at the local 7-11.

At least their kids can dance in the water fountain....

In short, 3-Lock, I think a few trees need to be shaken. Many great, lavish and extravagant resources have been made available for many things that simply could have remained on the drawing board. This war, a fiasco from the start, never should have been waged. The space station and launch program can wait. And while so many other examples of this wastefulness exist, the fact that we haven’t enough money left to take care of more fundamental needs boggles my imagination. The fact that we have people starving in this country, that people who are mentally ill untreated and living in our streets, that we have an insurance system that charges outrageous sums and hardly anyone can afford their measly benefits and while other forms of outrage exist, I am mad as hell.

As a health care worker who sees these inequities and injustices and knows that they don’t have to exist, that we can do much better, I get fired up at times. Addressing them may involve giving a few entitled people or complaisant others a good pinch in the butt, but if it benefits those who need it, so be it. It may involve voting some people out of office and bringing fresh ideas from dreamy minds, but we need to think outside the box and do something different or there will be nothing left for anyone when we really need it.

We can do much better. The solutions are staring us right in the face. They are not complicated and they are actionable. I’d say more, and there is more to say, believe me. Yes, I am a dreamer, but these simple dreams I think come from simple truths and simple solutions.

Thanks again for the zap, 3-Lock.

[3-LockBox]

You want change. I do have a plan.

Register to vote (I'm sure you are) and pester everyone else to register if they're not already, and encourage them to vote. Now I know there's a lot on issues on every docket and I'm not 100% 'up' on every issue, but let's put aside referendums for a second. Referendums and bonds and all that fun chit is the byproduct of way too much legislation and back scratching and wallet padding. Let's focus on the people that we've hired to do a job. Government is such a boondoggle, at both the state and federal level, and its the politicians fault.

Anyhoo, its time for Joe Blow to send a message, not just of disatisfaction, but of intolerance. Let's all vote...against incumbants, no matter what political affiliation they claim. Let's make public office a revolving door for one or two years. Let's show people who would attempt to make careers out of pretending to serve the public that they're under our reproach, and if they don't like it, quit. Let's seperate the wheat from the chaff. Let's get back to our roots. Hell, Davey Crockett served as Congressman for a term - The House Of Representatives was never meant to represent the idle wealthy in this country anyway and it damn sure isn't suppose to occupied by it. It shouldn't be any harder to send local representatives to Washington than it is to occupy a city council position, but only a very small percentage of the population ever run for office. It shouldn't take a law degree to serve the public on any level. They're are way too many lawyers in both state and federal government.

After we've shaken Washington and taken away their disproportionate sense of entitlement, we'll put the squeez on lobbies.

[Auricauricle]

Your solution embodies an important resource that all of us have available, but is seldom addressed in these dialogs: self-efficacy. As I remarked in my note, part of the work I do involves reminding people of this little appreciated power. Whether by drugs, physical abuse, mental cruelty or whatever, some folks have had this valuable resource grievously removed. I use Victor Frankl’s life as an example to draw upon when reminding people of their power to make decisions for themselves. Even when so much had been stripped away from him: his livelihood, his family, his friends, and nearly everything else, Frankl realized that his attitude alone remained, and it was that that he could control. He described his experiences as an inmate in a concentration camp, where the doomed would take their last morsels of bread to the living. They did so not because eating the bread was futile, but as a true expression of their freedom: the freedom to choose their decisions, no matter what fate lay before them.

Conversely, there is the stripping away of power that comes from being over-indulged. Lured into the sense of complaisance of having all needs and desires attended to, the organism loses the will to fend for himself: why should he? In providing everything to this person, the sense of self-motivation and self-efficacy disappears into the shadows. The brain stops caring about the next moment, the muscles wither and waste away for there is no reason to move, no work to do. We can easily describe people who take advantage of our welfare system and those who continue to go on work-disability programs for a minor muscle injury that occurred seven years ago. I have known these people as well as idle trust-fund children, who live in the sloth of their inheritance. In both groups, the idle are impotent, dull and unmotivated.

This apathy, this impotence, creeps into communities. In our South Carolina Lowcountry, we have neighborhoods of poor people living in their ramshackle hovels and sending their kids to schools where the quality of education is appalling. With no hope or vision of a future or even a possible future, many of these communities remain stagnant sinkholes. Few members of the community attain more than a junior high school education, and eventually sink into a life of self-destruction. Drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and violence are the result. For some members of the community, who know that their needs will be attended to, by hook or by crook, this is just fine. For the powers that be, who were more than happy to keep the provisions available, as long as these people stay in their hamlet, this is just as well. And so the merry go round of hands and handouts continues….

Yet, inexorably, the landscape of the Lowcountry is changing. More and more people from beyond the state are moving in, with many of them ensconcing into these hamlets. The original squatters are being uprooted, and are feeling the burn and are regretful of the consequences of their indulgence. They are learning that they will have to fight to live. Some are using violent means to achieve these goals; but others are looking forward with better ways to improve their lot.

One way to do this, is by encouraging and emboldening youth with lessons of self-efficacy. As an example, I point to an experience I had last year, when colleagues and I worked at a junior high school in one of these hamlets, teaching seventh and eighth graders techniques of violence prevention, behavior modification and mood management. These skills, embodied in a program called Positive Adolescent Choices Training (PACT), are among the first interventions developed to address the specific needs and issues facing African American adolescents. While other programs have been developed their generic natures were described as noteworthy, but not culturally sensitive. With PACT attending to these issues, there is an increased sense of ownership, and it appears to be working rather well. Already, the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) includes PACT among other Best Practice protocols.

The PACT experience is only one that addresses the needs of communities to increase the sense of self-efficacy. With the introduction of programs like these, and by giving the clear and unequivocal message to government--city, state and federal-- that unrepresentative and shoddy representation will not be tolerated, we can turn things around. I do think that John Lennon’s words are just as effective as they are idealistic. We have created barriers between others and ourselves that have blocked the paths of many people. Whether by over indulging people or depriving them, we have effectively pushed some people to the edges and fringes of society and pulled others into the front and center. Influential and moneyed people usually win out in these fluctuations, but they are just as liable to wreak just as much havoc on the system as the entitled poor, who need to work harder. If everyone is to win, everyone must be included.

The answer, then, relates to responsibility. When I was serving in the Navy, a friend of mine and I were talking one evening about the military and the mass of people serving within the ranks. Realizing that many members of the service had come from families and circumstances that were less than ideal, my friend observed that the military apparatus could be described as a giant tit (sic). Like the giant gland, the military provided these people, in return for their sacrifice or their allegiance, nearly every need and desire in return: food, clothing, shelter and more. In this little microcosm, the American experience could be observed. Some folks made the most of the military, working hard to succeed and did well. Others faltered, by their own device and stupidity, and did poorly. What remained was the fact that the military experience pretty much panned out to whatever you made of it. Caring not a whit about he individual, the great machine was impersonal yet fair, just as it is in Everyday America, where people are responsible for their own destinies.

It is that kind of self-responsibility and the power to decide one’s own fate that form two of the pillars on which the Great American Empire was founded. Fed up with a king, whose absolute rule held sway in the name of imperialist entitlement and cronyism, the founding fathers created a government that built on merit and self-efficacy. While these men were privileged, they were smart men who were not idle. They were men of letters and sound philosophies, who were capable of forging a nation that could and would be propelled by responsibility and inclusion.

Somehow, these ego-centered messages have been lost. Realizing that self-determination must be tempered with altruistic responsibility, the American ideal has become complaisant and idle. Like junk food that is easy to eat and somewhat palatable, the resources and goods that have been provided to the consumers of our culture have a deceptive quality. We have become fat, physically, emotionally and intellectually; we have perceived our lives as comfortable and well attended to. To those who have never known satiation, this state is a welcome relief and respite. To the Burger Masters, who wield the spatulas of power (crazy analogy, eh?), keeping the populus plied, plump and lazy, there was no need to worry about the masses rising up in protest and unrest.

Eventually the meat and beer run out and the weekend is over: it is time to return to work, the barbeque must end. Here in America that sad hour has come. Resources, once plentiful and ready are running out. Like fattened guests who must go home, for work beckons, some Americans are realizing that the party we have enjoyed has been a pleasant daydream. We need to get back to work and we need to wake up and look at our situation in full. This is not something any of us look forward to, but if we are to survive as a people and as a nation we must do so now. By helping out where help is needed and withdrawing our hands from those who have the power to help themselves, we can get back on track. Removing barriers and by doing the right thing, regardless of color, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or whatever arbitrary measure can be described makes sense. It means doing the right thing, period.

After all, when we do right, what’s left?

Right?