[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Miscellaneous See other Miscellaneous Articles Title: Something to Consider by Marybeth Hicks Call it an occupational hazard, but I can't look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters without thinking, "Who parented these people?" As a culture columnist, I've commented on the social and political ramifications of the "movement" - now known as "OWS" - whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: "Everything for everybody." Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it's clear there are people with serious designs on "transformational" change in America who are using the protesters like bedsprings in a brothel. Yet it's not my role as a commentator that prompts my parenting question, but rather the fact that I'm the mother of four teens and young adults. There are some crucial life lessons that the protesters' moms clearly have not passed along. Here, then, are five things the OWS protesters' mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn't, so I will: . Life isn't fair. The concept of justice - that everyone should be treated fairly - is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger said, "You can't always get what you want." No matter how you try to "level the playing field," some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they're dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance, and some find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons . Is it fair? Stupid question. . Nothing is "free." Protesting with signs that seek "free" college degrees and "free" health care make you look like idiots, because colleges and hospitals don't operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and "slow paths" to adulthood, and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical. While I'm pointing out this obvious fact, here are a few other things that are not free: overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum. . Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don't require loans, or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals. Also, for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization. It's a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for - literally. . A protest is not a party. On Saturday in New York , while making a mad dash from my cab to the door of my hotel to avoid you, I saw what isn't evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations: Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a sober pursuit of social and political change don't dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and you don't seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant. . There are reasons you haven't found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gouged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn't a virtue. Occupy reality: Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among that 4 percent, find a mirror and face the problem. It's not them. It's you. (C 2011 Marybeth Hicks) Columnist Marybeth Hicks, a wife of 20 years and mother of four children, lives in the Midwest . She is the author of *The Perfect World Inside My Minivan -- One Mom's Journey Through the Streets of Suburbia*, a compilation of her columns. She uses her column to share her perspective on issues and experiences that shape families nationwide. She currently writes a column for the Washington Times. This column first appeared in, and is reprinted with permission from, the Washington Times. Visit her Web site, www.marybethhicks.com Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#6. To: christine (#0)
Much can be said for the negative side of the protests and those protesting and that's primarily what the MSM is promoting. This country has so many different problems that even those of us that post here bounce from one injustice to another, to another like a pinball on a daily basis. A country as blessed as ours has no excuse for the current conditions and if anyone's to blame it's us and the government we've allowed to form. It's easy to point fingers and cast aspersions but if we're going to be honest with ourselves this shit didn't just start yesterday - it's been coming for 100 years !!! No, we're not all created equal, but I like to think we're all created equal in the eyes of God. I think it's real easy for someone with good health, a real talent or an above average I.Q. to denegrate others less fortunate. I think we've been conditioned to think everyone has to get on the treadmill at 7 years of age and keep that motherfucker going til ya can't run anymore - and then wait for "the man" to come take your home and sell it at the Sheriff's sale for back taxes. Somewhere along the line we've let the mind-fuckers condition us to comply with "THEIR" rules. Along the way the thugs and economic muggers have created institutions that are allowed to rob the society of its finances and its humanity. We're on the Merry-Go-Round to hell and can't seem to bail ! I'd just say that the author of this piece has a far larger target to draw a bead on at the other end of the social ladder. We treat animals better than we treat other humans (even though sometimes I can understand why), and in my opinion we're losing the joy of life we should all share so that the evil force that runs our world today can do to us whatever they want. Frankly, I'm fucking sick of it. This is a great big beautiful planet made ugly by the murdering sons of bitches you vote for century after century without improvement. Whatever these protesting folks are doing across the country it's something. Voting doesn't work and neither does protesting if this author's opinion is correct. But, they are doing something - and maybe if they see these 1st Amendment protests are futile - we'll get a chance to move on to the 2nd amendment. Then call me !
There are no replies to Comment # 6. End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest |
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
[Register]
|
||