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Just Thinking
by James Glaser October 17, 2011 
Maybe I should have titled this, Just Wondering. I wonder what it is like to grow up in this day and age. I can see kids, and I can talk to them, but I am not able to see how they think about things. You know, when I was young, I always knew if I got lost or something bad happened I could look to the police for help, but today you constantly see videos of the police beating women and young people. You and I are not the only ones to see these videos. How often on TV do you see a crooked cop in a show? How many times do you hear, "Don't say anything to the police." Sad to say, it is becoming an "us verses them" situation when it comes to law enforcement. I was thinking back to a time up North that I remembered. The teachers at the school were sitting down with the School Board and interested parents. The discussion was about what the high school was going to focus on for the next few years. This was a rural/farming area. The school board wanted the kids to be able to handle a check book, they wanted the shop classes to expand, and they wanted to some how make it so college-bound seniors could get some college credits at the community college. Also, they talked about how they would like 4-H to be more involved with the students. Parents added what they were thinking, and the teachers did too. It was all very productive, and the whole community felt good about where the school was taking the kids. By the way, nobody dropped out of school. That was just unacceptable. Back to today, I was thinking about those people protesting, who think they are part of the 99% of the people in this country who are getting the short end of the stick. Well, I didn't believe 99% was the correct way of thinking about the division in this country. I would have put it at closer to 70-30. Well, after doing a bit of research, I found I was wrong. About 1% of Americans are millionaires. About 3% of our citizens take in over $250,000 a year, and a bit over 16% take in over $100,000 a year. Wanda and I feel pretty happy where we are, but we are not even in the top 25%. It really boggles our minds when we start to think just how far ahead of us so many people are. Ahead of us with their income, but I doubt many are ahead of us in happiness. A lot of money does not always equate to happiness, but a lack of money does put a hurt on you. It is misleading to say the United States is the richest country in the world. In total wealth we might be, but if you are at the bottom here, it is no different than being at the bottom of any third world country. Have you even been to some of our Indian Reservations? I have seen houses in the South here that have no windows or doors, but people are living in them. Also, trailers that should have been scrapped thirty years ago are home to many. You have to get off the main roads to see the real poverty in this country, but it is there. Now we have millions of Americans out of work. In fact nine times more people are out of work than are millionaires. Millions more have lost their homes to foreclosure, and about a million more will lose their home every year for the next several years. You should realize that the pundits on television who seem to be bad-mouthing the economic protesters are all quite high on the income ladder. It is hard for a person making thousands of dollars a night to visualize what it is like to be out of work. Because of that, those reporting on these protests look for the most unconvincing people to interview to prove their point that the protesters are mostly people who want a free hand out. I am sure that those 1%ers with their money control our media, and they don't want the rest of us to think that they are bad people or that they have too much of the wealth. So, they are going to get their media programs to report things so that they don't come out in such a bad light. It has worked that way all through history. The rich control everyone else. However, some times they screw up. "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," or "Let them eat cake," did not go over well with the French before their revolution, and remarks like Herman Cain's, "If you're not rich, blame yourself," does nothing to quell protest. So, I am thinking, we are heading down a road that the top 20% of America is not going to like at all. That top 1% will probably be able to weather things just fine. They can walk away from here, but the rest of us will be in turmoil for a long time to come. It might not happen right away, but when it does, it will not be pretty. That's what I'm thinking. |
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