99% vs. 53% vs. 100%

It's time for me to talk about Occupy Wall Street. This goes to "the 99%"... I can't take it anymore. I have been reading trying to understand the Occupy Wall Street group, but quickly came to the conclusion there is nothing to understand. There is no cause they are trying to achieve, other than to sit there because they have nothing better to do, because they can't find a job.

I will be quick to mention I agree there needs to be some regulations and rule changes. I definitely think corruption and greed are large problems that helped cause our current economic situation and even that we need to make some safe guards for people that are being ripped off by "the 1%". Because they CERTAINLY do. 

However, when you march or protest, you don't do it because you feel like having a camp out. Also protesting does not make you cool. It actually has the opposite effect when you make an idiot of yourself and get tear gassed because you are breaking the law for no reason. I think civil disobedience is okay when those who do it are trying to change unjust laws or are having their rights infringed upon. Non-violent civil disobedience, where people purposely break a law and peacefully submit to arrest is okay with me. It doesn't mean you don't fight it in court once you are on trial, and certainly is not appropriate in every circumstance.

You protest because you are driven by your passion to achieve a goal. If you wanted to protest until Wall Street agrees to new regulations, or until CEO's of some corporations or banks step down, that would make sense. Standing around complaining is not protesting, nor is it achieving anything.

To the 53%. For those of you who have not heard, the counter group to OWS is "we are the 53%". Or the estimated 53% of Americans who pay income tax "that supports the government assistance the protestors are looking for". I've been on both side of this fence. I jumped through all the hoops, I got a good education, I pounded the pavement looking for a good job for 4 months after graduation and I got zero job interviews. I finally took a less than ideal job as a full time phone operator for a year. After I couldn't take the monotony any longer (and because some less than ideal circumstances), I quit. I worked at a temporary job while I was having a bunch of life changes and health issues, and now I am working at a job that isn't my dream job, but I love my co-workers and am content. Would I love to work in my major and land an amazing marketing, public relations, or journalism job? ABSOLUTELY! And if anyone wants to offer me one that is reading my blog, I'll take it! But am I going to cry about the world's injustice of me not being able to get my dream job, no! (Okay, well maybe a little, but I compose myself quickly.) I may be live in a particular circumstance, but if I don't like it, I need to change it. You don't just sit around and wait for the world to change. You do something to make it happen or you stop complaining about it.

I understand some people are in more desperate need of a job. And jobs are NOT easy to come by. But if I was still unemployed, I would be busting my tail to start my own company or hounding some company to give me a job and be proving to them why they should. I don't think some of those in the older generation or 53% should say that my generation are just brats that feel entitled to everything. Some are, but some are not and it's not fair or true. Times and circumstances change. We went to college because we were hounded about how if we put in our time, we'll get good jobs when we graduate college. That turned out to be a bust. Lucky for me I had little debt and paid it off quickly while I lived at home and had the circumstances to be able to do that. I feel for my colleagues who got specialized educations and need high paying jobs to sustain themselves and payments on high amounts of student debt. But if those jobs don't appear, you don't just collapse in despair. You do something about it. Some of the greatest periods of industry and invention came after times of immense struggles.

What I am trying to say is this: If you don't like the hand you've been dealt, reshuffle the cards or throw out the deck and make your own. And if you are doing that, be patient with those who don't know how to do that yet. Not everyone can handle what you can.

So whether I am part of the 99% or 53%, I know I am 100% over other people trying to speak for me. Because I pay income tax, it does not make me the same as the other people in the 53%. Because I am against greed, that doesn't make me part of the 99%. I just want to be an individual in my own category apart from the 6,971,163,850 other people in the world. (Which is the estimated population of the world as of 7:12 PM EST on 10/27/11). Is that okay?

The Naked Truth

Some people would call me worrisome because every night as the sun sets, I close my blinds. I don;t mind seeing out, but it creeps me out to think someone may be looking in. Nate and I live in an apartment where the building next to us is pretty visible (or in other words I can see into their apartment, so quite obviously they can see into mine). It's one of the many perks of apartment living.

A quick non-science lesson for all of you, as it becomes darker outside earlier, it becomes more important to close your blinds if you have lights on in the house. This is what is called the "fish bowl effect". Because everything else is blacked out, the light is illuminated more. Except in apartments, the residents are not fish, they are seeing people. Naked people as a matter of fact. Like the naked man across the way who was getting himself a sandwich today in his kitchen.

So really I don't know if he was making a sandwich. I don't know what he was doing because I wasn't trying to get a peepshow. Either way, I think in the next apartment newsletter they send out instead of taking an entire page to show an illustration of a dog picking up his own poo-poo and the quote "If I can do it you can do it", maybe they should change the illustration to be a naked person closing their blinds.

There is something to be said about being close with your neighbors and community, but I think this one is pushing that boundary a little too far. If you are going to be in visible distance, please remember to put on a shirt.