There’s an old joke that goes “I read so much about the bad effects of smoking I decided to give up reading.” It’s designed to illustrate how people can completely miss the point of a subject. This happens so much today it’s ceased to be funny and has entered into the realm of disturbing.
At the end of George Bush’s presidency our banking system went sour. The problem was banks gave out so many bad loans to comply with laws passed by the government they were viewed as doing something illegal. There was the term “predatory lending” created to make the bank’s compliance with governmental regulations seem like they conducted business aboard Pirate ships staffed by loan officers who would just sail into low income neighborhoods and pillage and plunder innocent citizens by making them take out mortgages they couldn’t afford.
“Oh please don’t hurt us Mr. Pirate loan officer.”
“Aaaaar ya scurvy dog. You be signing these here loan documents and naught a thing will happen to you and yours.”
“I can’t afford this but I guess I’ll buy this house anyway.”
“Aaaaaar…here’s ya free pen.”
The thinking in this situation seems to be that irresponsible citizens who took out mortgages they had to know they couldn’t afford can’t be held responsible for their actions. It has to be the bank’s fault. Is the logic here that by complying with laws passed by the government you’ve done something illegal?
When Barrack Obama became president he had a solution to the problem. He took tax payer money by the billions and dispersed it among struggling companies. It seems a truly struggling company was one that had supported him greatly during his presidential campaign. He also gave money to many governmental agencies. The only problem is nobody stopped to think of what would happen when the money ran out or how is was going to be repaid. It’s almost as if the government looked at all the bad loans they had forced the banks to make and said “If you think that was stupid, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
The results of all this government lending has been the worst unemployment and economic growth since the great depression. Our country’s credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in history and more people are on government assistance than ever. It’s good to know the Obama administration has a plan to help us understand what’s happened to our economy. It’s called “George Bush Victim Syndrome.” Forget the reality of economics, the Obama administration wants us to believe they were forced to dole out our tax money like a drunken sailor buying drinks at a brothel because of George Bush. I think according to the Obama administration George Bush is responsible for the bad economy, high unemployment, the collapse of the euro, the Steelers losing the Super bowl, the tsunami in Japan and the constant struggle to get a good parking spot at the mall. I suppose it’s better to blame George Bush than for Obama to take responsibility for anything he’s done. (For Obama supporters the following is called sarcasm) Wasn’t it Harry Truman who said “The buck stops with anybody but me?” If there is a book on how to be a good leader by never taking responsibility for anything you’ve done it was a favorite read by the Obama administration.
Now we have protesters who call themselves “Occupy Wall Street.” Their method of protesting is to occupy a private park, effectively taking away use of the park from the public, in order to bring attention to corporate greed, or end the war, or gay rights or women’s rights or the government’s ban on organic hair spray or something. They don’t know but I think in their minds that’s not the point. They’re sleeping in tents outside, not bathing and protesting.
I wonder if you wanted to protest the Occupy Wall Street crowd if you could go and occupy their private property. Those protesters aren’t the only ones with the right to protest.
There have been some news articles which have shown where some of these protesters reside and some of it is pretty upscale living.
“What do you want?”
“Since you’re pitching a tent on private property at a park to protest I wondered if I could put my tent up and occupy your yard to protest you protesting.”
“We’re out there for a cause.”
“What cause?”
“Pick one, how about corporate greed.”
“If you’re so against corporate greed how did you get such a fabulous house?”
“I’m not against our corporate greed; I’m against others corporate greed. Don’t you get it?”
“No, but can I still occupy your yard so I can protest you protesting? I promise not to bathe.”
“That makes no sense. Get out of here or I’ll call the cops.”
“I’ll leave now but I’ll be back tomorrow to beat my drum outside your house and throw paper airplanes at you.”
I know that many of us look at what these protesters are doing, think about the economy and wonder when it will all end. Will there come a time when all the politicians in power realize we’re not as stupid as they believe us to be and can see through their smoke screens. We know what’s wrong but most of us are willing work within the system to create change. We’re not going to occupy property or blame George Bush. We’re going organize ourselves to vote and make our voices heard while obeying the law and respecting the rights of others. Doing this will get us no main stream media coverage. Like most people in government, they’ll miss the point completely of what’s being done.
