To the 53%:
Hi. My name is Kelly. I’ve been looking at your blog, and I have some questions.
So many of you claim to love the USA so much. Is this what you think the founding fathers had in mind when they started the revolution? That eventually a privileged 1% would have the majority of the wealth, power, education, health care, and resources; and the rest of the population would be struggling to make it work? That was the “American Dream?” Those were the rights they wanted you to have as citizens. So many of you are thanking that 1% and big corporations for your jobs – do you think that the separatists, puritans, and colonialists arrived and all took jobs from the big corporations they found here?
How much did you learn about the government in public school – which was paid for by tax dollars (but I guess doesn’t count as a “hand-out”)? How many Civics classes were you offered in college - that so many of you broke your backs to pay for? Do you think that Thomas Jefferson wanted college to be so expensive that many of us would be in debt for decades in order to get degree after degree that eventually would become useless toward getting a job anyway? Do you think that George Washington wanted you to take night classes for 8 years while you managed Hardees during the day just to get your Masters? Do you think that when the framers wrote “for the people by the people” in the constitution they imagined most kids – actually most adults - would have absolutely no clue how the government works and no idea how to participate in it? That we would have a tax code so complicated most people need to hire a specialist to figure out what they owe? That public campaigns need to be mounted to get citizens to vote?
Do you think that when so many of your patriotic grandfathers & great grandfathers were immigrating or fighting in WWI or WWII or Vietnam, and your hard-working grandmothers were milking the last ounce of chicken stock to feed the family - they were all thinking: “I’m fighting to defend a magnificent, new kind of country where some of us will struggle for a little and die, and some can live a dream life full of diamonds and rubies,” or “I would never ever take a shameful, dirty handout,” or “those wealthy men in suits don’t look like they could be a danger to society – I wouldn’t put them in jail. They’re rich and I’d like to be rich someday too.”
When so many of you go to church on Sunday, are you hearing these lessons from the pulpit: That you should give to charity and love one another but it is so shameful to accept a handout. That we shouldn’t be concerned with our society at large, but rather should aim to work so hard that eventually we can become so rich and have so much that we don’t have to worry about anyone else ever again. That those who dare to speak their minds and challenge authority are lazy bums not to be trusted.
Many of you seem to be criticizing certain areas of study like the arts. I see a lot of notes telling me that you went to college and studied an area of DEMAND. Was that between 1993 and 2001? Or are you telling me that you expected kids who graduated high school in 2007 to be thinking about the fact that when they graduated from college in 2011 they wouldn’t be able to find a job? Or are you making the argument that we don’t need the arts in our society? But you’re using photography, computers, the internet, and writing to make your point.
Do you think that living in the greatest country on earth means that teachers barely scrape by on an embarrassing salary with overflowing classrooms in poor facilities, while rich doctors turn away patients as they golf? Then the 1% cries about taxes and the 53% defends them and brags about busting their asses and not having health care and complains about shitty schools? Wait, the 53% is complaining about the shitty schools, and they don’t want the 1% to pay more taxes, and they’re complaining about paying their own taxes? But they all “support the military.” I don’t get it.
When you are fighting so hard for the 1% not to pay a little more tax – the 1% who will never have to worry about surviving , like you do, who work so hard every day - when your house is on fire, or your home is broken into, or you’re sending a birthday card or driving down the road, or having a baby in the hospital, or attending a public college – are you thinking about where those hard earned taxes are going? One of you told me you have exactly this much: A 4000 Square foot house, 3 Vehicles, 2 Snowmobiles, A Camper, and a Boat – oh, and no health insurance (that’s your choice.) And you’re busting your ass for it. And you pay your taxes each year. And you thank the 1% for giving you your job. Sweetheart, the 1% spends your net worth on groceries. And if something happens to you on your snowmobile it will be all gone in one second. Literally. And some of them knowingly made some bad deals that made you lose your job and take that pay hit. And now you’re fighting for them.
Also I keep wondering this:
When you’re accusing the occupiers of being lazy whiners who want a handout, and you’re saying that you’ve worked hard for everything you have, and talking about always buying second hand stuff, and thanking the big corporations (who keep making all that first hand stuff), saying that you want to be a 1%-er (so why would you criticize them): do you ever think about the 1%-ers kids?
Or what about the 1%-ers who inherited their money? Technically they didn’t do crap for their dough. Are they lazy whiners or since somebody once (presumably) worked for the money does it count as being okay for you? Should those people have to pay the extra taxes? Or are you still cool with those guys?
Living in a society where we have roads (that we pay taxes for) helps everybody. Similarly, living in a society where everyone is healthier and better educated does the same. No one’s saying they want to take your stuff away. Heck no one’s saying they want to take all the 1%’s stuff away. But the disparity of wealth & power that is happening now is akin to a medieval monarchy. There are countries in the world that have been around a lot longer than ours that have medical care for all – modern countries like England and France. People are happy and get long vacations each year. They’re educated and not slaving like so many here. They don’t have to sacrifice rights or freedoms or quality of life for this.
Some of America’s practices need to be updated in order to improve our quality of living. This is part of what the occupiers want to achieve. Whether you believe they represent you or not these are facts.
There are people who should be held accountable for the disaster that happened with the economy that haven’t. It is a fact that there was wrongdoing. This is part of what the occupiers want as well.
Many of the occupiers have stories just like yours. They’ve worked hard to achieve. They come from hard working, church going, tax-paying families. They have jobs. They’ve served the government and the country. They love the country. That’s why they stand up for what they believe in and want. That’s why the framers wrote “for the people by the people” in the constitution.
Thank you for your time.
Kelly Lafferty
And as a post-script: A Note To Ben – the guy who feels that he has better than he deserves, because he was too average and too poor to go to college, too poor to have kids, lucky to be treated by doctors even though he didn’t have health insurance (and is now in debt to them):
- EVERYONE DESERVES A COLLEGE EDUCATION IF THEY WANT ONE!
- FOR-PROFIT HEALTH CARE IS A MORAL DISGRACE!
- IF YOU WANT A BABY – IT WILL BRING YOU MORE JOY THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE!
