Okay, I have not ventured into politics too much, and to be honest, I am NOT writing this to push either a particular party, or a political philosophy, per se. I want to make a point here, that has kind of disappeared in recent decades. This is the idea that Family comes before WORK.
When I was single, it didn’t bother me too much, that the Companies I worked for expected me to be on call, and to be willing to work extra hours at the drop of a hat. BUT, I DID sympathize with the parents who had to miss too much of their children’s lives in order to even put a roof over the heads of their families.
Now, I am a divorced, single father. My ex is worse than useless as a parent, and I have had to make some decisions in regards to work and family lately…it got me thinking.
How did we go from being a country where ONE parent could bring in income to pay for a mortgage, STILL have a life, and be involved in the lives of their children, to where we are today? Now, a single parent may have to have two or even three jobs to provide basic livings needs for a child, and yet they then miss out on the IMPORTANT part of being a parent. When did we decide that we would allow companies to assume the fact that we work for them is somehow MORE important than our lives outside of work? How did we get to the point that in many cases, BOTH parents HAVE to work in order to live?
Lets talk messed up priorities here, folks. Lets talk about getting back to the IMPORTANT thing; FAMILY COMES FIRST! You family is MORE important than ANY company, ANY corporation, and ANY wealth. If you DON’T believe this, spare the REST of us from your mentally defective processes! The fact you even believe this shows some degree of both inhumanity, AND mental illness. You NEED counseling!
Now, I get that some people are workaholics. Heck, I am a type A personality myself. I get some people LIKE to work a 90 hour week, and they find that kind of life to be desirable. But SOMEHOW, we have let people, who think that way, set the rules for the REST of us!
If you are one of those struggling single parents, you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. If you are married, you STILL probably have an idea of what I am talking about. The boss doesn’t want to hear your child is sick, or they have their ball game, or that you have ALREADY busted your ass for the 40 hours you are salaried for. The company that embodies this ideal WORST of all is Wal-Mart. I have known DOZENS of people who worked for Wal-Mart, from being simple employees, up to store managers, and EVERY SINGLE ONE of them says the SAME thing, which I will sum up in a sentence a former assistant manager said that his manager said to him: “I own your soul!”
That’s right, that is what the store manager said to his subordinate. Anyone ELSE see something wrong with this attitude? I sure as hell do. No, you DON’T own my soul. You and I have an agreement that I will work for X and you will pay me Y, and if your company disappeared tomorrow, the world would be NO worse off. And YOU personally, for saying that, are a POOR excuse of a human being! This is a CORPORATE attitude on Wal-Marts part, from the TOP OF THE COMPANY on down.
Look, again, I am NOT gonna get into the whole SOCIAL conservative versus liberal thing. But I AM going to venture into THIS area: The people at the top think they are ENTITLED and SUPERIOR. They have managed, over the last few decades to get MORE and MORE wealth concentrated in their hands and they have done it by destroying OUR lives. They don’t CARE about Christian values, or morals, or ANYTHING other than Money. They pay LIP SERVICE to ANYTHING else.
Lets look at actual facts: Banks, and their employees, in their desire to create more and more money for themselves, jammed tens of thousands of families into mortgages they couldn’t afford. YES, to an extent, MANY families bear the responsibility of knowing they could NOT afford it…but MANY of them were deceived, had paperwork switched, were NOT offered the mortgages their credit ENTITLED them to, all in the quest for the almighty dollar! So the banks screwed up and we bailed their asses out…and NOW we find out they are LYING under OATH, on court documents, as they rush to foreclose as many houses as possible…their defense? “Well, it was a minor paper work error.”
YOU LIED UNDER OATH. You signed NOTARIZED documents filed in COURT claiming you did things you did NOT do. Hell, in many cases you aren’t even SURE if your bank OWNED THE DAMN HOUSE! This is called PERJURY. It is a CRIME that would send any of US to JAIL. Minor paper work error? Obviously, these companies and their employees think they are BETTER than us and EXEMPT from the LAW!
Meanwhile, they CLAIM all these people delinquent on their mortgages are trying to get a free house…so in OTHER words…they are just trying to act like the BANKS have so far? Honestly, MOST of these families are TRYING to find a way to afford the house, but the banks and their SHAREHOLDERS think it is more IMPORTANT to squeeze the last penny outof a dividend, than that the people, they were supposed to HELP, are able to even LIVE. You know what, at THIS point I am ALL for letting the people KEEP the houses for free just to SCREW THE BANKS! Too big to fail? Your company is NOT that important, nor is your industry! You CREATED this, you REAP the CONSEQUENCES! Lose the superior attitude and realize the ONLY reason you STILL have those banks jobs is we were STUPID enough to think you would actually GET IT when we HELPED you!
Corporations are complaining we want to impose regulations on them, when they CREATED this situation in the FIRST PLACE. That’s like your teenager complaining you grounded them after you caught them at an underage drinking party! They CAN’T be trusted. They will WILLFULLY and PURPOSELY act in NON Christian ways, destroying and controlling LIVES because they consider MONEY to be MORE important than PEOPLE.
No, this is NOT a plea to redistribute wealth…sorry to disappoint. This is simply saying its time to force rationality back into this country. Yes, you have a right to be wealthy…to an EXTENT. Yes, you have the right to choose to waste your life chasing money and keeping up with the Jones’s…what Companies and Individuals do NOT have the right to do is to do this. while DESTROYING everyone ELSE’S lives, or demanding WE also embrace that philosophy! Further, we ALL have an OBLIGATION, with those rights, to HELP improve the country and people in it…and that sense of obligation has all but DISAPPEARED.
We are NOT on this planet to be a job, we are NOT on this planet to be a part of a COMPANY. Work is ONLY something that enables you to get the necessary things to be able to let your FAMILY have a life, and yet be able to spend TIME with your family. And to be honest, the MAJORITY of BIG shareholders in companies do NOTHING to make this world a better place. They don’t PRODUCE anything, they don’t INVENT anything…they get rich by shifting MONEY around and getting a PERCENTAGE of that! (Yes, those of you who have ever read Marx can say I am treading on dangerous ground here.) BUT, there is a GRAIN of truth in that point: People should be rewarded for PRODUCING, people should be rewarded for IMPROVING, DISCOVERING, INVENTING and CREATING, not for moving MONEY around!
And for those rational people among us who merely wish to be able to take care of our families? We SHOULD be able to make reasonable money for reasonable work WITHOUT giving up our lives for a CORPORATE ENTITY. I AM a type A…when I work a job, for those hours the company has me, I am DEDICATED to that job. UNLESS my son is SICK, there is NEVER a reason I won’t be there, doing my absolute BEST. I do take PRIDE in my work, as do MOST people. But when those hours are done? Sorry, I could care less about you. I did what I agreed to, and NOW is the MOST important thing: BEING WITH MY SON.
Recently, I switched jobs. And as I went through the task of applying for jobs, I read carefully through the help wanted ads both on line and in papers…I am fortunate, given my skills, I found a job that, to a degree, is going to allow me the freedom I am looking for. I will NOT get rich doing it, but I WILL be able to maximize my time with my son AND keep a roof over our heads, and be able to do things with him like occasional dinners out, bowling, movies….we are NOT extravagant, NOR do I WANT to be. I see no point to having the newest car, or the latest gadget, or spending tons of money I don’t have.
But, I ALSO decided, after reading these ads, that there are certain companies I am no longer going to buy from. I encourage you to spend some time looking at the job requirements out there and do the same. Wal Mart will NOT get another PENNY from me, nor Schwann’s (Who require their drivers to work 60 hour weeks), nor Target.
“Will, that’s all well and good, but it won’t be doing anything other than making a small point to make yourself feel better.”
Yup, if I am the only one who does it you are right. So, since we know the companies ONLY value dollars, then you hit them where it hurts and withhold those dollars. And the higher employees of those companies? Simple, NAME and SHAME them. It is time to start realizing, DESPITE what the Supreme Court CLAIMS, that CORPORATIONS are NOT PEOPLE. They AREN’T citizens, they don’t have Constitutional RIGHTS. The is NO fundamental RIGHT for a company to make the MAXIMUM profit at the expense of EVERYTHING else.
Forget all that liberal and conservative CRAP…its a DISTRACTION. The true BATTLE here is the RIGHTS of PEOPLE to LIVE. The ONLY way to accomplish this is to REMOVE the incentives for the companies to continue to act as they do and to SOCIALLY CENSURE the INDIVIDUALS who create this culture in the companies.
There is an “entity” called Alec out there. They enable state politicians and companies to get together and let BUSINESS WRITE THE BILLS the politicians enact. That’s right, that’s how rigged the game is. Then they MANIPULATE the public, by claiming its a SOCIAL ISSUE. Case in point: The Arizona Immigration Act. Okay, we ALL have views on illegal immigration…but THIS bill was NOT created to deal with that. THIS bill was created by the private prison industry, then GIVEN to a politician to introduce. Why? Because the PRISON INDUSTRY considers it to be MORE important to make MILLIONS from us taxpayers than to worry about pesky things like moral rights and legal rights. They don’t give a DAMN about the best way to deal with the immigration issues (Which are best solved by pressuring Mexico to become a stable government free of corruption, so that Mexicans WANT to stay in their country.). They saw an opportunity to manipulate public opinion to make MONEY, and they are going to become even WEALTHIER, because they pulled it off. The bill was about MONEY and NOTHING more.
ALEC does this ALL over the COUNTRY, with politicians WILLINGLY (BOTH Republican and Democrat) joining and enjoying MANY perks, while placing the interests of the PEOPLE they are SUPPOSED to represent, a distant second. Here are some facts about ALEC:
More than one-third of state legislators are ALEC members, and about 100 hold senior leadership positions. Nine sitting governors and more than 80 members of Congress either pay dues or are alumni. ALEC doesn’t publicly release its membership list but, according to spokesman Bob Adams, about 65 percent of its members are Republicans and 35 percent Democrats.
If you have NOT heard of ALEC, you should start reading about it. It is creating more laws, and suborning more politicians, than ANY individual lobbyist EVER has, or even ALL of them combined.
Are we that stupid? Has it really come to the point where we have allowed POLITICIANS and CORPORATIONS to manipulate us into fighting with EACH OTHER, instead of fighting for our rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of HAPPINESS??!!
Look, its simple, first we have obligations. Among those are not living beyond our means. So first, PUT AWAY THE CREDIT CARDS. Is it REALLY that important to get that 50 inch plasma when the 42 inch still works? Is it REALLY that important to LEASE that Mercedes when you could OWN a Camry? Will it REALLY make you that happy? Do you have to eat out THREE nights a week? Come on, learn to COOK and eat with your FAMILY!
Now, with the MONEY you save by doing those things, QUIT BUYING FROM COMPANIES THAT TREAT THEIR EMPLOYEES LIKE CRAP, and LET THEM KNOW WHY YOU ARE DOING IT!
Second, write your state representatives. It doesn’t matter WHICH party they are, if they belong to ALEC, VOTE FOR THE OTHER GUY! That simple. This FIRST fight has to be fought. We HAVE to be able to take our lives back. We are MORE than our jobs, we are MORE IMPORTANT than our companies, and MONEY is NOT the most important thing out there. Money is a MEANS, a TOOL, and it is simply there to enable us to LIVE.
If you are friends with people who put money first, let them know you don’t APPROVE. Make it UNCOMFORTABLE for these people who think THEIR way is the way the world works. You want to bitch about the liberal media? The media will report what sells…start getting on news media to REPORT on these groups, on politicians, and get things out into the light.
And DON’T assume, when politicians start making noises about an issue YOU find important, that they are doing it because they agree with you. THEY AREN’T!! They are doing it because SOME company sees a potential for PROFIT, and you need to QUESTION who is manipulating behind the scenes and WHY.
So People on the Right? If you are TRULY living a Christian life, while you talk loudly about Christian values, remember that compassion, sympathy, and SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY to help are a LARGE part of Christianity. Yes, there are people who are lazy out there taking government programs..but there are FAR MORE PEOPLE who NEED that help, for a short time. Yes, the lazy ones get some benefit…but don’t think they have the cushy life. Pity them and look at them as being the price of democracy. But, as a CHRISTIAN, you should KNOW you need to be there for your family and the people around you…you CAN’T do that if you are chasing the almighty dollar. Honestly, gay marriage is NOT the primary danger to the family. The PRIMARY DANGER to family, and family values, is that CORPORATIONS see the FAMILY as the ENEMY of making money. Which can destroy a family quicker? Two gay men you have never met, who would never marry women, getting married, or the fact Wal-Mart makes their managers work three months straight without a day off, so their spouse eventually divorces them? Direct your anger where is properly belongs.
People on the Left? Look, communism DOESN’T work. EVERY country that has tried it has FAILED MISERABLY. Don’t think that the every day person wants anything MORE than to be able to make a DECENT living, and be with their FAMILIES. Direct your energy at the MIDDLE ground if you TRULY want to make the world a better place. RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS is the BEST way to ensure this. So look at the things that let a company do well, yet restrain their worst impulses, ala Enron, or Bear Sterns. Its great you think you can solve all the world’s ills….you CAN’T, you aren’t that SMART. NO-ONE is. Pick your battles that actually IMPROVE people’s lives.
People on BOTH sides: Let’s AGREE that PEOPLE are what matter, not THINGS. Take a step BACK from NEEDING things, and look at the difference you make to the people around you. Reward people and businesses that do that, withhold your approval and money from the ones that don’t. Start finding common ground and realize we are being MANIPULATED. It is classic military strategy, ala Sun Tzu, to get an enemy to turn on itself, and destroy themselves. We are AMERICANS, we are PEOPLE, and we NEED to get BACK to placing importance where it belongs: on PEOPLE, not COMPANIES and THINGS. The FUNDAMENTAL battle here is NOT Right and Left, the fundamental BATTLE is about the BASIC important thing: FAMILY.
As for me, I made my choice: My son matters more than ANY job ever will. A job is something that enables me to do things for my son. When that job begins to INTERFERE with it…well, I know where MY priorities are….do you?
Allons-y!
