It's hard to blame Carolla or anyone else who are taking an opportunity to trash the idea behind the OWS movement. It's most public face is in fact kids that ought to be out trying to earn a living rather than talking about raising taxes on those that earn or get the most money in our society.
Unfortunately OWS's public face isn't the average guy who has, in fact, gone out and worked hard and chose a profession that has been downsized, outsourced or outright eliminated, and can't react to the changes in the market fast enough to find work doing something else.
And no matter what any defending of the 1% may say, earnings of the 1% have SKYROCKETED in the past few decades while earning of the 99% have stagnated at best. The 1% have all of the leverage to determine how much they get paid and the 99%, due to weakening of unions and an overall pro-corporate/anti-employee culture, have virtually none. It's hard for me to keep a straight face when someone suggests that the people on the lower rungs of the social ladder just need to climb higher. This profound disparity in wages is shameful and immoral.
You took the words right out of my mouth! You get major props for this post because as a Conservative, it must not have been easy for you to speak on this matter objectively. So many take the position that participants of this movement are just a bunch of lazy bums walking around with their hand held out screaming and yelling about things they know nothing about. Based on the images we see on our TV's, I can understand how many people get this impression. But it's really not like that with many of the Occupiers.
As I've said time and again concerning the Occupy Movement, it's not just about a bunch of wiley-eyed college kids putting up peace symbols and looking for government handouts. Unfortunately, that's pretty much how the movement has been portrayed. It's sad really because there are alot of people who support the movement but aren't doing things in a disruptive manner. But the grandeur of violence and/or civil unrest is what makes news not the quite protestors who are able to articulate their message and are working within the law. You don't see those people making the 10 o'clock headlines. Take Monique's story, for example, an African American female living in Minneapolis, MN. From what I gathered from
her video testimony, she wasn't even part of the Occupy Movement initially, but when her home went into foreclosure, she turned to the movement for help. Since there is no video of their march on her home, I can't tell you what how things have gone on since the video was posted. There's no follow-up footage to say what happened during or after her home was occupied or if it ever was, but the point is her message.
She wants to work. She wants to continue being responsible for her family. She's just asking for alot more cooperation from the bank which seemed to be following a very similar pattern of losing paperwork or selling mortgages which in turn forces homeowners seeking to modify their mortgages to start the paperwork process all over again. (
Note: I listened to Sara's story, too, but since Monique's was more compelling as a family tragedy and she did seek the movement for assistance, I found her story to be more appropriate to the thread.)
It's real easy for much of America to look at this movement through the storylines and images placed on our televisions, but until you attend a rally or general assembly meeting or review online streaming videos that don't just show the protesters clashing with police or some ignorant young adult or homeless person who has no idea what the movement is about - they're just there saying or doing whatever - it's easy to paint the movement in a very broad brush. But then you see videos like Monique's and you're reminded what's truly at stake - family, personal pride, dignity, a sense of belonging, a sense of being able to make do on your own. Many people are struggling just as this woman is. I find it deeply troubling that her story has been co-opted by the stories of civil unrest we're starting to see more frequently about the movement, and it's really unfair to those who are truly trying to do the right thing but aren't being given a fair shake.
