Occupy This

Now that the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to cities and towns across the country it is clear there are scores of unhappy citizens, especially twenty and thirty somethings, who are demanding change and are voicing their anger at the wealthy. I suppose if I was just out of college and trying to navigate my way through the current job scene, I would have more than a little frustration. Add to that, a generation that is use to instant gratification and who were drilled with the concept that we are all winners, it's natural for their anger to spill over.

I get that Wall Street represents all of the greed and disregard the wealthy seem to have toward those struggling to make ends meet, pay off college loans, and enjoy the American dream. However, for this movement to be taken seriously by working middle class people like me, we need to see some different occupying.

For starters, occupy Exxon Oil headquarters now that they have announced quarterly profits of 41 billion dollars while I pay $4.00 a gallon for gas to drive on dilapidated roads because they find tax loop holes to keep from paying their taxes. You could also occupy Apple headquarters, and all the other hi tech giants, who have managed to make you addicted to electronic devices so you can constantly listen to music, watch movies, text your friends, or browse your favorite web sites while you occupy Wall Street.

Maybe you could also occupy the central valley of California and demand first shot at jobs picking vegetables or harvesting fruit. You will have to work so hard you won't have the time or energy to text friends but can rest comfortably at night knowing you are helping provide low cost food for the nation.

Rather than occupying financial centers where the wealthy look down on you from their high rise offices and laugh, go occupy the Pentagon and insist they stop occupying foreign soil at the cost of billions of dollars and loss of lives. Insist our government use the military budget to create jobs repairing and improving our country's infrastructure. You could also go occupy the Peace Corps and volunteer your time and talent giving back to third world countries that have taken jobs from us only to make the bulk of their citizens live in filth we could never imagine.

Then again, you could just go occupy the U.S./Mexican border and keep illegals from entering our country to take all of the jobs you blame them for taking. Once they are gone, besides applying for their now vacant migrant field jobs, you can go after their cleaning jobs or take over their yard maintenance businesses. You could also occupy the neighborhood streets and patrol them now that we have fewer people in law enforcement to protect us.

Even though you have a college degree, go back to your college and occupy it. Do what your grand parents did in the 60's and occupy University president's offices and demand more affordable college tuition for future generations so they are not saddled with the debts you face.

I don't mean to be so harsh on what some call your movement. However, if all you are doing is complaining and demanding without doing something besides taking to the streets, yours is not a movement as much as it is just a gigantic whine fest. I understand it is jobs that you want. Feeling productive and making a contribution to society is something most of us want to do with our lives. However, this just doesn't fall into our laps and it is not something we are automatically entitled to. I must admit, there is a big part of me that senses you just want to start out at high paying jobs so you can not only pay off your college loans, something I think you really hope the government just does away with, but so you can purchase more toys and distractions.

Go organize new political parties and elect people who will change our laws, tax codes, and priorities to your liking rather than just demand the people currently in power do it for you. They do not care about your interests as much as they do their own political selfishness and you are a fool if you think otherwise.

But if all this sounds like too much of an undertaking for you, then I suggest you go occupy North Dakota. They are in a jobs growth boom where for every job that gets filled, one and a half new jobs go unfilled. Truckers can earn as much as $80,000.00 a year there and they do not have to deal with urban congestion. Oil rig workers are earning up to six figure salaries and the energy industry there will lead to a housing boom, need for more schools, law enforcement, medical personnel, and just about anything else you can think of.

North Dakota can be your gold rush if you really want to work and feel like a productive member of society. It can provide you with a lifetime of satisfaction that comes from knowing you helped create something from the ground up and made a difference in this world.

However, I am willing to bet most of you would use excuses like the harsh winters, lack of city life, and sacrifice involved in such a change as excuses for not going. In that case, I suggest you go occupy a library and read a history book and learn what your ancestors have done.

The Wisdom of Andy Rooney

Although he may have retired from 60 Minutes, the words of Andy Rooney are still worth enjoying.

1. Anyone who watches golf on television would enjoy watching the grass grow on greens.
2. Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make easier do not need to be done.
3. Death is a distant rumor to the young.
4. Don't rule out working with your hands. It does not preclude using your head.
5. Elephants and grandchildren never forget.
6. Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens.
7. I didn't get old on purpose, it just happened. If you're lucky, it could happen to you.
8. I don't like food that is too carefully arranged; it makes you think that the chef is spending too much time on arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I'd buy a painting.
9. If dogs could talk it would take a lot of the fun out of owning one.
10. Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose.
11. Nothing in fine print is ever good news.
12. People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe.
13. The 50-50-90 rule: Any time you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90 percent probability you'll get it wrong.
14. The average dog is nicer than the average person.
15. The only people who say worse things about politicians than reporters do are other politicians.
16. Vegetarian - that's an old Indian word meaning lousy hunter.
17. We're all proud of making little mistakes. It gives us the feeling we don't make any big ones.
18. All men are not created equal but should be treated as though they were under the law.
19. I like ice hockey, but it's a frustrating game to watch. It's hard to keep your eyes on both the puck and the players and too much time passes between scoring in hockey. There are usually more fights than there are points.
20. If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.

Nightmare Act

I voted for Governor Jerry Brown in California's last gubernatorial election. In fact, recently, I have voted for more democratic candidates than republican, including President Obama, because I believe they have shown a desire to do what is best for all Americans more than their opposition. However, this could change if I see more actions like Brown signing off on the Dream Act which now makes a college education available to illegal citizens.

I understand the anger and frustration of the Tea Party who have grown tired of seeing tax payer money being spent on citizens disinterested in improving their lives (lifetime welfare recipients) or who do not live here legally. Our country has enough struggling citizens of its own to deal with that it does not need to require tax payers to flip the bill for the education of an illegal immigrant.

I have three children in college and I do not expect their tuition to be paid for by the citizens of Mexico, Honduras, Nigeria or any other nation. I resent seeing the tuition expenses I pay increase by as much as 20 percent a year while the services my kids receive decrease. There is no argument anyone can make that says we should provide for non citizens before we provide for our own. None! And it is especially irksome to people like my wife and I who hold steady jobs, pay our taxes, and began setting aside money for our children's college before we began having kids.

However, I do not see myself jumping on the Tea Party band wagon. While I understand their anger and frustration, all too often it is aimed at the wrong people. I do not understand the level of hatred they blindly express and their desire to see more of a police state in which law enforcement can blindly ask to check our identification if they suspect we look illegal (think of Nazi Germany and the targeting of Jews).

As long as there are an over abundance of lazy Americans who prefer collecting a welfare check over an honest day's pay and who impart that philosophy in their children's minds then we will have a need to hire illegals who are willing to do the work that our own citizens will not do. Still, that does not mean these illegals, or their children, are entitled to attend our colleges, especially at the expense of honest tax payers who struggle to send their own children to school.

Lets's Hear It For Yellow

I am boycotting the color pink. In fact, I am boycotting anything that comes close to resembling pink so fuchsia, you're out too. You can also toss in the singer, Pink because I am sure she loves what is going on.

October used to be one of my favorite months. The days shorten and the leaves turns numerous colors but never pink. The weather cools off and there is Halloween to celebrate at month's end.

It used to be when October arrived you saw lots of orange, brown, and black. Now, it's just pink.

Go to a grocery store and your favorite brands of food are colored with pink labels. Turn on a Sunday football game and the players are wearing pink wrist bands, shoes, and chin straps. Heck, even my morning paper was printed on pink paper yesterday.

Why? Because somehow we have allowed breast cancer research to steal an entire month and paint our nation pink. I'm surprised the White House is not painted pink this month or that congress does not require all government buildings to fly a pink, white and blue flag dawned with 50 pink ribbons instead of stars.

Go to any store and try buying a product in its original label instead of pink. Women will look at you as if you are Satan. The female clerk at the checkout stand will remind you when you buy pink labeled items part of your money goes to breast cancer research hoping to shame you into submission.

However, I will not be broken. It's not because I oppose finding a cure to breast cancer. I hope and pray we do. I also hope and pray we find a cure to colon cancer (my mother), rectal cancer (also my mother), prostate cancer (my father), stomach cancer (my grandfather) and all other cancers for that matter.

One of the biggest supporters of a pink October is the National Football League. They devote an entire month trying to sell pink NFL replica jerseys, wrist bands, and anything else they can stamp NFL on because it helps them expand their fan base to women.

You say I am being cynical. Then why hasn't the NFL selected another month, say September, and another color, perhaps blue, to devote to finding a cure to childhood leukemia? I say it is because they know children do not have the money to purchase NFL jerseys, season tickets, or cable television game day packages and could care less about curing a disease.

And am I the only one who notices that if an NFL player tries to wear pink any other month he gets find thousands of dollars for being out of uniform. Why is it okay to wear pink cleats one month but not another?

I will, however, wear yellow. I proudly wear my yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet and support Lance Armstrong's efforts to rid the world of all cancer. July should be the month of yellow. It represents the month in which Armstrong won seven straight Tour de France titles. Yellow is also the color of the leader jersey worn in the Tour de France and it represents the sun which without there ceases to be any life on this planet.

Join me in my pink boycott this month. Wear yellow instead. Watch college football instead of the NFL. Listen to any musical artist except Pink (you may have to do without Pink Floyd too although they were around long before pink Octobers). Remember, none of us are exempt from any of a number of cancers and we should be working toward finding cures to all and not just one.