For everything there is a season

I’ve always liked Halloween.

As a kid, Halloween gave me an excuse to eat as many Snickers bars as possible in a very short period of time. I’m almost surprised I made it through the Halloweens of my youth, given the amount of sugar I consumed.

Also as a kid, I always enjoyed the Halloween parade at my school, Military Road Elementary School, which is now just a big abandoned building. Some say it’s haunted. Of course, some say every big abandoned building is haunted. They have overactive imaginations.

As a teenager, it was my love of scary movies that took over. I have no idea why it is people enjoy being scared, but they do. Many of my favorite movies are of the horror variety.

When my kids were younger, I enjoyed Halloween vicariously through them. They got excited about the costumes — and no doubt, the candy. I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood with them and hearing everyone comment on their costumes.

As an adult, my favorite part about Halloween is the costumes. It’s amazing some of the things that some people wear out in public. I’m not sure when Halloween made the transition from “wear something scary” to “wear almost nothing,” but I’m not complaining.

I also enjoy carving pumpkins. I’m not particularly good at it, but I have fun doing it anyway. I’m usually a bit of an overachiever when it comes to jack-o-lantern carving. I have some great pictures throughout the years.

I find it funny that the same holiday has meant so many different things over the years. I guess that’s called growing up.

Another thing that Halloween means these days is that it’s almost election time. This has been a rather hum-drum election year. There are no major statewide races. There are no Congressional races. And despite the fact that there are stories about the race for the White House in the news every single day, that’s not this year either.

I’m looking forward to the end of election season, nonetheless.

Election season is almost a Halloween of its own. Normal people change into something different to bad-mouth perfectly good citizens and make the rest of the world think they’re sinister and scary.
After Halloween (and election season), it’s a mad dash to the end of the year — and Christmas.

Stores used to wait until after Halloween to start putting up Christmas displays. That tradition seems to have been changed. This year, I saw Christmas stuff and Halloween stuff go out at the same time.
I love me some Christmas, but I do wish it would wait until after spooky season.

It’s funny how fast the last two months of the year always go. The calendar gets from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 in what seems like a couple days. But Jan. 1 to March 1, on the other hand, take much, much longer.

For now, I’ll just enjoy the season we’re in — with the candy and the movies and the decorations and the costumes. And the political fliers and the commercials and the lies and the propaganda.

Everything counts in small amounts

The Occupy Wall Street movement continues to intrigue me. And I continue to research it.

Thursday, I went to the Occupy Buffalo protest to talk to some people about the group, their goals, their thoughts, etc. I did very little talking, frankly, but quite a bit of listening. And from what I gathered, I'm still a fan.

I saw a headline on a website the other day talking about the organization's "Anti-capitalist protest." Whoever wrote that headline does not know what the majority of the Occupy movement stands for. They are not anti-capitalist.

Another headline said "Group protests greed." That's considerably more accurate. I didn't hear a single person say that people shouldn't make money. I didn't hear a single person say that people shouldn't be allowed to amass wealth. They did, however, feel that the banking industry had taken advantage of the government when it was bailed out, and by taking advantage of the government, it took advantage of the people. That coupled with the fact that homes are still being foreclosed upon and loans are hard to obtain makes the Occupy folks (or the 99 percenters, if you prefer) to feel as though something needs to be done.

One of the groups greatest selling points is also its biggest weakness. They are an organization without a leader. There's no one "in charge" despite what you might hear on right-wing radio or Fox News. They aren't taking marching orders from Nancy Pelosi or George Soros. In fact, they aren't taking marching orders from anyone.

From what I've seen and heard, they're just as upset with Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama as they are with the Republicans. They feel as though there's very little difference between the two major parties.

Republican front-runner Herman Cain (when did that happen) seems to think that they're anti-GOP and should focus their ire on the White House. Many Democrats, I think, are hopeful that this is a left-wing response to the Tea Party. It's not. And I hope it never is.

It seems to me that the Occupy movement is what the Tea Party never was but should have been. It's a grass roots populist group made up "of the people" - the regular people. The 99 percent of us working paycheck to paycheck. I hope it stays that way.

The Wall Street protest began its second month yesterday. I can't help but wonder how long they plan to stay there and what will happen in the meantime.

***

Random side note: I wrote a piece about Occupy Wall Street on my personal blog the other day. I linked it to Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Somehow it got shared by someone or someones leading to me getting an email Saturday that I didn't expect from
a  very old friend of mine who I had lost contact with nearly 20 years ago.

You never know what effect your work will have on the world. If a blog post I wrote in Tonawanda could get shared with someone in the middle of Pennsylvania, who knows what your actions might result in.

Everything counts in small amounts.

Is a "Tea Party Occupation" in our future?

I can’t help but feel like Occupy Wall Street, now in its fourth week, is a movement without a cause.
Sure, I’ve seen their list of grievances — and most of what they find objectionable about the current state of our capitalist system, I find objectionable, myself.

They’re upset that the super rich have gotten increasingly more wealthy with the help of government and to the detriment of the working class. They’re upset that the super rich seem to have their own rules and flaunt that fact, despite the fact that it hurts the economy, the environment and our Constitutional rights.

They haven’t, however, come up with a list of demands. That’s somewhat understandable because, while it may be easy to point out what’s wrong, it is more difficult to come up with solutions.

They’ve been labeled as anarchists, slackers and lowlifes. Photos and videos that I’ve seen would indicate that they are overwhelmingly not those things.

What began on Sept. 17 as a protest in Manhattan has spread to a series of international protests about the plight of the working class, an increasing number of which is not working. And of those who are working, an increasing number aren’t making enough to stay afloat.

About two and a half years ago, I went to a Tea Party rally in Buffalo. The Tea Party movement was in its infancy, and I thought I agreed with some of their ideals. They opposed government intervention in their lives and wanted a return to days when government was controlled by the people.

It only took me one Tea Party rally, however, to realize that the Tea Party wasn’t for me. The fact that they invited an elected member of the New York State Senate to speak told me everything I needed to know. The Tea Party movement was just a bunch of disgruntled Republicans who weren’t so much upset at government as they were at Democrats.

I’m no fan of the Democrats, but we need them to keep the Republicans in check, in my opinion. And we need the Republicans to keep the Democrats in check. It’s a vicious cycle.

I can’t help but wonder, though, what would happen if the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement ever got together and realized that there’s a lot they could agree on.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been improperly branded as a leftist organization. First, it’s hardly an organization. Ask any three protesters what they’re fighting for, and you’re likely to get different answers. Second, they’re just as upset with the Democrats and President Obama as they are with the Republicans.

So the Tea Party is upset with government. And the Occupy Wall Street movement is upset with a system that rewards bad behavior. It seems to me that if they got together and found some real worthwhile candidates for office, they might both get their way.

I don’t think either movement is going to go away any time soon. I just hope that they realize that they can accomplish more together than separately. Frankly, we need some change around here.

I'm ready to give (something) up - Are you?

I'm not afraid of giving something up for the greater good.

Life is give and take. Sacrifice and reward. We've all been there, having to choose between going out to eat and paying the electric bill. Hopefully the electric bill won out.

Odds are if you're reading this column, you just can't have everything all the time – or in the words of Jagger, “You can't always get what you want.”

Actually, the sacrifices I'm thinking of today aren't even really things that I want. Maybe you do, which, of course, will make them bigger sacrifices. But for me? No big deal.

The United States Postal Service has thrown around the idea of eliminating Saturday mail delivery. Many people seem to be up in arms about this. For the life of me, I can't figure out why.

In my lifetime, I've had eight different addresses. That's eight different mailboxes in 36 years. I don't know that in all those years and all those mailboxes I've ever gotten real mail on a Saturday.

It seems impossible that no one ever sends a bill or a letter or anything of any importance on whatever day it would need to be sent to reach my address on Saturday, but I don't think it's ever happened.

This past Saturday, for instance, I got two bulk mail things with coupons and whatnot. I think that's exactly what I got last Saturday. In fact, I think that's what I've gotten every Saturday for the past year and a half that I've lived in Tonawanda.

I recall thinking this to myself a few years ago – the last time the postal service discussed eliminating Saturday delivery. I think all I was getting then was junk mail, too.

Frankly, even if I were getting “real mail” on Saturday, I can't think of an occasion where I couldn't have possibly waited two days to get that mail. Can you think of a time when you've gotten emergency Saturday mail that you had to respond to or react to immediately?

As far as I'm concerned, they can do away with Saturday. Maybe another day, too. In fact, if the USPS mail delivery was Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I think that would be just fine.

We only have garbage pickup once a week. Somehow we manage.

My second sacrifice is also small. In fact, it's mere pennies. Literally. Let's get rid of pennies. They cost more to produce than they're worth. They clog up my changeholder in my car and they're kind of a pain to deal with.

I say in cash transactions, we just round everything to the nearest nickel and call it a day.

Sure, we might “lose” a couple cents on some transactions here and there, but what were you going to do with those pennies anyway?

So we give up Saturday mail and pennies. And the richest one percent give up a little extra in taxes. We all feel the pinch and the world keeps spinning.

What do you think?