Act in your own interest

Much noise has been made about a viral internet video featuring Wall Street professionals mocking protesters participating in the “Occupy Wall Street” campaign.

The video shows a hand full of well-dressed business types drinking champagne and taking photos of the protesters. Many have referred to it as “a slap in the face” of those on the streets picketing what they say are unfair market conditions that keep the rich rich, keep the poor poor and wipe out the middle class.

The war between the haves and the have-nots has gone on since the dawn of time and won’t end any time soon, but the current economic situation in the country, coupled with mass media alerting everyone to said economic situation makes it all the more heartbreaking.

While I think the Wall Street types’ actions are deplorable, I’m not in the “lynch them” crowd. From their perspective, their way of life is being attacked. In fact, from their point of view, they themselves are being attacked.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have much sympathy for them. I may even envy them, just like I imagine the protesters envy them, as well.

Most of us grew up learning that if we worked hard, we, too could have the American dream. And most of us believe that today. Some of us may have achieved that dream — with a house, two cars, a cat, a dog, picket fence, etc.

There are some people, though, who work hard every day and have less and less to show for it. In fact, right now, more Americans are slipping into poverty on a daily basis. They wish they could be drinking champagne and mocking the downtrodden. If only they could figure out a way to no longer be downtrodden.

It doesn’t help that right-wing talk radio and conservative news outlets have convinced us that the downtrodden are the problem. The people starving and homeless are what’s wrong with America, they’d have you believe. It’s almost social Darwinism. And it’s downright scary.

I’m certainly not saying storm the castle and take what you feel you deserve. That’s not what our republic is about. The revolution should be at the ballot box. But there will be no revolution if the people vote against their best interest.

Voting for someone who idolizes the rich because you idolize the rich is a path to your own destruction. Self loathing on account of your aspirations to be able to loathe the downtrodden from above is a huge mistake, to say the least.

So when it comes time to vote, vote for you or at the very least someone like you.

To paraphrase Niccolo Machiavelli, “deal with the situation at hand — not the situation you wish were at hand.” And the situation is that we’re empowering the destruction of the middle class.

Act in your own best interest. If you don’t, no one else will.

Struggling for power and fighting the future

Like many of you, I'd imagine, I have a cell phone charger at home and another at work.

Funny story. For some reason that escapes me now, I brought my home charger to work on Wednesday. And forgot it there. So Thursday morning, my phone had drained completely and I had no charger. I live in Tonawanda and work in Lockport, so it's not like I could just pop in and grab it. It's about a half an hour drive. Fortunately, my downstairs neighbor uses the same charger and I got through the day.

After work on Thursday, I remembered to bring home my home charger.

Friday, I get to work and find that I'm actually working out of our Tonawanda offices instead of the Lockport office, like I usually do. So in order to make sure I got through the night, I brought my work phone charger to the Tonawanda News with me ... and then home.

My girlfriend and her kids came over Sunday to spend time with me and my girls. She brought her home charger with her ... and accidentally left it at my place. (She lives in Lockport)

After dropping my kids off at their mom's (Lockport) following the weekend, I popped into work to grab the power cord for my laptop, as I'm off for a few days and won't have the juice to get through it without the power cord, should I need to use my work laptop.

I would have let my girlfriend borrow my work charger, since we use the same type and I won't need it for the next three days ... but I left it at home. Along with my home charger. And her charger. If you're keeping track here, on Thursday morning, I had no phone chargers at home. As I type this, I have three.

Also, it's not without irony that the reason I had stopped into work at all was to get the laptop cord/charger.

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Every day that passes, I'm a little older – and hopefully a little wiser, but more importantly (and sadly) right now, we're a little closer to winter.

It's football season and the Bills are off to a great start, having won half as many games already as they won all of last year.

Last night started Sabres' pre-season. That excites me a lot more than football season, quite frankly. If spending means winning, then the Sabres should have a great year this year. Of course, spending doesn't always mean winning, but I'm hopeful anyway.

My neighbor across the street put scarecrows out over the weekend. I think they're Halloween decoration. I love Halloween more than most, but I think it's a bit early to start decorating. Of course, it's better than my neighbor down the street who still has Christmas lights up – and lights them. I'm sure they'd say they're not “Christmas” lights, they're just lights. But I'm not buying it.

We've only got a little over three months before it's 2012 – and there's just 14 months before the world is supposed to end … again. You may recall that the rapture was supposed to occur earlier this summer and didn't. Of course, I'm okay with the world not ending this summer. And I'll be equally pleased if it doesn't end next December. I have too many things left to do than I'll be able to accomplish in 14 months. One of them, apparently, is to invent a way to charge phones and laptops without cords.