Over the past several weeks we’ve seen it all come to a head. A last minute “debt ceiling” agreement is reached, only to have Standard And Poor’s, downgrade it’s own Nation’s credit rating. MTA says it needs to now “DOUBLE” the fees we pay at our bridges, tunnels along with commuter transit in order to maintain our region’s “infrastructure”. And, it goes on and on.
Something’s got to give. Commuting in to work every morning, there seems to be no shortage of newly released Porche Sedans, Audi A7’s/A8’s, AMG Mercedes and 7 Series BMW’s passing the bus I take to the station. And there’s not a weekend where I look in the real estate section of the Times and don’t see pics of someone’s recently purchased 15 million dollar Manhattan Apartment or Brooklyn Brownstone. Fact is there are many people living far beyond the average our wildest dreams and it’s not only America. In the UK, a British designed Super-Yacht was just completed adorned with 100 tons of GOLD (not making this up, just Google)! This beyond-luxury boat is listed for sale at over 4 Billion Dollars! And, a recent article in the Washington Post reviewed a new over the top hotel in IRAN of all places that features an ice-cream dessert in one of it’s penthouse restaurants adorned in “edible gold” for $250.00 per person.
On the other side of the income gap; our public schools continue to lay off teachers. Once proudly employed people from Newark, New Jersey to Baltimore Maryland struggle to find work. Food banks in our region continue to see record numbers of un-employed and under-employed added to their already swollen ranks. And banks struggle just to keep up with the paperwork for the number of homes and condos they’re attempting to foreclose on.
It’s tragic and hard to fathom that as bad as things appear these days that many companies continue to report record profits, pay record bonuses to top executives, while those that make it all possible share in none of that success.
The good news is people are fighting back.
This August in Wisconsin, voters went to the polls in historic elections to “recall” politicians from top to bottom that worked to cripple the power of unions in their State. And, if you can’t get support for a problem with your Verizon internet or smart phone service, it may be due to the fact that 45,000 Verizon employees are out on strike.
It’s more important that ever that we blog, march, write/call our politicians and unite to ensure not only we, but our children have a chance at the basic human rights and opportunities our parents and ancestors fought so tirelessly to obtain for us. I believe these times, as Jesus Spoke of in Luke 11 is our, “Knock At Midnight”. Just when we were content in our existence, comes a time where we ALL have to speak out. We can no longer believe others will look out for our best interest.
Let’s raise our voices (and votes) in unison! It’s time to get back on track!