Tag Archives: leadership

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Tuesday Afternoon Ramblings

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It’s curious to me how when the wealthy and well-to-do grab for more, that’s just capitalism.  Greed is good, they espouse.  But when we peasants ask for anything, it’s class warfare.  Get a better job, they grouse, while simultaneously making decisions that create jobs overseas.  They’ve manipulated every law, every regulation, every facet of government to benefit their best interests, and then seem offended when we simple folk complain about the absurd pressures being placed on us today.  They hide wealth in offshore accounts to avoid taxes, and then blame cops, firefighters, and teachers for the deficit.  They sit on their balconies, sipping champagne and mocking the protesters crowding the street below.

Their pomposity, so smug in self-righteousness, angers me.  They have crippled the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind, depleting nearly every advantage we once held, yet act as if because they themselves prosper, all is well in the mighty empire.  Well, all is not well.  We are fed up with the Big Lie.  We are fed up with rising prices and falling wages.  We are fed up with the blame being placed on those of us who go to work every day yet can’t afford basic healthcare.  We are fed up with crumbling infrastructure and pathetic excuses for leadership.

I’m for civil disobedience, for peaceful demonstration.  In a democratic republic such as ours, we should be able to enact change without bloodshed.  We should be able to reclaim our government with our voices and votes.  But the feeling I get is that the wealthy and well-to-do are so convinced of their own turgidity that they will not listen to reason and rational discourse.  I’m afraid that the peaceful protesters will soon be supplanted by the angry mob, and once that happens, things will get uncivilized and messy in a hurry.  Anger and frustration are dangerous fuels and can ignite rapidly.

General Posts

Monday Morning Ramblings

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If you watch Fox News or listen to conservative talk radio, you probably believe the Occupy Wall Street protest and the subsequent demonstrations springing up around the nation are nothing more than a collection of neo-hippies, drugged-out radicals, welfare leeches, and uneducated rabble intent on hijacking the government for their own socialist ideology.  These disorganized radicals are at the same time undisciplined lawbreakers and highly trained agents of some secret Leftist cabal planted by Karl Marx himself.  If you believe the far right, this is how totalitarianism begins.

Of course, two years ago, when Tea Party Activists were conducting similar protests, these same pontificators praised protesters as true patriots attempting to save the nation from the evils of government.  Then, protests were our God-given right, guaranteed by the Constitution and paid for by the blood of the Revolution.  It was the duty of concerned citizens to protest the injustices of Death Panels and government bailouts of irresponsible corporations.

I’m not physically there on Wall Street, so I can’t intelligently speak about the people who are protesting.  I also can’t intelligently describe their methods or activities because I haven’t seen them firsthand.  All I’ve seen are video clips and sound bytes from major news outlets, and we all know that the media can manipulate those to fit whatever suits their needs.  What I do know and can speak about intelligently is that the vast majority of us “average” Americans are fed up with corporate greed and government bureaucracy.  We’re  sick of watching laws and regulations manipulated to favor the few and harm the many.  We’re sick of feeling like the entire system is rigged against us.

The other day, I wrote about my hopes for the protests.  Nearly every person I know, regardless of political affiliation, feels like our country is slipping away from us.  Maybe, it’s already too far gone to save.  Maybe, we can salvage our democratic republic and restore liberty to the masses.  Only time will tell, but what is certain is that this current round of protests is fueled by an overwhelming sense of frustration we all feel.

General Posts

Saturday Afternoon Ramblings

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I must be getting old because I find myself thinking a lot about just how lost this current generation seems to be.  Last night, I went to homecoming to support my niece, who was the junior representative for the court, and while watching the game, I found myself wondering how my coaches would’ve dealt with the egos and self-centered attitudes of the players.  The stadium has a fairly impressive video screen, and for pre-game, the kids get to record their own introductions.  It’s a pretty cool concept, but after watching the clips, I was simply disgusted.

First, all the boys acted in their videos like they were mugging for Monday Night Football.  The cockiness and arrogance of their posturing was ridiculous.  It might not put me off as badly if they had the skill to back it up, but their effort on the field was pretty disappointing.  I can’t imagine what Buddy Sausbury or Brumley Greene would’ve said to us if we had arm-tackled like that.   The defensive line to a player had weak technique, their first step typically being to stand up and look in the backfield.  On the line, low man wins, and the side that gets the better push with leverage controls the game.

Second, there was an attitude of entitlement in the videos that is pretty symbolic of all that’s wrong with this generation.  They’ve done nothing on the field to earn that swagger, yet they acted like they’re the defending state champs.  How about you accomplish something before you tell me how good you are?  I see that same mentality in the classroom and around campus.  Kids park in the faculty and staff lot and, when confronted, act as if they deserve to park there because somehow they are above the rules and beyond reproach.  At 38, I’ve paid my dues, kid.  Accomplish something before you take my parking spot.

I also took great umbrage with their uniforms.  I don’t know if it was a one game deal or what, and I don’t know who made the decision, but the team came out in all black.  Those aren’t the Trojan colors.  We wear crimson and silver.  Have a little respect for tradition, please.  A lot of people came before you to create that program, and we bled and sweated and toiled for those colors.  It meant something to me to put on that jersey, and I think it meant something to most of us.  Get rid of the black and wear the school colors, please.

I’m well aware that I sound like a cantankerous old man, and I know my opinion won’t hold much sway with anybody in the school system, student, teacher, or administrator.  But I was disappointed with what I saw last night and had to express my feelings.