My Feelings on the Occupy Wall Street Protests

This past week I have been seeing news briefs on the Occupy Wall Street protests in NY and across the country this past weekend. I was actually glad to see people who were using their freedom of speech and assembly to come together to speak out against corporate greed and the federal government's waste. I think there are people who are down there for a variety of reasons. And their demands have been outlined in an article published byNomi Prins and others in several publications. Last week I was appalled as many others were to learn that Bank of America and now Sun Trust banks will be charging people to use their own debit cards and checking accounts if they do not upgrade to premium accounts where they have to keep a balance of at least $5,000. Are you serious B of A? In a time where people are scrimping and saving every cent they have and are just trying to make it they have to add a line to the budget for a fee to use their own money! Seriously?!?!?!?

Then last night I heard the excerpt from an interview with Herman Cain who claimed that if you are broke and not wealthy that it's your own fault. I can understand his "up by your own boot straps" Booker T. philosophy but I think what he has not gotten is the fact that many people in this nation young, middle aged, and old alike have been trying to work hard and secure steady jobs and have been repeatedly turned down or have had to be underemployed. That is not their fault. When companies or institutions cannot afford to hire people because there is not enough money to keep all systems at go there is a major problem. That coupled with the ever increasing national debt that we have and the fact that government continues to waste tax payer dollars for non-essentials. For example I read an article yesterday on the Daily Mail UK website stating that tax payers paid $425,000 for Mrs. Obama and the girls to go on a "goodwill" tour of Africa this summer. I have no problems with goodwill tours or Africa but why are we financing non-critical trips abroad for the first family sans the President when Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are being cut down to hardly anything. These kinds of things I just don't understand.

For me what the Occupy Wall Street Protests mean is that everyday citizens are tired of the fact that when big businesses failed in 2008 the government provided a way out for them. Now individual homes are having a toll taken on them and there is no relief in sight. Yet there are real possibilities that taxes are going up. Food costs have been on the rise for over a year now, 50 million people do not have health insurance, an estimated 28 million people are unemployed or underemployed, people are separated from their families having to take jobs out of state, families are doubled up, and new workers coming into the workforce who are not fortunate enough to be able to get a cushy job for a tech company are having to settle for minimum wage or less than minimum wage jobs and some are even having to live on food stamps, even those from Ivy League universities.

People have plenty of right to be upset and to be protesting. I only wish that there was a way to relocate protesters to Washington which is just as responsible if not more so than those banks that are housed on Wall Street. There need to be people at the gates of the White House and on the steps of Congress calling for action by the politicians who were voted in to represent their interests. This morning I saw a press conference that President Obama held at the White House where he lamented the fact that people across the nation feel that Washington doesn't care about them and that politicians are only there to enhance or further their own careers and serve their personal interests. Oh really, why do you think that's so? Oh, yeah because it's TRUE!

The more this crisis continues the more disenfranchised people are going to feel. And you better believe that any politician worth his salt needs to confront these issues and come up with ready solutions and answers in the next 13 months leading up to the 2012 Presidential Election. America is headed on a crash course and it's time to hit the breaks!

Although I am not looking to Washington or President Obama to meet my needs because I know my Heavenly Father will do that, I am disheartened by the fact that this nation is in crisis and the only people who seem to be acknowledging that fact are the ones going through it. I really believe that it is only a matter of time before we see the collapse of the American middle class and more and more families descend into poverty. Why are politicians not working together to help Americans now and for the future? That's why I am writing this post because if I was in the same conditions I am now in North Carolina and I lived in NYC I would be down there chanting and sitting with those protesters to keep the eye of the government and the nation from casually brushing aside these protests and issues they concern.