Friday, October 7, 2011

Occupy Wall Street, DC Event

Some faces of the movement.





"Listen up Wall Street! Gives us back our money!"
 (or something like that.)


Other folks were there as well.


No, son. Corporations with greedy, heartless CEOs destroy jobs.


However, they did not stay long. The movement carried on. Veterans, unions, students, grandmothers. People of many and varied ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. In short, America! 

A yoga break for the crowd.





Love.




Peace.







When I look at the young Republican/Libertarian with the anti-union sign above, I can’t help but wonder about the young man’s thinking. His ideals. I think of corporations like Union Carbide and Johns-Manville. Like R. J. Reynolds and Phillip-Morris. Like GM, Ford and Chrysler. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers. Now I wish I had asked the young man how many millions of people does he think have been killed by unions? How many Americans lost their homes and life savings because of unions? How many people are suffering debilitating terminal diseases because of the behavior of unions? 

I wonder if any of that ever crosses his mind.


9 comments:

  1. What's amazing to me is how all sides talk past each other and not find common ground. Unions, corporations, financial institutions, and big government have all played a role in this economic crisis but it seems each side only points at their preferred demons. And, while pointing fingers they offer nothing in the form of solutions.

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  2. This should be interesting. ;^}

    What, precisely, was the role of unions in this current crisis?

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  3. LOL. The very tone of you response sort of proves my point.

    Solutions Mike. Solutions are the key. You give the impression that you are on the same side as the protesters. What are your solutions?

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  4. Ugh!!! I must admit Mike, you represent the protesters well. You chum the waters with nonsensical bait and when your opponent won’t take the bait you declare victory; usually with some condescending and arrogant statement like, “So Nothing?” At some point you may pull out the old standby, “you should quit while you’re behind.” ;-)

    Meanwhile, the sad part is the problems go unsolved because no solutions have been presented. My original primus still holds. You prefer to talk past your opponents, you refuse to find common ground, and most importantly, you still offer NO solutions to YOUR grievances. Please Mike, do better than the protesters and offer up solutions. Taxation? More government regulation? Public floggings? Maybe your solution is Unions which is why you’re so hung up on the topic… I even heard one protester use the words “a return to primitivism”. I’m not even sure what that means but I suspect she’ll lose her iPhone, Facebook, and Twitter if we try that out. I wonder, much like your Republican/Libertarian, if that has even crossed her mind. LOL

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  5. Interesting. You state that "Unions, corporations, financial institutions, and big government have all played a role in this economic crisis..." I then ask what you think the role of unions actually was, now how is that chumming the waters with nonsensical bait? You made a statement, I asked for clarification. That is all.

    It was a simple, non-confrontational question. It's clear now you've chosen not to answer, you would rather instead go off on an irrational, substanceless rant full of insults and ad hominems.

    Anytime you'd like to actually engage in a rational conversation this thread is always open.

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  6. OMG, Michael, why are you so hung up on the unions? That young Republican/Libertarian must have really gotten under your skin. ROFL!!! You, sir, are the one who railed in support of unions in your original post. I merely added them to my list to be inclusive and because I’m not blind to the fact that there are those out there who feel them culpable. Getting into a long drawn out conversation about just how culpable is irrelevant but you are now using it as a method to avoid the more relevant question I posed to you and all the Occupy Wall Street people. SOLUTIONS!!! Where are they? What are they?

    I can only assume from your refusal to offer such solutions that you have none. That saddens me. :-\

    Now onward and upward to the more fun accusations.
    As to non-confrontational; comments like, "This should be interesting…" and "So... Nothing?" and “Anytime you'd like to actually engage in a rational conversation” are NOT non-confrontational. They are arrogant and condescending. Unfortunately, very typically Kircher and since I’m one too I know better and you can’t get away with it. LOL These types of comments presuppose that anything your opponent may say is already irrelevant in your mind. Why on earth would anyone want to engage, as you put it, under this circumstance?

    As to irrational, substanceless; this one actually made me spit my soda out in laughter. Especially after I did some afternoon research about the organization you now display on your site. According to their About page they are a “resistance movement employing the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to restore democracy in America” (????) [who want to] “Facilitate collective decision making in an open, participatory and non-binding manner.” What? Collective non-binding decision making? Oh, now this sounds efficient. Can we say ancient Greece? Or maybe the Borg. Is the non-binding part to provide plausible deniability when everything goes horribly wrong? Or is it so they can collectively change their mind on a whim? LOL Either way it sounds like it comes from the haphazard minds of college students to me. LOL

    Oh and guess what… NO SOLUTIONS!!! They don’t even have a list of issues posted. Apparently we’re going to make collective non-binding decisions but we’re not too sure what we need to decide. ;-)


    BTW, I’m curious about an organization that has to be so secretive that they actually use a domain name information hiding services, Whoisgaurd. If they’re committed to their cause why do they need to hide behind technology provided by a corporation no less. I would think that, in a collective, they’d want everything out in the open. And, Ironies of all ironies, they host their web page and email on a site run by a self proclaimed NY entrepreneur, at least according to his Linked IN page. Maybe he’s an unsuccessful entrepreneur so they give him a pass. Or maybe he called in the collective and they all decided together that he was cool. But then again maybe I’m just irrationally ranting again. ROFL. C’mon Mike, you need to lighten up some dude. Just like the Tea Party, some of this is serious, some is just quite scary, but then there’s the stuff that’s just downright funny. ;-)

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  7. there are those out there who feel them culpable

    So do you think they are or not?

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  8. Very well Michael. I find it very disheartening, although not surprising, that you would prefer to have inane, irrelevant arguments rather than a serious discussion about solutions. I guess we'll just have to leave it at you and the organization you support, BTW also endorsed by the American Nazi party and American Communist party (not groups I think I’d want to be associated with), simply have no solutions just bitches and complaints.

    In the mean time enjoy... Your photos are fabulous BTW. Much better than anything I've seen in the media.

    BTW: Did you receive my email sent last Monday?

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