Freakishly Happy

SO... two weekends ago we were in Washington DC
for a political conference (see what I forget to tell you about!). The
weekend was great, spring was in the air it was a balmy 42 degrees (up from the
20 degree weather we'd been experiencing up here), the trees had big fuzzy buds
robins abounded everywhere and it was perfect, well.. Nearly perfect.
Everywhere we went there were people talking on their cell phones. Now much
like an ex-smoker is much more sensitive to smoking, I am an ex-mobile phone
user and am very sensitive to cell phone, especially usage of the obnoxious
type. At the national monuments were teenagers gabbing away, in front of
the Declaration of Independence were senior citizens with phones to their ears,
even at the radical conference we went to were punks on cell phones (how totally
under the thumb establishment is that?).

I can not understand how we as a civilization have gotten to
the point where we can not even enjoy our national treasures without having a cell
phone conversation (Now I know that those of you who knew me during my cell
phone phase are going to jump down my throat, but hey, I’ve evolved and pretty
much mobile free for almost two years (okay, when we came back from Germany I
did have one, but it barely functioned)).I remember the good ol' days when people would talk to their friends and families in the privicy of their own homes, and would go to grocery store prepped with a written list and if they forgot something? Oh well.  But now it seems like we have to have constant connection with those who are not with us, while on vacation, at the grocery store and even in public bathrooms.  

The worst cellphone abuse we saw on our trip were on the train to and
from DC. The ride was fairly quiet until
we got to, you guessed it, New Jersey. It seemed like as soon as we crossed the
border there were at least 3 people around us having very loud conversations. There
was a woman 4 rows behind us who practically screamed into her phone for over
an hour. She would finish one
conversation and then call someone else 30 seconds later. As I said this went on and on and on and on. There were also several business people who
got on the train, who were obviously together, who each sat in the window seat
across the aisle from each other and proceeded to have a business meeting (this
is another rant all to itself). They’d holler
back and forth things like, “Susan, did you get the numbers for the BlahBlah
account?” and then would each hold very loud conference calls and then hang up
and bellow over the aisle again.

Try as I might it is
really difficult to ignore other people’s conversations, especially when they
are shouting. I have decided that there
should be a law, that if you are talking loud enough that the people around you
are forced to listen to your conversation, you should also be forced to switch
to your speaker phone. It is not fair to leave us wondering what he was
indicted for, or what stocks we should be purchasing. Either that or they should all be herded
together like smokers into a single cell phone section so that the rest of us
can go about our business in peace.

I am very disappointed...

Joni has a gift.

Joni has the gift of frustration and the deep sense that the world is a mess. Not everyone has this gift of vision.

It also means that she has a responsibility to lead us. To ask questions. To get us thinking.

Recognizing that something is wrong is the first step toward changing the world.

She's trying to understand why American's consume as much as they do. She's trying to figure out why people do things that are bad for them. She's trying to figure out why people are greedy and hurt eachother.

How can this even be a soap box? Over-consumerism is a big problem in America. Obesity, drug-abuse, gluttony, and other habituals are a big problem in America. People hurting each other and stealing from eachother is a big problem in America.

If she's genuinly trying to figure out how these things come about, then KUDOS to her! She has the passion for it. So rather than squashing her passion by attacking her because "she has been so fortunate and is spoiled" we need to encourage her and help her to find the answers to her problems. I've met a lot of people that have the same types of views as Joni, and not all of them have had "fortunate" lives, they are also asking these types of questions.

I also don’t understand how people can be so cruel. Just last night John was reading me an article
about how there are many payday loan offices preying on elderly and disabled
people. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120277630957260703.html?mod=todays_us_page_one)

Now if you don't really feel like reading the article I'll gve you a hypothetical example of what's going on. An disabled lady falls on some hard times, and it's going to be a few weeks until she receives her disability check. She needs to feed her family, so she goes to a payday loan center and takes out $200. Not being fully literate, she signs up for a loan with exorbant interest rates. The loan center is then entitled to say $300 of her $600 monthly check. Soon, the woman and her family are evicted because they can't keep up with their living expenses, and the woman is jailed for defaulting on her loan. Seriously, it's that bad. Read the article if you don't believe me :)

Now first of all, I really can’t fathom how this can
possibly be legal, and secondly I don’t understand how people are so horrible.
Now perhaps it’s because I’ve been very privileged, and I’ve never known want
of anything, but I do not comprehend how so many people, individuals to entire
governments are ruled by greed. How is
it that so many people are corrupted by the pursuit of money that they can degrade
the lives of others?

Why do people struggle and compete to live in a bigger
house, have a bigger flat-screen tv and a bigger car? Why are we, especially we
as americans, never satisfied until we’ve not only kept up with the Jones’, but
kicked sand in their face and left the Jones’ in the dust?

Now I’m not trying to say that I’ve got everything figured
out, or even sound like I do. But I really feel that we have reached a new all
time low, when stealing from the poor has become status quo, especially when
the poor are disabled and elderly. It’s disgusting.