They are making a lot of noise in the media. They are getting coverage every day. There are groups taking up the fight in other cities across the country.
And nowhere, anywhere, have I been able to find a mission statement for any of them.
They are occupying Wall Street, and they are camping out, but what do they want? What is their plan to change the status quo? They have people donating food, tons of food, to feed the masses gathered at the parks. They have built their own tent city, complete with a library.
Why haven’t they put that kind of commitment, creativity, inspiration, and energy into finding a job, or making their own lives better, than sitting around expecting the 1% they are protesting to change?
According to this guy, the 1% are the ones who make more than $350,000 a year. I will never be one of the 1% that influences the politicians. I will also never been one of the politicians influenced by the 1%.
What I am is a single mom in my 40′s. A month ago I had a job that was paying the bills, putting a roof over our heads, food on our table, and afforded us health insurance. It was not a fancy life, but it was livable. We managed to eat out once a month, and by eat out I mean my daughters got McDonald’s for dinner.
Today I still don’t have a job, and it’s been a month. I filed for unemployment the day my job ended. And I also started looking for a job. I knew unemployment could take up to 3 weeks before I saw a dime. I called the utilities, I called the landlord, I called my parents. I asked for temporary help with the understanding I would make it right, pay it back, as soon as I got back on my feet.
I spent every day on line applying for every job I could find. I was on the computer literally 5 hours a day, applying to 7-10 jobs a day. I sent my resume to every company I could think of that would allow resumes be submitted online. I could not allow myself to not look for a job, even for a day.
I found food pantries and stood in line at those every week, to get food to supplement what little I could afford to buy in order to feed my kids. I swallowed my pride, kept looking for a job, and did what I had to do to get by. I talked to everyone I saw, and listened when people were talking about places that were hiring.
I am not out of the woods yet, as I don’t have a job. I have a job interview on Monday. It’s only one out of the many I applied for. Unemployment only required me to apply for 2 jobs a week. I know there are those out there who will do just that, only apply for those 2 jobs a week.
I am not one of those people.
I will never be one of the 1%, but also don’t expect the world to change because I don’t have the job I want with the paycheck I’d love to grow accustomed to. I don’t expect to live off of other people, I don’t go looking for handouts so that I can afford to be a stay-at-home-mom. My job, for the past month, has been to find a job and ways to feed my family.
I am the 99%, and I’m doing the best I can.
I’ve worked for little more than minimum wage my whole life. I have currently been out of work since February. My husband has been out of work more often than not for the last two years (The more plants and factories that close down, the less plants and factories that need him and his coworkers to come in and install/take out/maintain their machinery) Neither one of us receives unemployment anymore. We’ve applied for jobs at places we never thought we would again. For jobs whose wages wouldn’t actually fix our financial problems, but would at least make them a little more bearable. We started school a few years ago, hoping that would help us get ahead. At this point, I’m not so sure it will.
I, too, have had to ask for help. I’ve had to swallow my pride and resort to things that I *never* thought I’d have to do. The hardest part is seeing how my kids are effected by this.
The second hardest part is hearing how people are willing to write us off as lazy, unmotivated or leeches. As though we are standing here with our hands out for freebies, waiting for jobs to fall into our laps.
To clarify, I’m not angry at you, I’m just frustrated with this perception that I keep seeing around The Internetz and my Facebook stream. It’s hard, because it hurts to see how people, some of whom I really like and respect, really view people like me and my family.
(Although I agree that the 99% protest is way disorganized, and while I think that corporate greed and a failure on the gov’ts part got us where we are today, I can’t say I support Occupy Wallstreet because there is no clear mission statement or plan or anything.)
PPS My apologies for the novel. I swear it didn’t start out that way.
[Reply]
Becky Reply:
October 16th, 2011 at 10:41 am
@thepsychobabble, No need to apologize for the ‘novel’ I’m glad you found a place to share your story. I know there are people out there who have been unemployed longer than I have, who have exhausted the system because they refuse to cheat the system to support a lifestyle. As an example, my neighbor is on food stamps and housing assistance, because she can only work part time. Although she gave up that job to babysit at home. I never see a single kid show up at her house.
And so while we the tax payers are buying her food, and paying her rent and her utilities, she drives a new Mustang, has cable television, internet in her home, and alcohol in her fridge, and her kids dress in designer clothes.
Even when I was working for every dime that came into my house, I am driving a used, wrecked, rebuilt Honda Civic, we don’t have cable, or internet, and my girls get all their designer clothes from second hand shops.
I hate my neighbor.
Good luck to you and your family.
Becky recently posted..My 99%s worth
[Reply]