Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (3539)	4/13/1999 11:31:00 AM
From: James F. Hopkins	Respond to of 17770

Hi D: <OT> I like the way you write and in a way I think it is better to sow the seeds of hope and of course look at the bright side or at least some of it. Some people do make it out of the worst situations, but the number that do is very small percentage wise. There is a real tragedy that happens in the social circles that are below the first rung of the ladder and I doubt I can explain it. ------------------------- Our family survived intact but largely because my Grandfather decided it had to, and well did you ever read the book "Death of a Salesman" ? as that's what it took. So over the years having to live with that and answered the questions that go with it I saw it more than once how often if one person in the family doesn't make that sacrifice the others are trap by the system and just working your way out is not possible. By and large you have to "fight" your way out literally, it's a very violent life until you get over the barrier. The analogy I equate it to is when I took a Job as a life Guard at Folly Beach. Going in to help someone can be risky as they will try to drag you under. Not as an act of meanness, figurtivly speaking it's just like trying to rescue a drowning man, he will inadvertly fight you and pull you down if you don't know how to handle him. What I was saying in my last post was the growing population of our prisons have one major common denominator , they don't know how to swim at least not well enough to escape what I see as a trap. ---------------------------------- Your Our education system is crumbling as it is, but it is even worse for poor communities where money is tight, violence is high, and teachers are unwilling to work. This doesn't help things much for these children given that education is all-important in today's society (hell I have a college degree and grad credits and I have a hard time getting a quality job). That Is one of the things I was trying to say, but instead of "this doesn't help things much" I would have said "it complicates things even more". -------------------------- And RE In short, its a very tough environment for people to grow up in and succeed. But it can be done if you try hard enough. The problem is it takes a lot of hard work and its so easy to get discouraged when you think the best you can hope for is McD's. I don't have any easy answers. The weak just don't make it no matter how hard they try or how smart they are, not without help. They can't buck the tide and the system itself is tilted in such a way that it only works for them who are not from birth on the wrong side of the social net. There are no easy answers, but the idea that one must pick themselves up by their own boot staps is a form of bullshit I abhor, as no one really does or can do that and people that who claim they did, or are given credit for having done so are once again the victims of the artifice of those who would rather talk about helping than doing something. The majority of Americans don't see or even go near the part of our system that chews people up, and it's covered over fairly slick, but we have close to 20 million people who are just about as bad off as the Kosovo refugees, our are stuck in a system that will kill off a great percentage of them but we prefer to fight a war in some moral indignation that lets us pretend we are not systematically killing many of our own people by trapping them in area that does it for us. These hot pockets or killing fields are dispersed and often disguised and I since that on some high level they are intentionally set up. ------------------------------- This won't win me any votes but I'm not running for any office. (1) Minimum wage has not keep up with the disparity of wealth in this country, it should at least be $10 per hour by now. (2) The National debt is the biggest barrier to the poor, in a tax system every one pays taxes like it or not , them that don't have the money pay by standing in line or doing without. (3) If any one want's to look at the welfare system they should look first at how the Big Banks are on via the Federal reserve system a form of welfare, this trickle down thing was set up years ago and by artifice is made to look like something else. Jim ------------------- Getting into the details of what my over all picture is beyond my ability to paint it. My frame of reference is so large it would take several volumes and I don't have near the qualifications to organize the details on paper not even close to the way I see them fitting together. The inability to express the picture sure has been frustrating as I'm sure taht if I could it would create an understanding that most people would not object to. There is no ideal system for all people, it needs to shape itself to work at a level that matches the educational level of the majority, forcing it beyond that it becomes dysfunctional. The thing about ours is it's far beyond the level of the average citizen to understand , and we are in sad shape trying to catch up with it because of our public school system being what it is, we need to put a moratorium on making a better system if we can't do better in the educational department. ------------------- The idea that we can impose Democracy on some other people is such an absurd idea that it sickens me to hear politicians spew out taht type of garbage. Hell we are miles and miles from having anything like a Democracy here at home. ( & it don't and can't exist in the bed of lies laid down by our leaders. ) We will never impose a better system or any lasting peace any where in the world at the point of a gun, things just don't work that way, and getting involved in Kosovo just looks to me as another way to sweep our own Domestic problems under the rug. Jim