tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70249267578336567.post7205599267972210380..comments2023-07-25T05:27:29.888-04:00Comments on Measuring Out My Life in Coffee Spoons: Why thinking of Haiti makes me hate the Wall Street protestors.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09509262144920198122noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70249267578336567.post-88534263950760049142011-10-21T16:58:29.429-04:002011-10-21T16:58:29.429-04:00I agree with Dave T. Because the people in the US...I agree with Dave T. Because the people in the US are not willing to sit around and let happen to us what happened to the people in Haiti is a GOOD thing. Apathy kills.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70249267578336567.post-46987549544497004792011-10-19T11:21:01.780-04:002011-10-19T11:21:01.780-04:00Liz, I hear you. One of my best friends has lived ...Liz, I hear you. One of my best friends has lived in Thailand for years (not even a particularly impoverished part of Thailand) and I remember taking him to Costco a couple of years ago and he was physically ill. Just seeing the opulence we take for granted -- and knowing we can buy enough protein to feed a whole Thai family for a week for $6 -- made him sick. I think most Americans take for granted just how much better off most of us are than 95% of the rest of the world.<br /><br />I am regularly grateful for all that I have and how relatively lucky I am to be an American. However, as someone whose real wages have gone down consistently for the past 4 years, I am also frustrated. As a parent who has a daughter in college who will graduate with significant debt and diminished job prospects, I empathize with the occupiers. I know too many people getting rich on the backs of others and who think that American values are essentially "get rich regardless of the consequences." I think that mindset has to change in a way that supports a larger swath of struggling people here, as well as supporting raising the standards of living for the impoverished around the world. I think / hope that's what the occupiers are fighting for.Dave Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01554650648344826824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70249267578336567.post-44562490254711029322011-10-17T21:34:06.856-04:002011-10-17T21:34:06.856-04:00Dave, I think you make a ton of excellent points. ...Dave, I think you make a ton of excellent points. I'll be completely honest. My blog was not based on logic or well thought out points at all. It was a gut reaction, something I've struggled with whenever I've traveled to an impoverished nation and then come home. The Occupy Wall Street movement probably has a lot of great points going for at as you mentioned. My thoughts were more an internal struggle based on what I have to reconcile between what I see in a country like Haiti with what I see here. It's hard to come home, and it makes it hard to listen to anyone complain about anything here, but obviously, in the light of day, we have plenty to complain (and protest) about. I just struggle with the difference in what's immediately at stake. For us what's at stake has to do with what will happen over years. For them what's at stake is about where food will come from in the next 24 hours. It's probably, like you said, symptoms of the same disease. The perspective just shifts dramatically and I've never been very good at going from a perspective of a nation with starving people to the perspective of a nation like ours that has so much.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09509262144920198122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70249267578336567.post-22660964725469924192011-10-17T11:06:11.339-04:002011-10-17T11:06:11.339-04:00Liz, interesting take on things. I think I underst...Liz, interesting take on things. I think I understand where you're coming from on this but I have a completely opposite perspective. The Occupy Wall Street movement isn't just Americans complaining about not having jobs, it's the 99% of people whose resources and talents are being increasingly channeled to support the 1% at the top finally starting to complain about the inequity. This isn't just happening in America which is why the Occupy movement has now gone global. Places like Haiti have been exploited like crazy by their own 1% and are a perfect example of what such inequity leads to. Sure, we have it comparatively wonderful in this country. The mindset and power structures that stagnate our standards of living are robbing people in countries like Haiti of their actual lives. To me, it's the same disease, just different symptoms.Dave Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01554650648344826824noreply@blogger.com