My friend Patti asked if I was going to write about the Occupy Wall Street – Occupy America stuff that’s happening around the country these days, and I’m a little reluctant. I try to keep this blog mostly non-political; I enjoy writing and I don’t want to tick off any of my small band of readers. Also, I am aware of these protests, but I’m not spending much time on keeping up with all the latest. I guess I’m too busy doing my job and raising my family to worry about disenchanted people who don’t know what they want except they don’t want anyone else to have it.

Maybe as part of their so-called 99%, I’m too busy using my cellphone and computer and iPad and using my appliances and living in my house and driving my car and etc. etc., realizing that without the possibility of getting rich, no one would have bothered to create these things I have and enjoy. If the 1% hadn’t thought of those things, they wouldn’t exist. I was too busy remembering that the 1% created the jobs I and my family have had and benefited from. I was too busy being glad that the 1% is paying a heck of lot more taxes (38% of all federal income taxes) than I do (and we just figured out that we paid a LOT of taxes) so that we can be safe and have a government, and military, and schools, and fire departments, and so on. I was too busy thinking about how if I had just had some creativity and boldness I had the opportunity to be part of that 1% because it is open to anyone who has the will and drive and luck to succeed. I guess I forgot to be jealous of them and to try to find ways to take from them so that I could have what they earned.

I guess I don’t really know what to say because I’m not jealous, and I believe our system is a great one, not needing to be overturned and replaced with an incentive-crushing, spirit-crushing system based upon envy and class differences. I just hope our way of life, our America, is strong enough to survive. Patti, this probably isn’t what you had in mind, but it’s what I’ve got right now.

You might find this site, We Are the 53%, interesting.