This is something that will most likely garner several boos and hisses from the crowd. But my feelings have become very strong.
I am sick and tired of listening to everyone pour pity upon the heads of the Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. SICK AND TIRED. Was N.O. the ONLY city affected by that hurricane? NO. Was N.O. the only city that didn't get evacuated? NO. Was N.O. the only city of people that were put in trailers to live? NO. But it was one of the only cities to get individual monetary handouts from our government, and are still getting them in some cases. Why don't these people want to take responsibility for their lives? Why would they want to stay in that city and live in those filthy trailers? To continue to not have to do anything? I just don't get it. There is a little town in TX on the border of Mexico called Del Rio. A close friend of mine is from there, and she went down there not to long ago to visit. Del Rio was hit folks, in much the same way N.O. was, a lot of the city destroyed, several people died (and this is a tinnny town) and guess what, they got the same white trailers that the resident's of N.O. did to live in and some of them are still living in them. But have any of you heard of this town? Most likely not. Why? Because they didn't raise hell begging for the government to baby them. Hurricanes happen, that's why their called "natural" disasters. When you live in a city that is so far below sea level as N.O. is that when you look out your door you look UP at the sea, how ignorant do you have to be to think nothing will ever happen to you? How, when every weather forcaster in the country, for more than a week said.."it's coming folks, N.O. is gonna get hit"..how do you just stay there and think everything is going to be ok? When your city is in threat of the ocean spilling over the levy's any other day of the week, how do you believe a hurricane will not affect you? It's stupidity. It's ignorance. It's fucking pathetic. And when you decide to rebuild. Where do you start first? Why the French Quarter of course....gotta get the bars and the whorehouses rebuilt first dammit. So that you have a place to go and drown your sorrows. Screw the houses and deplorable living conditions. If you fix those, then what are you going to bitch about? Maybe the government didn't do all they could as fast as they should, God knows I'm not a supporter of our current "Commander in Cheif", BUT what happened to people taking care of themselves? When Hugo hit Charleston, S.C. those people did NOT expect anyone to come take care of them. Why? Because their proud, their proud of themselves and their history and they knew that if they were going to survive, which they did, they needed to get to work. I do believe it is the proverbial "sink or swim" time for the residents of N.O., not trying to sound crass there, but you understand my meaning. Time to move on. What, you can't get a job? MOVE to another town. You can't find a place to live? MOVE. The crime has become so rampant that your children can't play outside? MOVE. It is time to move forward folks. It is time to start taking responsibility for your life. It is time to stop sitting around thinking that this world owes you anything. The rest of us work for a living, the rest of us work our butts off to provide for our families to have the things we do. You can do the same. It's a matter of choice.
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .. uphill BOTH ways . Through year 'round blizzards. Carrying their younger siblings on their backs ... To their one-room schoolhouse, where they maintained a Straight-A average, despite their full- time, after-school job at the local textile mill .... Where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death! And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way In hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter...with a PEN! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!
And talk of about hardship? You couldn't just download porn! You had to steal it from your brother or bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! Those were your options!
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ass! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen...FOREVER! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! ... Just like LIFE!
When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!
Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little bastards!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire ... Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot. That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled.
You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980.
I just really need to blow off steam. I hate my job. Actually I like my job, but I hate it. I take calls all day, I work in a call center. I get yelled and cussed at all day. It's misery. But hey, I live here, in Oklahoma, where the job market is crap. You take what you can get right? Whatever pays the bills.
So the holidays are here, have to buy the presents. What do you buy a 2 year old who only cares about dinosaurs? I mean really, there are only so many dinosaurs in the world! Only so many dinosaur movies, toys, or books that are appropriate for a 2 year old. I'm at such a loss. And while I'm at it, WHAT do you buy for a man who won't tell you what he wants. Unless it's a $2000 TV or a $600 gaming system. I mean really, can't you guys have reasonable requests? Is that so hard I ask you?
And why is it that just because I'm the one who lives 1000 miles away, my family can't come see me? They always expect me to put out the time and money to go see them, but they never come here! Drives me nuts. Every year I invite them, every year they turn me down. Then ask me why I didn't come home for the holidays! HELLO...hint...I invited you, remember?
So, I'm an Oklahoma transplant from Knoxville, TN. Needless to say I am a Vols fan, don't care for the Sooners, sorry. We all have our loyalties. Been here for 4 years now. Came here because my fiance, now husband had a job here. We've also been married 4 years. We have a 2 year old son. So work and home are pretty much my life.
I am a Democrat. But try not to get too political with anyone. Religion and politics should never be discussed in good company, always makes for a bad vibe.
I love music, was a music major in college. Though now I work for an insurance company. Amazing the roads we take in life huh? How choices we make, be them good or bad, can have a profound affect on our lives.
So, just a little background info. Nothing too serious or too important. Just enough.
