What They Said

Weer'd, Robb, and Jay are a triple threat on responses to the "Occupy Wall Street" twits that have become media darlings.  Personally, I'm hoping for the miracle of small, but surprisingly violent hailstorms to happen directly over their heads, but I digress.

I entered the adult world with exactly the clothes on my back, an old knapsack, a Stephen King novel, and a toothbrush.  I traded the "hang out and get stoned in the dorm" years for skills, a paycheck, and a roof over my head.  Yeah, I was suckling at the government teet, but I was definitely giving full value for my paycheck.

I went from wearing a uniform on a Friday to working a job on Monday. I've worked long hours in bad situations in order to put a roof over my families heads and food on our table.  I put myself through school using GI Bill money and my own paycheck.  And if you think that using the GI Bill to educate myself was welfare, I can show you the DD214 that shows the years of my life I traded for that check.  When I got the statement every month, I would remember long nights spent shivering to stay warm, or hot dusty days fantasizing about snowdrifts, or months of my life I spent away from the family that was my motivation to keep doing it.

My wife and I both work so that we can afford to live in the home we can afford.  We do without the latest video game console, trips to the beach, and just about everything else we can get away with so that we can provide for ourselves and not depend on anyone else.  We're making sure our kids learn the meaning of work, value, and responsibility before we send them out into a world populated by jerkoffs who think that taking their second breath entitled them to someone else footing the bill for the rest of their lives.

I'm not a millionaire, but I hope to be one someday.  And you know what?  That's OK.  It's called a goal.  It's called ambition.  No-one ever gave me anything I didn't earn, and no-one owes me anything I haven't worked for.  If you think your continued conversion of oxygen into carbon dioxide entitles you to diddly over squat, then you're a fool and should be treated as such.  Finish out your education, get a job, do something meaningful with your life, and then come back and tell me just exactly how unfair it is that people don't get free stuff from the government after the government pays for it with money it took from me.  Maybe then I'll give you a moment and listen before I laugh in your face.