First came the news that New York City would be paying the Occupy Wall Street protesters more than $100,000 for property damaged when their “camp” was cleared out. Then it was bumped to $230,4000. Seriously?
I’m the first to admit that I don’t get it. I’mold. On the edge, and not the good one – depending on who you ask, I am either beyond the desired demographic or just barely within it, and I understand that. I may or may not have come to grips with that fact just yet. The point is that I don’t get the whole Occupy movement. It isn’t quite a sit in – most of the people taking part in the movement probably have no idea what the sit in is, in fact. Instead, they just have nothing better to do.
So because they have nothing better to do, and moved stuff to someone else’s property, and now that property has been damaged/destroyed, they should be compensated. I really don’t get it. Whatever happened to “deal with it”. Have we really become such a nation of whiners?
When I was young – and yes, there really was such a time – the prevailing notion was usually the classic rhyme “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me”. As simple as it is – or was – it meant simply to realize that someone is calling you names, and that’s all it is. Deal with the fact that you don’t always get along with everyone, and move on. Now we have simply become a bunch of whiny little bitches instead.
Looking back, even the Political Correctness of the 1990s seems to be a far cry from where we are today. I don’t doubt that bullying is an issue, but bullying has always been an issue. The difference now is that people don’t stand up to it nearly as much as they used to, and instead look to others (notably the court system, buoyed by the media) to resolve their problems.
Back in those days, I will say that the names were nothing to ignore, but there were even some sticks and stones involved. Does that mean we need some riots? Not necessarily, though it may return some sanity to the world. A good revolution now and again isn’t a bad thing. It sure is better than all this nonsense.