Dear Seattle May Day Protesters…

To the so-called “Anarchists”

  • You are doing NOTHING to support your cause (whatever the hell it is) by making business owners, employees, tourists and other shoppers afraid to come down to the business district today. Shattering windows of Wells Fargo last year probably made you feel all big and tough, but all you did was close that business for a couple of days, causing the hourly workers there to lose money out of their paychecks that month. Your antics also closed down lots of other independent businesses trying to bring good things to the community, the mom & pop shops run by people who came to America hoping for a better life, the folks playing instruments or shining shoes so they can scrape by…STFU and go home to your mothers’ basements. You are not anyone’s heroes. Certainly not that of “the working man.” You are making it harder and more dangerous for all of us today. You are thugs. You suck.

To the SPD

  • OK. So you have a bad reputation for being too rough, so last year you decided to “stand down.” Yeah, that didn’t really work so well (you got your butts handed to you and the protesters made the place look like a war zone), and the unconstitutional arrests you made kind of made things worse. I’m not saying bust heads, but come on. Let’s find that happy medium and please keep us safe from these asshats. Be careful…don’t get hurt, and don’t lose your heads. I know that’s a tall order, but we’re all professionals here, right? This is Seattle. It’s not your first rodeo. 

To Phoenix Jones and the Rain City Superheroes

  • Keep your heads down and your eyes open. Don’t get yourselves arrested, and thank you for being just crazy enough to put your money where your mouth is. I laughed when I first read about you, but now I kind of want a T-Shirt.

To the “99%”

  • I’ll grant you that there is a “1%” of corrupt, or just simply downright heartless wealthy people/business owners who have more power than they deserve who are stomping all over the hard-working public for their own profit.
  • The national unemployment rate is currently 7.6%. I’m going to be completely unscientific here and say that maybe about 2% of those folks are also corrupt and heartless and are using the tax dollars of the hard-working public for their own profit. Then maybe another 3.6% are working really, really hard to find something, and are taking steps like doing free work to build up resumes, or taking classes to build up a new skill set, or continually sending out application after application, keeping themselves relevant. Those people will be working soon. Little by little my friends and I found work at a point where we were about to lose all hope. It will happen. Maybe not the way you had planned, but it will. That leaves us with the 2% who are sitting in tents banging drums, whining unintelligibly through megaphones and fighting with the police. Great use of time and resources. Yep.
  • I found that as of the last census in 2010, approximately 7.2% of the population are considered “Working Poor” (Persons who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force, but whose incomes fell below the official poverty level – Bureau of Labor Statistics). That sucks. Give me a sign that proposes a solution for this problem and I’ll gladly spend my lunch break in a park holding the sign. Or I’ll do one better, and vote for legislation that helps bring us closer to a smaller percentage. What am I doing right this second? Spending my hard-earned money in independently owned shops so they can afford to hire some of these folks and give them a living wage & benefits. Oh…and dodging  the Wal-marts of the world at all costs, using my wallet to declare I don’t support their predatory business practices. Also, making a career change that pulled me away from supporting a Chinese conglomerate that is part of a system that abuses the human rights of its employees, and pulls jobs out of the U.S.
  • Thank you for caring enough for everyone that you will take time out of your lives to speak loudly for the voiceless and the quiet. That’s cool. That’s American. If we didn’t protest and shout from the rooftops on a regular basis, our country likely not be anyplace I would want to be living. BUT Pro-tip: If you want me to take you seriously, a) come up with a cohesive statement of action and call it out or write it on a sign that I can ACTUALLY understand, and possibly enthusiastically act on, and b) don’t make it hard for me to get to work. I’m sorry if you can’t find a job. I think sending out resumes rather than sitting in the park would help, but to each their own, I suppose. But don’t make me late and pitch me back into the 7.6%. I didn’t like being there.

To the 84.2%.

  • We’re working. Some of us are doing better than others. A lot of us share our wealth, whether it’s money, knowledge, or helpful hands. If we’re not, we really need to. And let’s listen to the protests. Maybe there are some good nuggets in there we can grasp onto. We have more power than we’re willing to admit. Tremendous power. Let’s try harder to use it.
  • VOTE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! The presidential election isn’t the only election every year. More often than not, the itty-bitty mid-term small-town legislation on your ballots are more important than you think. Consider if every town in the U.S. had a referendum on the ballot that would allow zoning changes to plant neighborhood Rain Gardens?  So one little rain garden at your school will do little or nothing. But if every town votes in a garden, EVERY TOWN IN THE U.S. WILL HAVE RAIN GARDENS. There will be acres and acres of them across the nation. Small action, big result. There was a 50.2%* turnout this year. That’s embarrassing, and an affront to every Revolutionary war soldier who died for the creation of our nation, to every slave or former slave who died fighting for freedoms that include right to vote, to every woman who was injured or killed fighting for the right of women to vote…vote. Vote. VOTE. VOTE.

xo
en

*50.2% of registered voters

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