Current Inspiration

Understanding

The Inspirational word of the week is…

Understanding (noun) 1. personal interpretation 2. enlightened intelligence 3. skill in handling something (verb) 1. to perceive the meaning. 2. to interpret 3. to grasp the significance of.

My friendly blog reader, I’ve been sick all week. Nothing serious, but just enough to be a real drag. Before I even get started, I would like to thank you for your understanding!

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

It was shocking and sad to see how the people of OccupyOakland were shot at with rubber bulletts and tear-gassed.

I wonder how the police officers could do that. They themselves are part of the 99%, the very people who have been working harder than ever over the last 10 years, only to see their wages become stagnant or worse lowered.

Of course they’re only ‘doing their jobs’.

However, by using that as an excuse, by not taking any responsibility for their actions, they’re giving up their power to the 1% when they attack the very people they’ve sworn to protect and serve.

This is not what our forefathers fought and died for!

This word, Understanding, has an incredible amount of power in it.

It makes all the difference between ignorance and intelligence, truth and lies, apathy and empathy.

Our understanding is directly proportional to our effort to look outside of ourselves in order to find solutions to our problems and by taking responsibity for our actions.

When we choose to only believe what we already know, then we’re doomed to live in fear, hoplessly unaware of our own power to change destiny.

Okay, so now what?

Understanding takes work, dedication and a constant balance between what we know and what we need to learn.

If you are unsure of why the 99% are upset, perhaps this video will help.

and if that isn’t enough, how about this one?

I hope that has helped to enlighten the situation for you.

I woudn’t leave you seething and angry without offering some kind of a solution. That would be rude.

Warren Buffet has suggested the Congressional Reform act of 2011

Warren Buffett, “I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told CNBC. “You just pass a law that says that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3%, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971…before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure. 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term’s, then go home and back to work.

I agree with Warren. The Congressional Reform Act of 2011 is a good start to a long road to recovery.

I hope this has helped your understanding of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s not a bunch of hippie, liberal tree-huggers trying to turn our country into a communist state.

They’re people just like you and me, who are sick of what has happened to our economy and they’re occupying to demand change.

Resolving this mess isn’t going to be easy. Our problems didn’t happen over-night and they’re not likely to be fixed over-night.

It has to start with the understanding of what we can do right now to make a difference.

Because we can, and we should.

So what do you think, my friendly blog reader?

As long as they are respectful, I look forward to your comments.

xoxo Pam

p.s. If you start to feel overwhelmed, take a deep breath and repeat after me…..

“Just ‘cuz I don’t know now, doesn’t mean I won’t know then. Just ‘cuz I don’t know how, doesn’t mean I won’t know when.”

p.p.s. I’ll be back on Monday with the Inspirational person of the week.