Choices

For some time I have been wondering about why people let their choices define who they are.  For example, we have the “Occupy Wall Street” group out protesting their cultural plight.  Now, I would be the first to admit I would be pissed too if I just spent four years and $50,000 because some college convinced me that getting a basket weaving degree was a good idea.  Obviously, in today’s economy, there isn’t much demand for basket weavers.  So now you have an entire group of people with a $50,000 student loan hanging over their head and no jobs to be had.
So what do our wonderful, well meaning socialist friends do?  They organize these folks with a little too much time on their hands into a movement with an over arching theme of “99% vs. 1%.”  They convince these poor fools they should be envious of people with jobs and especially those, who with hard work and a hell of a lot of effort, have done well.
There are a couple of points to consider in all of this:
First point: Everyone, and I mean everyone, makes poor choices from time to time.  Quite frankly, if you are batting 500 on your decisions you are doing better than most.  The fact of the matter is, most people accept responsibility for their poor choices, learn from their errors and move on.
Unfortunately, what we have with the 99% vs. 1% crowd are a bunch of individuals who want someone else to take responsibility for their poor choice and to fix it for them.  So with this level of dependency, the manipulators and we all know who they are–the liberal elite, main stream media and self-serving politicians, take over.  They tell these individuals they should be envious of people who have made a success of their lives;  they should not be responsible for their error in judgment because someone else will shoulder that responsibility (who typically are those great people who do accept responsibility for their actions.)
Dave Thomas is a perfect example of someone who could have whined and moaned over his poor choice.  Mr. Thomas dropped out of high school at 15 to work full time in a restaurant.  A decision he regretted.  At 45 he went back and received his High School GED, and we all know the success he became.  If you don’t, go sit in a Wendy’s (named for his daughter)–there’s one on just about every street corner.
Second point:  (And this is for the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd) STOP being manipulated.  Accept your choice, good or bad, and take responsibility for it.  You do not have to let a poor choice define who you are but you do have to have the courage to accept it and move forward.  The history of this great country is full of thousands of individuals who rose from nothing.  They did it with courage and a great deal of EFFORT.  Do not think for a second they too didn’t make poor choices along the way.  The difference is….they did not let those choices define or deter them.
More to come….