On November 23rd I wrote the article Mitt Romey: Middle-class path to indentured servitude. It was a factual article based on the New York times article After a Romney Deal, Profits and Then Layoffs and tied to today’s reality.
I got an email from one of my gym buddies the week after about a response to my article.He photocopied the response and distributed it at the gym. While the response was printed in the Atascocita Observer, for some reason it was not printed in the Kingwood Observer. Anyway, here was the response by an “enlightened area resident”.
Posted: Monday, December 5, 2011 4:00 am
Victims
Dear Editor:
As difficult as it was to read Egberto Willies’ meandering column (“Mitt Romney: Middle-class path to indentured servitude,”Nov. 23), one thing is clear: He truly believes in victimization. The idea that anyone who becomes very successful is only capable of doing so “on the back of the masses” is ridiculous. No less ridiculous is the idea that those in our society who are the least successful are in that condition through no fault of their own, but rather through the actions of the ruthless, greedy people who have“pilfered” their money and possessions.
Each and every one of us exercises free will everyday by making a multitude of decisions. We make small decisions such as what time we wake up in the morning to huge decisions like whether or not to buy a house or who to marry. Each one of those has consequences, the vast majority of them very little impact, while a few have profound implications.
All of these decisions combined with our work ethic determine to a large extent our outcome in life. Certainly some of us are dealt worse hands than others, but it is how we play these hands which decide the outcome.
What amazes me most is how Egberto can ignore the events surrounding him. Did he not witness the election of President Obama, a mixed race man from a single-parent home? A man whose mother who was even on food stamps. If we are all victims of the rich and powerful, how did this occur?
Rather than celebrating this achievement and encouraging others to strive to become successful, he sends a message that we are all victims unable to achieve anything of significance unless we are willing to take advantage and “pilfer” from others.
The worst thing about his message is that he is hurting the very people he is advocating for. Anyone reading his column that believes they can achieve nothing will, in fact, achieve nothing. If he truly believes that specific actions of the rich are stealing, then advocate for laws making those specific actions illegal rather than making these diatribes which demonize the successful.
Perhaps he could start with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the very organizations that were at the epicenter of the financial meltdown. Organizations which just recently decided to pay millions in bonuses to their executives, while they continue to receive billions in bailouts. The silence from the Obama administration on this issue has been deafening.
Finally, I must ask the Kingwood Democrats, is this the best you have to offer? I realize being president of the Kingwood Democrats is akin to being the skinniest kid at “Fat Camp,” but surely you can do better than this.
Fred Flickinger
Kingwood
While I disregard most of my hate email or incoherent responses, I was forced to address this one because of its semblance of FoxNews like coherence. After-all to have a gym buddy make many copies to distribute must really mean it hit him and this hit many with some sort of veracity.
PDF of Article
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