80/20

Homosexuality is not normal.

But then again neither is being a professional athlete, a Medal of Honor winner or a Fundamentalist Christian.

Our population, as it relates to sexuality, can be represented on a bell curve. The 10% on the left side are the homosexuals. The 10% on the right are the Fundamentalist Christians represented by Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty. (Actually there are twice as many Fundamentalist as Homosexuals in the US, but let's just go with the 10 and 10) In the middle is the 80% “norm.” We are a loving, accepting society that tries to accommodate everybody, so we have the 80% trying to negotiate a peace in the conflict between the two outliers. A truly herculean task.

To quote Rodney King, “Why can't we all just get along?” Because we can't, that's why. We're humans and basically good and as such we will make an effort to reconcile the differences, to let others see the error of their ways. We will very often be unsuccessful because there will always be those folks out of the norm, (otherwise the term normal would have no meaning).

The first step in reconciliation is understanding, and maybe that's also the last step. Our ability to change others basic beliefs through the brilliance and persuasiveness of our arguments is optimistic at best, delusional at worst. Understanding may be the best we can hope for. While the homosexual population seems to demand the majority understand and accept their life style, they seem have a limited desire to try to understand the beliefs of the Fundamentalist Christians. The Fundamentalist Christians just know the gays and Lesbians are going to hell and are just as passionate, but much less vocal about their beliefs.

Boy George, the singer, once said, “Any love is good love,” which seems to be the anthem of the LGBA community. (Love, in this case, is a euphemism.) The Fundamentalist Christians believe in a strict interpretation of the Bible and you go to hell if you perform that particular euphemism. Who is right? How do you reconcile those two distinctly different beliefs? You don't. You just live and let live. If the Fundamentalist Christians miss out on love they could have had, too bad for them. If the homosexuals have a very hot afterlife, sorry for them.

Phil Robertson answered a question from a GQ magazine writer. He truthfully said how he feels about homosexuality; he did not organize his fellow duck hunters to rally against ABC for putting on Glee or NBC for >Modern Family, or MSNBC on general principles, he just said what he believed and shut up. The gay community can't seem to let it go at that. They seem hell bent (no pun intended) to make anyone not believing as they believe be punished in some way.

FLASH: Life isn't easy, and the more aspects of it in which you are minority, the harder it gets. Work with it, and don't expect the majority, who have enough problems of their own, to take on yours also because they don't have to—the benefit of being the majority.

JUST BECAUSE….

I am a retiree from AT&T.  I took an early retirement in ’82, with a vested pension to be collected when I turned 65. I turned 65 and am collecting my monthly pension (for quite awhile now). I have now decided my pension isn’t enough for stuff I want, but don’t choose to afford. Somebody needs to give me extra money so I can do what I want. Maybe I can use extra money to take a cruise or buy Metamucil in bulk at Costco. So, I’m going to carry a handmade sign stating AT&T estafadores (and any other Hispanic words I can fit on the sign) and strut around the local AT&T office protesting for $400 more per month.

That $400 number is arbitrary, there is nothing I have done, or will do, to deserve the increase, but I feel I need it to live a more comfortable retirement than I am living and, after all, AT&T recorded  $3.8 billion in earnings last quarter. The CEO makes $22 million, what could they care about giving me an extra $400? Also, they should understand that it’s not fair that they earn so much more than they are giving me.  They got it, and I want it.

When telling friends about my plan, they were skeptical about the potential success of the protest.  They wanted to know why I picked $400, why not $1000?   What was I going to do for AT&T more than I’m doing now to warrant any increase?  Those were good questions and ones for which I didn’t have any reasonable answer. 

I was beginning to have doubts about my strategy until I turned on the TV to see my fellow 99%ers protesting the fast food restaurants for an arbitrary $15.00 minimum wage. That number, like mine, has nothing to with any financial reality or any promised increase in productivity. Their reason was also like mine, they wanted it and somebody else has it. We protesters believe our income should be based upon fairness and equality. Our income should be determined by what we need to live the “American Dream” to its fullest. After all other people are living the dream, why not us?  Now, those righties believe wages should be determined according to the worker’s value, productivity, skill, and importance to the organization. How does a person even address such antiquated thinking?

I’m going to keep a close watch on how the folks, with little or no demonstrated skills and in their positions less than six months on average, are doing getting double their salary simply because they want it. Of course, they have the union. It will help these trainees to have a union that’s interested in their welfare (and maybe coincidentally increasing union membership/dues significantly).

 If entry level workers can put their scam across on the public I feel I have a good chance to improve my retirement life style. Wish me luck.