Please Stop Taking Our Cash
Sudhama Ranganathan, 05.03.2013 17:58
I remember hearing something when I was in elementary school that always stuck with me. A friend of my family gave me some advice about business, and it had to do with a small disagreement I was having with a friend over the price of a bicycle I was going to sell him. This friend of the family happened to be to be visiting my family at the time, and also happened to be a successful businessman. He told me there's a difference between good business and bad business, and that I should always try, whenever I do business to do good business and keep things as level and above boards as possible. His advice was that as long as all the cards were on the table and communication was clear then all parties can agree, even with regards to any points they disagreed on.
“When it comes to business shoot as straight as you can. And try to always leave friends not enemies as you do so.” I never forgot those words. I admit, didn't always understand what they meant or how best to apply them in every situation, but when it came to business, I always tried as best I could to do that. You can't always do that, and unless you're a politician, which thank God I never will be, you're allowed some balance in your life with regards to that, though in most things, the more polite you can be, the further you'll get.
It also speaks to diligence concerning money matters, which no matter our personality type, most of us try to be, or would like to be. We work hard for it, it's our money. We should have a say concerning where it goes, what it goes to and how it is spent. When we make arrangements with people we expect that they will honor their word, or follow the parameters of whatever arrangement was made between the parties involved prior to money being exchanged for whatever good, service or other intended action it was traded for.
This isn't relegated to any one person, group of people, region or nation, it's how the vast majority of people are with regards to their money, unless they are giving money to charity. Actually, wait, I take that back. Even when people donate to charity, they expect that money will go to the use the charity says it will. In that business arrangement, the people donating the money give money to people that say they will do certain things as an organization and with that money directly, and the people donating expect those things to be done.
When organizations receiving charitable donations don't do what they say they get into hot water. When they lie and turn around and stick out their tongue and flip the bird to those that were kind enough to give the money yet then question why they did not do what they said they would they get raked over the coals here in America, lose their credibility and lawsuits ensue. That's deceit.
We have gotten to a point with our foreign policy, and how we hand out hard earned US taxpayer dollars that, we have become fools in many cases. We keep allowing people whose nations we are supposed to be trying to help rebuild, that we are supposed to be donating medical and food supplies to, who we are relying on to supposedly help us out in the War On Terror in terms of intelligence, etc, to grab our hard earned tax dollars as if it were a pirate's loot.
It's like me and you work, pay all the other taxes we pay, aside from those that get extracted from our paychecks, to allow dictators to enrich themselves, warlords to take our donated food and medical supplies and sell them for profit on the black market and nations to take our dollars and instigate war by breaking their side of the arrangement we made in order to give them that aid in the first place with the very people they were supposed to be trying to ensure peace with. It's like they think we're just some dumb mooks, morons that are so stupid that our hard earned money is plunderable - “Why not take it? It's just sitting there. Go ahead, let's try. Yes.”
Remember the pallets of US cash that disappeared from Iraq? That was money we worked hard for. That was not just some donation from the wealthiest oil company owners, wealthiest owners of defense companies, wealthiest owners of companies getting contracted to put out oil fires, provide logistical support and other services to the troops, or wealthiest owners of companies contracted to provide various other needs during the war – you know the people that made billions off of that war in profits? No, this was mostly money straight out of our wallets (the wallets of everyday people) and into their satchels, most of which never got recouped.
How was all that lost money better off dropped into that hole in the sand than going back into our savings accounts as rebates, etc? How was all that money they stole, that even pundits in the end just essentially shrugged their shoulders about dismissively, better off being dropped in that vacuous pit, than on repairs to roads and bridges here? How was all that money dumped way over there where we could not see, better off than improving our school systems so we could catch up in education, and on better policing of crime infested neighborhoods, so impoverished young kids could have a chance at a better life?
How were we better off dumping money there than in having our troops inspect every single cargo container that hits our shore – that's where all the illegal guns are coming from that make so many inner city neighborhoods so prone to gun violence. Without those guns, the logic behind people owning assault rifles would drop to almost nothing, and people would go back to owning guns mostly for hunting. It's not like the whole militia part of the Bill Of Rights counts anymore, as what used to be militias are now the reserves. You know, the people not in the full time service of the military, but that we call up in times of need to take up arms in defense of the nation?
The same goes for all the money we dump into Israel and Palestine. They have become like two spoiled brats that we keep spoiling, and predictably, instead of getting better, they just get worse. Hamas continues to bomb Israel and Israel is now implementing policies that forbid Israeli citizens of Palestinian decent from owning property. Such policies are the leading cause of Palestinian Christians fleeing Israel. (
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57417408/christians-of-the-holy-land/) The very reason most American initially got behind Israel was because of Christianity, and now their Apartheid/ Jim Crow style policies are so out of control they are actually punishing Christians, and though they stopped in 2006, they are back at building settlements again, the very thing that has caused so much tension, and caused so much of the vitriol over those policies to come and terrorize our doorstep and beyond. ( http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57569239/will-israels-iron-dome-help-bring-peace/)
Both of the sides, I reiterate both of the sides, are taking our money and turning around and sticking their tongues at us, and saying, “stay out of our business and give us your money and shut up, you stupid Americans!!” Both of them are doing it, and it's fueled by equal contempt for each other, equal racism against one another and equal bigotry towards one another, and people like ordinary US taxpaying citizens minding their own business over here are getting hurt and even dying as a result of getting caught in the middle as are Christians in Israel.
Their ongoing war is causing us pain and the training wheels must come off. At some point pampered kids need to go out on their own, or they will never learn, especially when they are taking the world for granted. And all the rest of us in the world are paying a huge price for their stubbornness borne out of bigotry. Where else would the United States of America send money to fund terrorism and Jim Crow? That is not what Jesus preached and is certainly not the sort of foreign policy any of our founding fathers wrote about or had in mind.
These social policies that target one group out of hatred, because, politically, it has been deigned that another group is the “right group” should have died out with the Nazis, and terrorism and Apartheid are exactly the kinds of tactics the Nazis would have used. That ain't American no matter which way you slice it.
To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.
e-mail:: uconnharassment@gmail.com
Homepage:: www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com