Here's a song from my youth. Lyrics Below.
Lyrics to Blaze Of Glory:
It's funny how they shoot you down
When your hands are held up high
And you open up your heart and soul
But that's not enough for most.
I remember this much
There is nothing
You shouldn't speak of
If you got something to say
And there is no one
To be scared of
Just get them out of the way
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
My heart is open wide
You can take anything that you want from me
there is nothing left to hide
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
Lyrics www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/the_alarm/
my hands are held up high
I'm learning how to hit back
I'm learning how to fight
The law of the jungle says
You look after yourself
But I remember this much
I love as I've been loved myself.
Don't forget what I told you now
When the question keeps on coming
And it's "How much more can you take"
When they've ripped your clothes to pieces
"Shouldn't you be gone by now"
But you keep on
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
Setting your sights for the sky.
They can offer you anything at all
But your dreams must not be sold.
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
No price is high enough
I'm fighting back with feeling
I'm fighting back with love
When the nails are biting into your hands
And the cross is heavy on your heart
Now is the time to really make a stand
MY HANDS ARE HELD UP HIGH.
(Going out)
IN A BLZE OF GLORY
(Going out)
IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
(Going out)
IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
My heart is open wide
You can take anything that you want from me
But you cannot take my soul
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
My hands are held up high
I'm learning how to hit back
Yes I'm learning how to fight
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
Going out with my heart wide open
Going out with my hands held high
GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
(repeat)
Fighting back with love
Fighting back with LOVE!
No price is high enough
To take my soul, to take my soul
To take my soul
It's funny how they shoot you down
when your hands are held up high
(Keep on going with my hands held high)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Held Hostage
Are you being held hostage by poverty and the lack of opportunities in your area? Are you being forced to take menial work for little pay just to barely scrape by? Are you trading time you could spend loving and educating your children to make someone else rich? Do you wish you could get out of that place? Does it depress you to no end KNOWING it will NEVER CHANGE?
Then STOP!
Demand fair pay and when they laugh at you quit your job and join the movement to
Occupy Everything!
Because, SERIOUSLY, if your life is not worth living the way it is, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Come and be among friends, be among those who KNOW what your talking about.
I for one KNOW what it's like to be homeless with three children. I know what it feels like to leave your children with strangers not to get ahead but just to make ends meet and usually not even that. I know what it feels like when your kids see things on TV that you know you will NEVER be able to afford. I know the look of disappointments on Christmas morning and even on birthdays.
After all that, I even KNOW what it feels like to be told that all of this is YOUR FAULT. Your problem is not that there are no jobs or that jobs don't pay enough, your problem is YOU. YOU are a loser. I've even been told that it was people LIKE ME, people who can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps and make ends meet, are actually what's wrong with this country. REALLY?!
Stop, right there and know this NOW! You have been framed. You have been the scapegoat of blame in the United States! The poor aren't ruining the country. You didn't choose to be poor. You didn't choose to come from a family that wasn't part of the 1% thereby leaving you to grow up with few options, IF ANY!
Listen here, expose the lies and know that you were SET UP by a system that was DESIGNED with your FAILURE in mind.
I propose for those of us who have truly reached our end, that we pack up and pack the cities of this screwed up country. I propose that for all of us who have traded our very beings for nothing more than existence, that we come forward now with all our STRENGTH for if anyone has it WE DO!
After everything we have ENDURED, all the SHAME from PRIVILEGED SOCIETY, all the HOPELESSNESS that we have felt, the DEPRESSION, the HUMILIATIONS, living in SUBSTANDARD HOUSING, who better then US to lead this movement.
Now is the time to free yourself! Free your children! Take your children off the ritilan, there's nothing wrong with your child except that he/she knows that this is all a SHAM! Take your children OUT OF SCHOOL where they are treated with no RESPECT for who or even WHAT they are!
Take what you need and sell the rest. We will set up TENT CITIES in the nations capitals! We will come together as ONE FORCE!
Don't be HELD HOSTAGE anymore!
Who's with me?
Stay posted...details to come.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Reality Check
Back in the day, about 9 years ago when I was working at the casino and able to support myself, I was being taxed on $26 an hour. Whether or not I made that amount made no difference. Thanks to the IRS it was determined in a few days that if two dealers could average that during the three days that they were observed then it must be so. Of course, this in no way takes into account the fact that not only are some months better than others, some days, some shifts are better than others and in some cases who liked you and who didn't.
The company itself only paid dealers on average around $6 an hour out of their pocket did not provide "free" healthcare either, an employee had to buy it. For my own family I was paying $800 a month for it and this did not even include a dental plan, well they said they had one but what do you know it was like a sort of discount, hey guess what, lucky you, we are going to take 10% off that dental bill.
Needless to say, what ended up happening was that the paychecks were now non-existent because they were not big enough to cover the taxes we now owed on money that we were supposedly earning. Pre-tax money for the less than generous health insurance now came directly out of my less than bulging pockets.
Now let's do the math with the $20 an hour I'm supposedly ALWAYS making. (and not, dealers do have bad runs but for arguments sake lets go with that. Remember my hourly wage is now non-existent.)
$20 X 40 = $800
$800 X 4 = $3200
Take off $800 for health insurance $2400
Take off $1100 rent for a 2 bedroom (in CA) not-luxury apt. $1300
Take off $100 for electric $1200
Take off $200 for gas (gas had soared to $4.00 a gallon) $1000
Take off $150 for cable and cell phone $850
Take off $400 for car payment and insurance $450
What's left? $450 but wait a minute, my little children and I still need to eat. We need to buy shoes, clothing, an a few toys. Still manageable? Maybe, maybe not. I remember going to the dentist one month with a tooth ache and receiving minimal treatment and it costing me $300, yes that's after my generous discount disguised as dental insurance. I haven't been back to a dentist now for over 9 years.
(Note here that in three years of working for this company my hourly wage was increased by less than one dollar a day.)
But wait, and here is the kicker, now lets say you find out you are married to man who is a cheat and liar. You are the only one working and you now have two children. Easy enough, exit husband from picture, you say, but wait, who will watch your children while you are bringing home the rent money and how will you pay them?
You are now officially UPSIDE DOWN and do the only sensible thing you can think of. You move home and ask your family for help. Unfortunately, not all families are created equal and yours now lives in a place where there are no casinos hence no way for you to earn anything more than your average laborer.
So starts the steady decline of your economic status.
Let us not forget that this particular casino is now very successful. They rake in millions of dollars a year and still only pay their employees a meager hourly wage after all why should they when they are getting tips. Raises in hourly wages consist of a few cents per hour per year. Tips go up and down depending on the volume of customers and of course, with a declining economy the customers are either less generous or don't come at all. Nowadays they only hire part-time. Everyone works 32 hours a week and get no health care. Those who are full-time pay for it.
This is how Las Vegas was built and generally the same model that corporations use to make billions.
Another company I recently worked for...part-time of course...didn't actually have to pay their employees anything or provide any benefits whatsoever! This company is also a major corporation and provide cable, phone, and internet service. First of all, lets just say that even though I was desperate for money (at that time and now) I still have integrity and I could not in good conscious make my living by taking advantage of what was by and large the elderly population. That's right, for most of the people we were calling to "upgrade" their service had been receiving their service for tens of years. Now you might think that as faithful and loyal customers they might be receiving a decent and fair rate for their services, NOT SO, these people were paying a rate not double or even triple but four times what a new customer would pay and for much less. Most of them did not even have more than 20 channels or a digital box, much less internet or phone.
The entire trick here was that our job was to talk these vulnerable people living on a fixed income to upgrade their services. ("Don't mention the extra service fees and start up costs until the end", we were told.) At any rate, regardless of how unethical this company (hint: very big, well known) was, the low down was that if I wanted to make enough money to even half way support my family I would have to sell over a specific amount money of which I would then receive a very meager commission. If my commission money turned out to be less than $7 an hour, the company would pay the difference to that amount but I wouldn't last long I was told. As it was, I found out that I was not made to rip off innocent elderly people to make the rich richer. Ridiculous, this company actually pays their call center employees NOTHING!
The company itself only paid dealers on average around $6 an hour out of their pocket did not provide "free" healthcare either, an employee had to buy it. For my own family I was paying $800 a month for it and this did not even include a dental plan, well they said they had one but what do you know it was like a sort of discount, hey guess what, lucky you, we are going to take 10% off that dental bill.
Needless to say, what ended up happening was that the paychecks were now non-existent because they were not big enough to cover the taxes we now owed on money that we were supposedly earning. Pre-tax money for the less than generous health insurance now came directly out of my less than bulging pockets.
Now let's do the math with the $20 an hour I'm supposedly ALWAYS making. (and not, dealers do have bad runs but for arguments sake lets go with that. Remember my hourly wage is now non-existent.)
$20 X 40 = $800
$800 X 4 = $3200
Take off $800 for health insurance $2400
Take off $1100 rent for a 2 bedroom (in CA) not-luxury apt. $1300
Take off $100 for electric $1200
Take off $200 for gas (gas had soared to $4.00 a gallon) $1000
Take off $150 for cable and cell phone $850
Take off $400 for car payment and insurance $450
What's left? $450 but wait a minute, my little children and I still need to eat. We need to buy shoes, clothing, an a few toys. Still manageable? Maybe, maybe not. I remember going to the dentist one month with a tooth ache and receiving minimal treatment and it costing me $300, yes that's after my generous discount disguised as dental insurance. I haven't been back to a dentist now for over 9 years.
(Note here that in three years of working for this company my hourly wage was increased by less than one dollar a day.)
But wait, and here is the kicker, now lets say you find out you are married to man who is a cheat and liar. You are the only one working and you now have two children. Easy enough, exit husband from picture, you say, but wait, who will watch your children while you are bringing home the rent money and how will you pay them?
You are now officially UPSIDE DOWN and do the only sensible thing you can think of. You move home and ask your family for help. Unfortunately, not all families are created equal and yours now lives in a place where there are no casinos hence no way for you to earn anything more than your average laborer.
So starts the steady decline of your economic status.
Let us not forget that this particular casino is now very successful. They rake in millions of dollars a year and still only pay their employees a meager hourly wage after all why should they when they are getting tips. Raises in hourly wages consist of a few cents per hour per year. Tips go up and down depending on the volume of customers and of course, with a declining economy the customers are either less generous or don't come at all. Nowadays they only hire part-time. Everyone works 32 hours a week and get no health care. Those who are full-time pay for it.
This is how Las Vegas was built and generally the same model that corporations use to make billions.
Another company I recently worked for...part-time of course...didn't actually have to pay their employees anything or provide any benefits whatsoever! This company is also a major corporation and provide cable, phone, and internet service. First of all, lets just say that even though I was desperate for money (at that time and now) I still have integrity and I could not in good conscious make my living by taking advantage of what was by and large the elderly population. That's right, for most of the people we were calling to "upgrade" their service had been receiving their service for tens of years. Now you might think that as faithful and loyal customers they might be receiving a decent and fair rate for their services, NOT SO, these people were paying a rate not double or even triple but four times what a new customer would pay and for much less. Most of them did not even have more than 20 channels or a digital box, much less internet or phone.
The entire trick here was that our job was to talk these vulnerable people living on a fixed income to upgrade their services. ("Don't mention the extra service fees and start up costs until the end", we were told.) At any rate, regardless of how unethical this company (hint: very big, well known) was, the low down was that if I wanted to make enough money to even half way support my family I would have to sell over a specific amount money of which I would then receive a very meager commission. If my commission money turned out to be less than $7 an hour, the company would pay the difference to that amount but I wouldn't last long I was told. As it was, I found out that I was not made to rip off innocent elderly people to make the rich richer. Ridiculous, this company actually pays their call center employees NOTHING!
Never-mind, We Can't Afford It.
Even if my Mom could find a job...
$6.25 an hour = No Santa
AGAIN
All I want for Christmas
IS
NEVER-MIND
We can't afford it!
Talking About a Revolution
This has been my all time favorite song now for as long as I can remember. I guess I always related to the lyrics even when I was younger, had a great paying job, and drove a fine car but alas those days are long gone. Maybe it was a premonition, no one especially me, could have known when it came out that I would wind up being a single mom of three children. I could never have known that my husband would turn out to be a loser and an abuser, that I would wind up dirt poor in the end, trying to scrap together another meal at the end of another long and hopeless day.
Nobody could have known, especially me with all my talent and opportunities that I would wind up living back home with my parents just so I wouldn't have to give up my children to strangers at the day care center and God knows they were the last people I wanted to co-habitate again with after all wasn't one childhood with them enough?
You could say I was a rebel growing up. I didn't like authority then and I still don't but I wound up making great money in the casino business for many years. All those tips just pouring in every night, a Macy's credit card, my own place with a top of the line stereo to listen to songs like these on. I drove a brand new white Miata, but something happened.
First, the government came in and started taxing all those tips. They actually just counted a few tip boxes for a few days and called that the average, so even if you didn't make that much you got taxed for it, great if you made more, not if you didn't. Pretty soon, it just got too uneven so the casino adopted a split all tips policy. So much for working for yourself and keeping your own profits, now even if you were funny, talked a lot, and provided great customer service you would be splitting your tips with Joe at the next table who had just learned how to deal, made numerous mistakes, and couldn't carry on a conversation with his patrons even if he wanted to which he didn't. He knew effort or no effort he'd be bringing home the same paycheck as you which interestingly enough was always roughly the same, and of course every cent was taxed.
Well, that was just the beginning of the end.
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