patrick.net

This is excellent! Please email to everyone you know, especially people who are 63 or older.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: I AM 63 & I AM TIRED

*"I'm 63 and I'm Tired"*
/ by Robert A. Hall/

Robert A. Hall is the actor who plays the coroner on CSI if you
watch that show. He also is a Marine Vietnam War veteran.

*/Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms
in the Massachusetts State Senate./*

This should be required reading for every man, woman and child in
the United States of America .

*I'm 63*. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce
and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting
every day, I've worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health
challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick
in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't
inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given
the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very
tired.

*I'm tired* of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to
bankers who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the
government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and
give it to same people who ruined my retirement by gambling with the
whole economy.

*I'm tired* of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep
people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick,
I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times
the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my
salary, then let the Congress-critters who passed the "Emergency Economic
Stabilization Act of 2008" bank bailout help them with their own money.

*I'm tired* of being told how bad social security and Medicare is for America
by billionaires like the Koch brothers who live in luxury because of the
opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the
United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of
China, the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people
of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela ....

*I'm tired* of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when
every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their
sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims
rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and
Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for
girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for
"adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all
in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them
to.

*I'm tired* of being told that "the rich pay most of the taxes" in the
post-fairness world of Wall Street bailouts, when their tax rate is only 15%
on the money they get from Wall Street, while honest working class people pay
28% on money they actually earn. The one honest billionaire, Warren Buffett,
said it best: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich
class, that's making war, and we're winning."

*I think* it's very cool that we have a black president and that a
black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote
the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish George Bush had not left him with
two wars and a ruined economy. Not a good way to start a presidency.

*I'm tired* of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures"
we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and
mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no
American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious
school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

*I'm tired* of being told I must lower my living standard every time the
Federal Reserve lowers interest rates on my CDs, which no one is allowed to
debate. We worked hard to save the money we did, but the interest on that is
not going to support us now. It's supporting bankers who get to borrow our
money for almost free, and lend it out at ten times as much interest.

*I'm tired* of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I
must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do.
Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff
white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I
don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I #@*# sure think
druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool
people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried
marijuana.

*I'm tired* of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," when no one
questions the employers who put them to work in the first place. Don't those
employers have some responsibility here? They sure do know they are employing
illegals, but they never get fined for it. And, no, I'm not against Hispanics.
Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics
wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship
any Hispanic person who doesn't have a criminal record and who is
self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three
years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need.

*I'm tired* of billionaires and their paid-for Fox News journalists, who would
never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their
privilege-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, sending our boys to die
for their profits. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make
split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth
better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our
troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that
were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even
close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation
and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics
can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and
beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered
Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the
blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims
who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were
Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the
only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of
hiding from in fear.

*I'm tired* of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and
the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are
bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live
in Arizona , where people applaud when a Democratic congresswoman gets shot,
and then auction off the same kind of gun to raise money for the Republican
party.

*I'm tired* of hearing wealthy bankers and CEOs of both parties talking about
innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they
think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense
of entitlement, especially the rich ones who want to cut social security for
everone else.

*Speaking of the rich, I'm tired of hearing people who were born rich complain
about taxes. We ask so little of them. The majority of wealth in America is
inherited, and not earned. Sorry to break that news to you folks, but you can
look it up and see it's true. Americans used to require that the very rich
give back a reasonable amount in taxes considering all that America has done
for them and how little we ask of them, but the wealth pimps have to keep
changing the definition of rich so that they can keep evading their taxes. They
make us pay their taxes for them.

*I'm real tired* of bankers who don't take responsibility for their actions.
I'm tired of hearing them blame the economy, or credit rating agencies or
whatever for their problems.

*Yes, I'm tired*. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm
not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm
just sorry for my granddaughter.

#politics