In Defense of Cowards….

By: J Robert Giles

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@JRobertGiles

“The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places.”  - Bryant H McGill

 

I know this is a bit of a dated reference, but think back to the movie A Few Good Men with Tom “Starship-Crazy” Cruise and Jack Nicholson. Aside from the obvious problems that would be present in a reality where Jack Nicholson was in charge of Gitmo, the movie does bear a striking resemblance to the world in which we now find ourselves. Remember how scared the two Marines standing trial became when they were forced to accept the fact that those who outranked them were far less loyal to the Corps and it’s principals than they were? They were terrified, yet they still acted in accordance with the laws of “their corps.”

That’s a loyalty and a bond that only those who have served will ever truly understand and even many of those simply enjoy it without understanding. The actors who played the roles of the two Marines in the film were allowed to go home and enjoy the fruits of their terrific performances. The five soldiers who were recently discovered to have been involved in the accidental burning of Qurans in Afghanistan are not afforded such luxuries. Reuters reports that senior clerics in Afghanistan, speaking in statements made via Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office, have said that “U.S. apologies will never be accepted. Those who committed this crime must be publicly tried and punished.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I just have a really hard time imagining our boys getting any form of “innocent until proven guilty” in an Afghan courtroom. Does that make me racist? I don’t really care any more.

Can you imagine being one of the five soldiers involved? You’ve seen the spotty videos of the throbbing crowds all over the dusty, dirty, primitive country….imagine being the one they are all mad at. Really try to picture the emotions you would be going through today. Luckily, our military has trained away a lot of the fears a normal American would be feeling, but do you honestly believe that you would be courageously confident if your feet were stuffed into the dusty, worn combat boots of one of those five soldiers? I think even great writers like Thor, Baldacci, and Flynn would have a tough time guiding their famed characters through the maze of the fear that must be going through the minds of those soldiers. They hear the throngs of rioters outside the gates of their bases. They see the increased level of alert on the faces of their brothers. They hear the reports of soldiers dying as a result of their unintentional actions but they don’t get any reprieve. Can you imagine being in their shoes? Now, can you imagine being in their shoes and believing that the executive level of United States Government cares about you? The libs will say that I’m just being hateful, or racist, or unfair, or a right-wing nutjob, or any of the other clever names they throw at us to avoid discussing anything that makes the Immaculated One look bad but the fact is that they are defending Barack Hussein Obama from the comfort of their climate controlled homes, in the safety of their own familiar geography, with a significantly fewer number of rioting Muslims outside the borders of their neighborhoods. Those who say Barack Obama was right to apologize are simply wrong. Obama’s apology has fueled the mobs. His apology has emboldened the Muslim world and they now believe that we will just hand over our soldiers to be tried in their primitive, hateful, version of justice. This cannot be allowed to happen.

For too long our military has been asked to carry out the missions politics won’t permit. Obama is the commander of the military yet when their actions offend, or in some way hurt those who support campaign, he can’t distance himself fast enough. Our military deserves better. Our military deserves leaders who suffer right alongside them and look for solutions that keep America first, not poll numbers. I’m assuming that the soldiers receiving the brunt of the backlash for this accident are not above the rank of  Lieutenant. They are most likely E-4’s or lower. At that pay-grade, in an already hostile environment, orders are not questioned. Orders are followed regardless of how it may look. A commanding officer tells you to incinerate a pile of books, you don’t look through the pile of books and take out the ones you think might be in there by mistake! Should the Qurans have been spared? Sure. Should the prisoners at Parwan Detention Facility be allowed to use the Qurans provided to them by US Taxpayers to communicate their handwritten extremist messages but then cry foul when someone else desecrates it? I for one could not be more sick of hearing about our soldiers dying in the name of protecting Muslim sensitivities. I’m willing to bet there were a few Bibles burned in the World Trade Center. Anybody ever apologize to us for that? Had there been a pile of Bibles on any of the planes used in the cowardly acts of September 11, 2001; would they have landed the planes out of respect for Christianity?

We discuss politics and poll numbers while our soldiers stare down the enemy wondering if they will be forced to pull their trigger. We enact laws that support the needs of the most vocal and well represented - soldiers defend our right to do so. We worry about the price of gas while they sleep in a hole in the dirt. We stand silently by as our President apologizes before an investigation has even concluded. We apologize for accidentally burning a pile of discarded rubbish seized from prisoners, yet our soldiers are forced to standby and watch as the American Flag is burned daily. I understand that the Quran is their Holy Book, but as liberals love to point out, the United States is NOT a Church-state. In our country, the flag is just as important as the Quran is to them. Especially among the military. I have absolutely zero respect for our current President but I will get down on a knee and pray to the one true God that Barack Hussein Obama respects the military enough to fight tooth and nail to avoid an Afghan trial. Any of those five soldiers would take a bullet to protect the President. Not to protect Barack Hussein Obama,  but to protect the United States President. There’s a BIG difference. It’s a difference that those soldiers most assuredly understand but one that seems to elude the logic of Papa Barry.

If you were stuck behind those walls, would you feel confident that Barack Obama cares more about you than his own campaign? Honestly? Our military deserves better. Our military deserves the respect of their President and their country; not disdain and abandonment in the face of political pressure. Our military deserves the same humble integrity from those they protect as they demand of themselves. Our military deserves a President who sheds tears over the names of each and every fallen soldier, not one that recites their numbers only when it adds impact to a speech.

As always, thanks for playing and have a great weekend.

 

J Robert Giles

I’ll Vouch for That…

By: J Robert Giles
CLICK HERE For Full Site 

“The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects.”   - Lord Jeffrey

 

A story broke here in Saint Louis over the weekend that just screams of so many unaddressed problems in our current system of education. The story itself is ludicrous but the bigger issues behind the story are issues that quite frankly don’t get enough attention. First…..the story.

There’s a school here called Shaw Visual Performing Arts Elementary. I’ll give your mind a second or two to digest that information. Assumptions of conservative reasoning are shunned by the school’s moniker alone, but here are a few statistics about the school anyway. (For source information, please click on the link.) Shaw Visual Performing Arts Elementary is in the St Louis City School District. It is comprised of 63.5% African American students and 33.6% White students. It performs well below the accepted averages in almost every measurable category. In Mathematics, for example, Shaw ranks at an average of 19.34% compared to the Missouri State average of 49.67%. Now, apparently this school has a long standing tradition of Caroling at Christmastime to raise money necessities that parents are unwilling to provide themselves. Any thought of referring to “Christmas” or the “Birth of Christ” was removed long ago, but only last week did the school make news. Last week, the Principal at Shaw Visual Performing Arts Elementary, during practice for the upcoming concert, asked if there were any students who did not wish to participate in the ceremonies. Out of 350+ students, only a handful raised their hands to indicate some sort of opposition to the melodious tradition. Those students were then led outside to the hallway so that the 300+ kids who were interested could go ahead and practice.

That’s it. That’s the story. Not much there, right? Well, it has been expanded and enhanced so that it has now become one of those non-issues of race despite the fact that no racial slurs, comments, or actions were used. The parents of the kids who were asked to go sit outside the auditorium are now demanding that the principal be fired. Over what? On what grounds should this principal be fired? Because she wouldn’t let your stubborn little turd of a child sit in a classroom and disrupt the rest of the student body? Should she be fired because she didn’t enforce the beliefs, "values", and traditions of your family upon the other 300+ families celebrating the heavily altered traditions of their ancestry? It’s virtually guaranteed that any liberal reading this has already labeled me a racist, so here’s a little economic profiling for you…….Shaw Visual Performing Arts Elementary gives away 70.2% of the meals that are served in it’s cafeteria. That means that for every meal a hard-working family buys, two other families get one for free. Before you go all nuts and start sending me hate mail that claims I hate children and want them to starve, let me explain the significance of that math. Let’s say there were 20 kids that left the auditorium while the rest of the school practiced their Christmas songs. Now, out of that 20, how many do you suppose got some of those delicious “free meals” that day? Honestly think about it. We’re not just talking lunch either. Kids show up to school at 6AM these days. They eat two, sometimes three meals a day at school, and I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the fact that the woman who most likely benefits heavily from the free meals is the one hanging out at the school, on a work-day, taking pictures of what she views as “segregation” with her Smartphone.  She's not working so that she may one day repay some of the mandatory generosity so many others have bestowed upon her children. She's not self-conscious in the least about the fact that not only is her child receiving a free lunch, but she now believes a school principal should be fired for not bending to the will of her spoiled little entitlement-baby. Isn’t that kind of like a Japanese pilot demanding free admission to the Pearl Harbor Memorial; or an illegal alien demanding free souvenirs from the gift shop at the Alamo? I’m just saying…

That principal has EVERY right and obligation to make sure that the concert given to the people who donate the money that keeps free lunches flowing into the dissenters' bellies is a good show. The people who donate the "lunch money" deserve at least that much, right? If there are a measly handful who choose not to participate, then by all means, get them the heck out of the way. This event raises a bunch of money to provide children with meals that apparently over two thirds of the parents at this school cannot provide on their own. Isn’t it about time that people who depend on others to raise their children stop being the first and the loudest to complain when it is not done to their satisfaction? The principal acted appropriately in my opinion but perhaps she could have avoided the entire situation before it began. To be honest, I cannot think of a more shining example of the need for a voucher system of education in this country. This story is isolated to a school here in Saint Louis, but I’m absolutely certain that at least one such example can be found in every school district in every major city in the United States. I would love a school that promoted my family’s traditions within it’s walls. I would love to drop my son off at a school that is allowed to sing “Christmas” songs at “Christmas” time. Children who come from conservative, Christian families could pool their allotted education dollars with the children of like-minded families. Feelings would cease to be hurt over traditions not supported by the boisterous minority. No longer would I be forced to feed the children of families who only send their kids to school for free meals and hopefully a chance to bring a big money, civil suit against “the man” someday. No one is claiming that the “secular holiday songs” were religiously offensive. The bottom line is that the handful of kids just didn’t “want to participate.” Do any of you recall a time in your youth when you were asked if you wanted to participate in an event at school? Do you remember a time when you were given a choice in anything that school demanded of you? If these parents want to voice their political, cultural, or non-religious views through their children, then perhaps we should allow them to do so. Perhaps these kids would be more comfortable at My Mom’s a Nosy Fool Looking for a Payday Elementary. Kids shouldn’t be forced to be the voice of their parents any more than they should be given a choice in what they do at school. A voucher system would allow for a world in which the minority of students who do not celebrate Christmas for whatever reason would never have to see a Christmas tree and would certainly never be asked to sing a “secular holiday song.” I’m willing to bet that, in such a world, the student body at the school to which I choose to send my kids is much, much bigger than the one serving 70.2% free lunches.

Like I said, I assume I will get all sorts of “you don’t know what it’s like” messages from the left-leaners who for some reason continue to read my articles, but their opinions are as irrelevant on this topic as they are on any other. A school voucher system is a good idea for American education. It would allow disruptive kids like the ones at Shaw to be taught by overly sensitive, social barnacles like yourselves while my kid is free to compete and rise to the top on his own merit. I don’t want my kid to make the honor roll in a school where every kid is praised regardless of effort. I want my kid to make the honor roll in a school where he is actually challenged. Our current system caters to the laziest, most uncooperative segment of students while leaving the ones who truly enjoy learning unchallenged and demoralized. Isn’t it about time we create, for our children, a society in which achievement is encouraged, not ridiculed? Isn’t it about time we create, for our children, a system in which education and retention are more important than fashion and celebrity gossip? Isn’t it about time we stop letting unions tell us which teachers we are allowed to promote and which ones we should force into alternative career paths? These things are all fun to rant about, but it’s time to take action. It’s time to get up off our fat, lazy, entitled asses and create a better world for our kids than the one they’re about to inherit. I do NOT owe your disruptive, proudly uneducated, poorly guided, morally ignorant, socially inconsiderate burden a free meal and I certainly don’t owe any credence to his/her/your self-serving demands of special treatment. Get over it.

As always, thanks for playing

J. Robert Giles

Here’s a few more links to illustrate just how bad the American Education system has become.

1) Four Top Tier Universities Offering Classes on Lady Gaga

2) Problems Facing American Education System

3) America The Uneducated

4) Texas Beats Back Their Liberals

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Habit of Working…..

BY: J Robert Giles

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“I am a great believer in luck. I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”   - Thomas Jefferson

 

 

Recently, Newt Gingrich made a few comments about the poor that have been so predictably misconstrued and smeared across the media that researching the topic has made for a very entertaining morning. I can certainly understand why Newt would not be appealing to those on the left, and more specifically those on the left who thrive in the State of Entitlement. I can certainly see why a successful, opinionated, Southern, white man who would dare to speak of laziness among the poor would be the subject of such criticism in liberal circles.

For those of you who have somehow escaped this story, Mr. Gingrich was speaking in Iowa recently when he said “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits for working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’… unless it’s illegal,” he said.

While there may have been a slightly more sensitive way to phrase his point, I see nothing wrong with the sentiment expressed. All day long today, I’ve seen phrases like “working poor” and “disparity”. Newt Gingrich didn’t say that all poor people are criminals. He didn’t say that anyone without a job is a burden, but in an overwhelming number of the cases out there, he would have been well within his right to do so. Not everyone without a job is a criminal and not every unemployed person out there is milking the system but we cannot ignore the statistical FACT that there are now officially more people taking from the system than there are people contributing. That math simply won’t sustain our nation very long. If you’re having one of those slow, Monday kind of days, I’ll explain it for you…..imagine our economy is a big pie. You can’t keep eating the pie, and sharing the pie with your neighbors and even your enemies while telling the bakery owner that you hate him and you think he should give you more of his pie for free. Eventually, you are going to run out of pie. You will then go hungry, and you will starve. Most people have discovered that working pays the bills, but no one can argue the fact that there are an absurd amount of people in our country who simply milk the system and live off the government with no ambition, no motivation, and no remorse. Our money is simply “there for them” to use. If Newt Gingrich ends up being the Candidate to earn a duel with Barack Obama in the 2012 Election, then we must prepare for an all out assault. Drama-mama-Obama-Llama (TM) will use every media source at his far-reaching disposal to tell and re-tell the atrocious beliefs of the rich and white Newt Gingrich.

I don’t necessarily know that I agree with all of Mr. Gingrich’s views, but I do know that he does not hate poor people. People like Steve Benen have gone so far as to insinuate that Mr. Gingrich believes children should start working at age 9. I love absurdly sensationalized writing like that of Mr. Benen. It’s that kind of hogwash that gets those “I’m liberal because my parents said so” types off the fence and into the conservative movement. This comment will not go away soon. They will make sure of it. Before we go to the polls next November, many of those “on the fencers” will be blasted back into the liberal lunacy because they read and believe stories like the one this buffoon has spun.

Do not let yourselves, or your neighbors or friends believe that Newt Gingrich is against the poor. Look at the stories logically and ask yourself if a man who believes children should be slaving away and providing income to their families at the age of nine could have ever survived a political life as long as the one Newt has enjoyed. The sentiment expressed in his comments is absolutely, 100% accurate. There is a sense of entitlement in this country that no one can legitimately deny. You can dress it up anyway you want to; you can call it welfare, assistance, bail-outs, or the esteemed “Occupy” movement, but it’s laziness wherever it is applied as anything but a temporary fix. There are plenty of people who use the assistance provided by many entitlement programs for the reasons and duration intended. Those people work hard, educate themselves, and scrape together everything they can until they can improve their situation. Those people view welfare as a shameful request. Those people believe that taking money they did nothing to earn is disgraceful and they work as quickly as possible to remove the big government nipple from their ambitious lips. Those are not the people Mr. Gingrich was talking about.  Obama and his Solyndra-loving, Smallpox researching, government dependency peddling cronies will try to convince you that all poor people are just down on their luck and need more of our love and compassion. There will be dirty faced, ribcage exposed children peering sadly out of the dirty windows of a dilapidated home to pull at your heartstrings. Those are not the people or the mentality that Newt Gingrich despises. Those are not the people I despise. The ones that make my blood boil are the ones that I encounter on the streets of downtown Saint Louis fairly regularly. For example, a few weeks ago, as I walked down Washington Avenue, I was approached by a clean, well dressed man on a Smartphone who put his conversation on hold long enough to look me in the eye and say “let me get some change up outcha, white-boy.” Most of the responses that came to my mind would have most likely landed me on the news for a few days so I just laughed and kept walking. My money is not yours just because you talk loudly, moron!

There is a real problem with entitlement in our country. We can keep shoveling the issues under the rug. We can keep allowing the media to convince us that evil exists in logic. We can keep allowing good men to be run out of candidacy because of hypocritical belief systems that seem to materialize in the left whenever the right does something they condone and encourage among their own leaders. Bill Clinton diddled an alarming number of fugly women yet he’s heralded as a hero. Herman Cain ‘allegedly’ had an affair while he was working in the food-service-industry and the left simply can’t handle such indiscretion. Call them out on the double standard and you’ll be labeled a racist despite the fact that they are attacking a minority. Such logic has no place in the mind of a liberal. Dare to express favor for a candidate the left does not approve of and you will be deemed non-progressive. People cheat. Republicans cheat, democrats cheat. Liberals cheat, conservatives cheat. It happens. It’s an ugly part of life on planet earth. Good men cheat. Good women cheat. It doesn’t mean their judgment is permanently flawed. Stupid decisions make judgment permanently flawed. My disgust with our current president has nothing to do with his sexual history. The thought of old scrawny McBig-Ears getting tossed around the Lincoln Bedroom by his predator looking lover just disgusts me, but it is not the reason I despise him. I despise him because of his habitual stupidity. Period. I have not led a pure life by any means. There are people in several states with stories about me that will never permit a run for public office, but I do not pretend that I am above them when they succumb to human nature. When they act as though they are better than me because of their illogical reasoning and their condescending tones, then they earn my disapproval…..no matter what letter they put before their state. (R-MO) or (D-MO); it simply doesn’t matter if they had no business being elected in the first place!

Keep eating the pie. Keep giving away the pie. Just don’t expect more pie when you run out and all the pie-makers have moved to more friendly countries where their efforts are encouraged, supported, and applauded. Disparity is directly related to effort. The Wall Street Movement can throw all of the silly catch-phrases they want to but it does not change the fact that disparity is just a clever-sounding way of saying “let me get some change up outcha.”

As always, thanks for playing!

J. Robert Giles

Giving Away the USA….

By J Robert Giles (November 16, 2011)

Click HERE for J Robert Giles’ Site

 

"There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation." – Margaret Thatcher

 

Ever heard of the Universal Service Fee? Ever see it on your cell-phone bill and just assume it’s a fee you signed up for at some point? Guess what…..it’s not. The Universal Service Fee is a program by which you, me, and anyone else working hard to pay their own constantly changing cell phone bill are actually paying for “low-income families” to enjoy cell-phone freedom. You see, the money you pay to cover this fee each month is then collected from your carrier and turned into cell-phones for the poor.

“According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) telecom providers receive money from the Universal Service Fund to provide cell service to low income residents. In order to qualify for the program you need to show you are receiving additional forms of assistance like food stamps or TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). The Universal Service is funded by fees paid to telephone providers when customers pay their phone bill.” {Chris Nagus – KMOV}

I’m sick of providing for those unwilling to provide for themselves. Just because I have something you want does not mean you are entitled to it. Welfare, dependence, entitlement……they’re all  damaging but prevalent mentalities in our country. Remember the old days when you worked your tail off with a goal in mind? Our country has become the equivalent of 312 million little brothers and sisters whining because we don’t get gifts on our big brother’s birthday. The liberal in you is laughing dismissively at that comparison, but you know as well as I do that it’s true. We’ve got to put an end to it.

Where’s the pride? Where’s the American Spirit we all claim to hold so dear? That spirit, the one we all claim to understand…….it says nothing about getting crap you didn’t earn!! If you didn’t earn enough money, and carefully budget that money, to go out in your own car, fueled by gas that you paid for, and buy your own damn cell phone then you don’t get a cell phone. You’re just going to have to wait to call all of your life advancing associates so eagerly awaiting your contact. It’s easy for me to sit here and complain from the safety of my computer, but what can we do to make a serious dent in this crippling mentality? What can any of us do on our own? After all, you didn’t get a choice in whether or not you paid this Universal Service Fee, did you? No, you didn’t. It was something that was simply added to your bill, never explained, and forced upon you. If you don’t pay it, you don’t get to continue using your own phone. That’s fair, right? Pay for someone else’s free phone, or we take yours away. Exactly how our forefathers drew it up, right?

It’s high time we start letting the people responsible for actions such as the Universal Service Fee know that we are sick of funding mediocrity. We’re sick of supporting a system that allows and encourages lucrative unemployment. There are streets that need cleaning, graffiti that needs erasing, highways that need repair, and neighborhoods that need policing. Do some of that and then we can talk about getting a cell-phone, okay? Being unemployed has become a full time job. If you’re good enough at it, you can get pretty much anything you want without having to work for it. Truly indigent is one thing. Poor, uneducated, and loud by choice is quite another. Why do I have to give a cell phone to a man that refers to me as “whitey” or “cracker” and then insinuates that I’m racist if I don’t vote for an unqualified, unproven, un-American candidate? Obama was elected because an overwhelming number of people believed he would provide them with more free crap than John McCain would have provided.

The biggest problem is not the laziness and loudmouthed pride in borderline illiteracy. It’s not the “gimme that cause you got it and I want it” attitude that seems to have   gripped our nation’s youth. It’s not even the welfare system itself. The problem is that we have let lawyers and corrupt legislators get us to a point where there are more people taking from the system than there are contributing to it. There are more people with their hand in the cookie jar than there are cookies. Do you understand, or should I come up with another way to say it? There are more foxes in the hen-house than chickens or eggs. Giving to those truly in need is a noble, generous cause. Expanding the definition of ‘need’ to include those who simply don’t want to work is criminal.

Here’s a short list of just a few of the entitlement programs YOU are funding…..

Universal Service Fee

Medicare / Medicaid

Social Security

529 / Coverdell

Supplemental Security Income

Pell Grants

Unemployment Benefits

Welfare/Public Assistance

LIHEAP (Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program – 1 in 10 recipients are fraudulent!!!)

Stafford Loans

Food Stamps

TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program)

Consolidated Health Care Centers Program

As I’m sure you are aware, these are just a few of the literally hundreds of ways people are continuously milking our country dry. To make matters worse, the people tasked with running, monitoring, and enforcing the guidelines and policies of these programs are “mentally unemployed” despite the fact they collect a paycheck backed by my tax dollars. Fraud, failure to identify fraud, misappropriation of funds, embezzlement…..there are too many stories to count. We continue to get screwed while manipulative people manipulate a system that encourages and thrives upon manipulation.

You know what has to be done, make sure it happens!

As always, thanks for playing!

J Robert Giles

 

Happy Birthday, Dad!

 

 

 

The Whole Story….

Read this article on J Robert Giles’ website…..CLICK HERE

I can never make the claim that I am not a stubborn man. For the most part, my beliefs are set in stone. I’m mostly human, so the occasional change in behavior is required, but it’s more of a course correction than an overhaul of my entire genetic code. I’ve come to realize that most often the changes in behavior required in my daily life are the result of discovering “new evidence” of some kind. I discover that an actor I previously despised actually shares my political opinions……oh, shut up! Let me have my dreams! How about those times when a band you hate releases a song you can’t get out of your head? A TV show with a premise you considered limited turns out to be one of your favorite series once you finally give it a chance? An athlete (let’s call him “Neon Danders”) gets traded from a team you hate to a team you love and all of a sudden he’s your favorite player? Sometimes, even the smartest and most logical men on earth need slight adjustments to their initial opinions on things. (No, I do NOT consider myself to be a member of that group. Save your anger!)
Another example is my initial opinion of the Occupy Wall Street morons. When I first heard word of large groups of capitalism hating crowds gathering in NYC, my first question was, as it always is; “Will this allow me to get a cup of Starbuck’s coffee for under $2.00?”  Once I found that these unanimously uninformed slackers were simply rioting because they wanted something that belongs to someone else I quickly lost interest in their cause. Then, when they started making my primary employer their sworn enemy, and when Obamunism teachings started to surface in the hypocritical songs coming from the drum circles on Wall Street, I wrote them off. They’re boisterous, yes, but they are not justified in their demands or their behavior.  While those are the best examples I can think to which most of us can relate, it’s often the little; seemingly insignificant things that remind us of just how true the old “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” adage really is. This morning, as I perused the day’s headlines looking for items to spark rants, ravings or the opportunity to do the right thing (couldn’t resist); I stumbled upon the story of Celina Aarons.
We can all relate to Celina’s story. She opened her cell-phone bill and got quite a shock. We’ve all been there, right? In fact, just 2 months ago I received a cell-phone bill that embraced me with the news of my oldest step-daughter’s record setting texting month. (21,652 text messages SENT in one month! Yes, she lost her texting abilities for a while!) Celina’s was a bit more shocking. See, I have a plan that allows me to text and download and talk as much as I want. My whole family is included and our monthly bills are usually pretty predictable. My step-daughter was punished for the amount of time she had wasted that month, not the monetary impact her social life had on my bill. Ms. Aarons was greeted with a balance due of $201,000. Now that would get my attention! So, why didn’t Ms. Aarons have such a plan?
She did. She had a plan (not with the same carrier as mine) that covers not only herself, but also her two brothers. Her brothers are deaf and they communicate by text message. Surely, it’s just a glitch in her carrier’s billing system. Nope. When Celina contacted her carrier, she was told that the amount due was correct. Now, I don’t know about you, but after I changed my undies, I would have been demanding a few upper level supervisors get on the horn and explain to me how my bill jumped from an average of $175 a month to $201,000. I imagine you would have demanded a few answers too, right?
Of course you would. Celina got her answers too. Turns out that her brothers had travelled together to Canada during the billing period. While there for over two weeks, the deaf siblings sent over 2,000 texts. They also downloaded videos and other large bits of data, sometimes incurring over $2,000 in data charges for one video. The amount due is correct. No matter how mad you have ever been in dealing with “Roger” from “Minnesota” during a call with your carrier, can you imagine how furious you would be after that call. Surely there is some kind of mistake, right? There has to be. There’s no way two weeks in Canada could equate to $200,000 in texts. Our freaking government couldn’t manage to pull that one off, let alone two hearing impaired brothers from Florida. How can they possibly expect anyone to pay that?
At this point in the story, I was thinking of sending this info to the the uninformed masses in NYC. Let those misguided souls get wind of a big, bad, corporation sticking it to this poor little “one percenter” like that. At least then they would be fighting an enemy that deserved the negative publicity and their voice would carry legitimate weight where it is currently lacking. Well, it turns out the company came to their senses before the story was released…….somewhat. The carrier giant agreed that $201,000 was a tad much to expect from an individual subscriber in one month. They reduced the amount of her bill to $2,500 and gave her six months to pay it.
Now I’m left in unchartered territory. I literally switched sides three different times in the course of reading that article, but there is blame to be spread around both sides of the argument. Not necessarily at the individual subscriber, but cell phone users as a whole. The blame cannot be leveled entirely at the carrier either, but there is plenty of blame to hurl at the industry in general. I seriously don’t know what side to take.
On the one hand, Celina should have known to check with the carrier before travelling to another country. America assumes that since most of our celebrities, and hockey players come from Canada that it’s just another state. It’s not. Canada is a country and they have their own government, money, infrastructure and accent. The cell-phone carriers have had to work out huge, complicated legislation in order to provide service to subscribers in that country. Naturally, the governments have taken every measure possible to make sure they receive every penny possible from our wealthy capitalist corporations. Those expenses are then passed on to the consumer and that's the system we live in. If you don’t like it, get out. We demand advancements in design, technology and speed but we expect it to be free. That’s not how it works, hippies! Anyway, Celina should have contacted her carrier and switched to an international plan during her brothers’ trip.
On the other hand, the carrier should have alerted Ms. Aarons LONG before her monthly bill was equal to the average 30 Year Mortgage. As soon as the carrier’s systems discovered that activity was taking place in a foreign country, Celina’s cell-phone should have burst into flames. They should have sent her so many messages her phone had the equivalent of an aneurism. New rules for cell-phone carriers go into effect soon that will alert subscribers when they are approaching spending limits, etc. Shouldn’t that have been the practice all along? Carriers who now act as if they are doing us a favor by enforcing this law should be publicly apologizing for the convoluted fee structures to which they have adhered until now. The hidden fees and absurd charges in cell-phone bills are maddening and would be immediately fixed if politicians were forced to pay for their own wireless phone bills.
I guess the main point you can take from this rambling journey is to always have some spare undies handy when you open your cell-phone bill.
As always, thanks for playing!
JRG1

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