Magic Anti-Greed Drum Circle
I don’t like to talk about politics on this blog, but I’m interested in your perspectives on what has been going on in our cities, and primarily in New York the past two months. Until yesterday, I was sort of rooting for the OWS movement, though I thought their message was unclear and wondered what their objective was. I was all for the finger-pointing at Wall Street greed, which is what the movement seemed to be about, but this hysterical Daily Show clip, sort of summed up what I thought was wrong with the movement. There was no leadership, and no clear message.
Now I’m just pissed-off.
Yesterday, as many of you know, Mayor Bloomberg ordered the New York City police to close down the camp in Zuccotti Park where the protesters had been camping out for the past two months, and so the protestors took to the streets, clogged the subways and ultimately managed to close both side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Twitter was alive with all the outraged tweets of these protestors reporting supposed police brutality, but whenever I clicked on links to the videos, I never saw a single police officer randomly strike out at a citizen. What I saw were foolish individuals who shoved or pushed and in one case, hit an officer, and then, of course they were tackled to the street and sometimes bloodied.
You can’t push or hit cops. How do you get to be an adult in the USA and not know that? Keep your hands off the cops. They’re trained to defend themselves for good reason, and when they are in groups, they’ll protect each other. The cops have somehow become the target of the OWS movement and I’m really sick of watching footage of 20-year-old hipsters shouting at 40-year-old cops, “You’re part of the 99%!” Guess what, NYU sophomore guy with the $130 sneakers – cops don’t need you to explain politics to them.
I also saw many other incidents of people taunting cops, like this humorous video of a woman who decided that the best way to show support of the movement was to stand topless in the freezing cold. This video reveals a lot:
The topless woman explains that a cop asked her to put on her shirt and she informed him that she was fully within her rights to stand there with her shirt off and then the cop left and she felt that she had triumphed somehow. Perky breast girl? What you are doing is degrading to yourself and police officers. They are not there to argue with you about your right to show your breasts, they are there to protect citizens who are trying to get to work. They are trying to keep streets open for emergency vehicles. Sure, you may be within your rights to stand topless, just as I might be within my rights to stand there and shout obscenities, but why do that in the middle of a movement that is supposed to about Wall Street greed?
In the same video, a guy with a NORML t-shirt started shouting at passersby, “You are the 99%! You are the 99%!”
No, Weed Guy, those were mostly tourists. Many of the 99% of workers in Manhattan and Brooklyn couldn’t get to their jobs yesterday, because you guys with your drum circles and your weird ideas that Wall Street prevents women from removing their tops, KEPT THEM FROM WORKING! The bankers and other Wall Street workers all had IDs that got them past police barricades. The waitresses, bartenders, teamsters, shop workers, housekeepers, students, teachers and many others were delayed and, in many cases, prevented from working by you OWS protesters.
The thing that bothers me most is that I consider myself a liberal and I suspect that these people do as well, but I’m mortified by their behavior. Their message has been completely lost. They appear to just want to disrupt order and prevent people from doing their jobs. How will that help the 99%?
My friend Dan used the following analogy when we were discussing this issue recently and I thought it was a great one. There was a terrible crime here in Connecticut a few years ago in which two men broke into a home and robbed and killed a woman and her two daughters in front of the husband/father, before burning the house down. The murderers were caught and convicted. But, Dan said, “What if there were special laws in place that protected the robbers/murderers? That somehow made them exempt from the laws that the rest of us must abide by? Would people aim their protests at the offenders? No. They would protest against the government that enacted and enforced laws that protect criminals.” His point was that people should be protesting the government, not the corporations.
The corporate greed that the OWS people are supposedly protesting (by preventing working, non-Wall Street people their days’ wages) took place because our government supported it and provided special laws that exempted them from the laws under which the rest of us must abide, such as paying taxes and making good on our debts. Why are the OWS people not aiming their protests at Washington?
So that’s my take on the situation. I’d love to hear your views. I’m sure many of you disagree with me, so feel free to express your views but let’s not attack each other here, please.
Okay, I just want to say that the point of my blog was that the people being hurt and inconvenienced by the movement here in NYC were, and are, not the 1%, but instead, mostly regular working people. I saw a video of a kid my own kid’s age yelling at a cop who was roughly my age, a cop who was just standing there doing his job and I thought it revealed a great deal of disrespect. The cop didn’t go there to engage in a debate with a college-aged kid, he was working. I guess the point I was trying to make about the expensive sneakers was about a certain arrogance which I believe is the LAST thing this movement should want to portray. Yelling at and trying to provoke cops, preventing kids from getting to school, people from getting to their jobs….oh forget it, I’m not going to say it all again. I wanted to be behind this movement as did many people I know. I do apologize if I offended or insulted.
See THIS is why one should NEVER talk about politics in polite company.
I’M SORRY!
Amen
Ann, don’t ever apologize for talking openly about political views. The idea that “politics shouldn’t be discussed in polite company” is a side effect of the cynical culture wars created and reinforced by the elite-controlled media. I made some important points about this very issue back in August (before this whole OWS thing started), while imploring people to spend just a teeny bit of time educating themselves:
http://rupturedstructure.com/2011/08/ten-minutes-of-your-time/
I put a lot of dumb and/or obnoxious stuff on the web, in various venues, but I daresay that post is among the most broadly worthwhile reads I’ve posted.
OWS is particularly frustrating for me, and this discussion is a great example of why. When I here someone say “the movement has no clear goals,” my kneejerk reaction is to call them utter morons and I want to bludgeon them with their DVR boxes. But obviously that’s wrong, and a purely emotional reaction. I know ultimately that *most* of these people are not stupid, and could get their heads around the truth if not for distraction warfare and institutionally-ingrained misconceptions. But the time, and indeed the real drive, to educate themselves about their world has been bled from them by the very institutions against which OWS is speaking out.
Even though I know fully how this works, it is apalling to see the number of people here who regurgitate the “no clear message” line, even right after someone else posted ultra-clear, indisputable reinforcement of the message that’s been there the whole time. The cartoon I posted early on about “economic injustice” is so perfectly dead on: people just blatantly ignore what is right in their faces, simply because they don’t want to see it. They have no desire whatsoever to become informed. It’s hard not to blame someone for being so stubbornly blind, but ultimately, it’s not their fault. A lifetime of television truly can make one immune to reality.
I’d like to thank Skep for being just as stubborn in continuing to post the things that so many people are unwilling to admit exist.
Your post, and all of these comments, are, in the end, a really good thing. I get into a lot of political discussions, and this one has indeed been very mature and civil on both sides, and often even thoughtful. I know it’s made me think, and helped to clarify my views, and I’m sure it’s forced others on both sides to think about things a bit more than they otherwise might have.
You did an important thing by putting up your post, especially because you have a large numbers of readers. DON’T apologize for making people think.
Just an FYI, I had no idea who you were until yesterday. I found this post randomly, through someone I follow on twitter, and decided I had to dig in a little. It was only after Googling to find your blog on a different computer that I realized you were somewhat of a celebrity. LOL
Don’t be sorry, this was a great artical. We are such a PC society, its refresing to hear somebody who “gets it” speak up. Thank you!
Do you have the same outrage over the UC Davis incident of students (your kid’s age) being pepper sprayed in the face while they sat peacefully on the ground by police (maybe close to your age)?
I don’t think the majority of OWS protesters are trying to provoke the police. Nor do I think the majority of police are being abusive to protesters.
No, I already commented that I thought the UC Davis thing was horrible and that my post was about the OWS movement here in NY.
I never meant to glorify cops, but a video on a link that Todd posted below includes an interview with the retired Pennsylvania officer who was arrested here in NY. He said that most of the NYC cops he observed for the several days he participated in the protests behaved extremely well, and that people have to remember that the normal human reaction to hostility is “fight or flight.” Cops can’t flee, so they’re more inclined to take a fighting stance when facing hostility, and hostility is exactly the word the officer used when he described the way the protesters often behave towards police. Not all of them, of course.
But we’re still talking about OWS vs the police and this is a problem, I think, and is what is causing some of the confusion amongst the public about the objectives of the movement, and who and what they are protesting.
I think you have a good point about some of the behavior. There needs to be some direction at some point and some thoughtfulness. The idea that they’re not protesting Washington is just wrong. Protesting at Wall Street is totally appropriate because they are so intertwined with the government and are the source of the corrupting cash. It’s also the media capitol in NYC, so it’s bringing attention to the issue. One more gathering in DC wounldn’t draw attention to the issues in the way that this has. We need to move to amend the consititution so that corporations are not considered people and money is not speech and institute publicly financed elections. While we’re at it, election day should be a national holiday. The Republican Supreme Court has created these injustices, and we can override them with an amendment. The first step is to make the problem known and accepted. Then we need to elect progressives to pass the amendment in DC and State houses, and then we vote on it. We should also demand that ongress puts back the regulations on Wall Street that were implemented when FDR was in office. Some of that has been done, but the Glass Steagal portion of bank regulation still needs to be put back. BTW Thanks for the video of boobies
http://www.policebrutality.info/2011/10/nypd-cop-sucker-punches-a-occupy-wall-street-protester.html
Come on, Ann. You must be kidding. I come from a family of NYPD cops. They are pretty brutal and their have been dozens of incidents of cops pounding unarmed protesters, the pepper spraying incident of a few already cornered middle aged women aside. You want to complain about the weirdos and the naked women and the homeless while you’re hotwalking your ponies and labradoodles… it just seems kind of lame. I’ve been stopped three times in the last year for driving without a seatbelt and I’ve been wearing one. Just lying, corrupt cops trying to meet a quota. I complain and face arrest or worse.
I find it interesting that you were stopped 3 times in the past year – perhaps it was the WAY you were driving that prompted a stop? – and not corrupt cops??
Good One “D”
Thank you.
There is a lot of disrespect and disorganization and really stupid behaviors going on. I’ve seen it myself. But Angus Johnston of Student Activism put it best in response to Jon Stewart’s criticism:
“What derails movements isn’t random acts of jackassery. What derails movements is the disproportionate attention such acts sometimes draw, and the endless hand-wringing that sometimes ensues. Luckily, that hasn’t happened here.”
Ms. Leary, I’m sure you can go back and look at the history of the American Revolution, the Vietnam anti-war movement, and other social justice movements that made a difference and there were morons back then as there are now. Johnston continues:
“Individual people are going to do stupid things on occasion. It’s unfortunate, but there’s no way to stop it. And as long as everyone recognizes that fact, and is attentive to the distinction between bad acts that reflect movement culture and bad acts that don’t, the those occasional moments of jackassery aren’t a huge deal.”
There’s also been a lot of police brutality. I take it you’ve seen the videos now. I’ll leave it there. But more importantly, there is so much more going on that is positive and meaningful by activists committed to economic and social justice. Here’s a great individual putting himself on the line for economic and social justice.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP42ee1942123c463c96ccfe24deebeaf4.html
It’s a lot more than drum circles and immature activists yelling at police officers. To characterize it as such is unfair, presumptious, and inaccurate. I’m not pissed at you and I’m not taking it personally. I’m just being honest as someone who is trying to do something to stop greed and the abuse of power by corporate America. OWS is about that.
The other assumption you made is that OWS has no leadership and no clear message and that makes the movement look bad. Look bad to whom? As someone who has participated in social justice movements, it is a myth that there needs to be a clear message, a leader, and some kind of organization. I leave it to Johnston again who will explain it accurately.
“If you think OWS has no message, you’re just not paying attention.
The OWS critique of our current national (and global) crisis will continue to unfold. Those discussions are ongoing, in a zillion venues. And I’m not convinced that this movement is any less coherent right now than the suffragists at the turn of the century or the lunch-counter sit-in crowd in the spring of 1960 or the London demonstrators over the last few months.
And at any rate the crucial task for Occupy Wall Street right now isn’t coherence, any more than it’s the articulation of specific demands. It’s resonance as an idea, as a movement.
You don’t win by making demands. You win by taking power or by forcing power to bend. Either way your stated demands are peripheral to the outcome — what you demand has only the vaguest relationship to what you win.”
I hope that provides some perspective now. Again, I’m not one of those shrill activists that we see and can’t stand. At the same time, there is so much more about OWS that is guiding this movement. Not goofballs who go topless or talk smack at the police. That doesn’t define this movement. It never did.
Didn’t realize there were so many comments. Thank you for your original post.
I completely agree! At first I thought they had the right message even though I don’t know what they can accomplish with the protesting. Do they expect the people on Wall Street to start handing over money?
I mean I get it, that it’s hard right now to find a job. I can’t find a job. I support the people who really are there because they can’t find jobs and the Wall Street people continue to make millions if not billions of dollars. I support people who are there that may have just been laid off from work recently and lost their house and can’t support their family.
But you’re 100% right. This is Washington’s fault. This is the politicians who are letting this happen. I was having a conversation with my mom the other day and she agreed and said we need to vote the current people out and get new politicians in. Unfortunately, right now I don’t think that would make a difference. We would still get greedy democrat or republican politicians in there. The ones who actually do want real change don’t have a chance. Independent parties don’t have a chance. Which is a shame.
But I completely agree with you, Ann! Great article. I see so many kids/young adults there with absolutely no real reason to protest and they’re making the real people there who are there for a good cause look like jerks.
OK, Daniel, you’re hot on the trail of the reality here, but then when you almost get there, you sniff around it aimlessly as if you’d really rather not stick your nose in it.
You seem to get that politicians are a huge part of the problem. You also feel like voting them out and getting new ones wouldn’t do any good, because they would all be greedy and self-interested as well. I’m going to extrapolate a little and assume you know the reason for this. But just in case, I’ll say it explicitly: the ones who really want change, who really want to represent the people, have no chance because elections have become a money game. You can’t get elected if you don’t get noticed, and you won’t stand a chance of being noticed if you don’t have a shitload of campaign money in the coffers. NINETY PERCENT of elections are won by the candidate who raises the most money. And they don’t get the money if they aren’t willing to respect the interests of the parties giving it to them.
Do you smell the answer yet??
We CANNOT change things by electing new politicians from the same source. Barack Obama ought to be proof of that. Voting, and attacking Washington is like trying to plug cannonball holes in a sinking ship without even paying attention to where the cannon is, or who is firing it, or that it’s still being fired, continuously.
You don’t cure a disease by treating the symptoms. We’ve been trying to treat symptoms for too long. The OWS movement has finally identified the actual disease. The disease has responded by trying to discredit the treatment, and I see a disturbing number of posters here just lapping it up like a dog eats his own diarrhea. And I find it even more revolting.
Um… Sorry, but the whole dog lapping analogy is pretty revolting on it’s own… ewwwwwwww……. But thanks for the visual… I have to go scrub and disinfect my brain somehow now… :-O
Ann, Very well said. I agree with you 100%.
Hiya Ann,
I will do my best to apply self-censorship, if that’s what you really want.
But please don’t expect me to suddenly become milquetoast…deal?
P.S. At the risk of sounding like a butt kisser, this is one of the better blogs I’ve seen. Keep up the good work!
LOVE…PEACE…HAPPINESS… Alan#2
Ann,
Thank you for this post on your blog. It was well said, and never apologize for speaking your mind. Thank you!
This post has received a lot of attention. Congrats!
The reality is that while you are not a banker on Wall Street you live a different life than the average person. When was the last time you were unemployed or under employed? There are a lot of people out there who are not going to live a better life than their parents. It is very frustrating. This movement reminds me of the women’s movement that was mainly started by middle class women who were unhappy with their lot in life. And I hope this movement is able to ignite change in our society.
This is what I can say about it – i am the poster child for this recession – own a construction company that has gone down the tubes, student loans, my kid graduated from NYU – honors student with no job prospects – had to cancel my health insurance – $1,300 a month – turned in two vehicles to buy one – and I wonder how my life got so screwed up in the course of four years. I didn’t change, but the economy of this country DID. My credit now sucks because I can’t pay my bills on time, my daughter’s credit is going to suck because her student loans will be kicking in. The whole think stinks – and the protesters should be in Washington, DC because Washington bailed out WS – but the protesters are protesting on WS because it is symbolic. I don’t know if you protested when you were in college about Vietnam or this or that – but I sure as heck did. And we got in a share of police scuffles. I am just glad people are taking some sort of action because one voice just isn’t enough.
Liberals who distance themselves from the OWS movement are basically backstabbing hope for a better future:
http://weeklysift.com/2011/11/21/now-look-what-you-made-me-do/
Did you see the piece on OWS that Rosie O’Donnell did last week? It was a side I had not seen depicted via any other source of media. I *loved* the spirit of coming together, of community, the generosity and care-taking of one another. They have bikes set up to generate their own power; meals & blankets, umbrellas & warm coats & bottled water are continuously donated by individuals & small business owners & nonprofits; there’s even a library – milk crates holding books & magazines & DVDs to be borrowed & returned on the honor system. Folks are sharing their stories with one another, encouraging & comforting each other. There are artists doing their thing: drawing & painting, rapping, performing poems, playing music, dancing.
I realize there’s a lot of tension & conflict, plenty to argue over in regard to OWS. But I have to say that the way these people have united in hope of making a difference, the make-shift village they’ve erected and sustain through mutual effort, through the loving-kindness of each other and generous donors – all of that moves me, inspires me, makes me root for their voices to be heard, for their cooperative actions to be witnessed.
Great Commet Denise…too bad we all don’t think like that.
In my opinion, the biggest question here is what the objectives of the OWS protestors are. The point of a protest is usually to bring attention to a problem, right? OWS protests have received plenty of attention from the media. So, I would like to know if there are any coherent goals for these protests. Like you said, their message is unclear. People understand that there have been huge, month-long protests going on in cities around the country, and that the police have been accused of excessive force. But what are their plans for the future?? What exactly are they planning to do to help fix these problems, other than (like you said) hinder the rest of the 99% from getting to their jobs by clogging the streets? If they want something changed, they should at least have some sort of plan for how they intend to change things, besides passive protests, and they should make the public aware of these plans so that the public would be more willing to support their cause. I would never protest for the sake of protesting. This is not to say that I believe that OWS is protesting for the sake of protesting, but at this point I don’t see why I should support them if they don’t clearly explain what their goals are for the future.
… As much as I have tried to read about these protests, there is always the chance that I am too uninformed to be making statements like these. On the other hand, seeing as I have tried to stay on top of the news, the fact that I am so confused about the objectives of the protestors means that there must be a better way for them to get their points across. If I am completely mistaken about this issue, please feel free to correct me. Also, if anyone does know of any definite goals for the future of OWS, please list them. I want to support this cause, as long as I believe that they are going about this in the best way possible.
And to address those who might think that I am being wilfully ignorant about this issue, or that I am simply too lazy to try to figure out what the goals of these protests are, that’s simply not true. I’ve talked to people who have gone to the protests every weekend. I’ve read the Occupy Wall Street website. I’ve followed the stories on the news. I am honestly putting a lot of effort into finding out what the protestors plan to do, because I want to make an educated decision about whether or not I support them. And I would LIKE to support them. However, I find it extremely difficult to convince myself to support a cause that is not clear to me, despite my attempts to make it more clear. Perhaps I am missing something… but the fact that I am not the only one who can’t figure out what OWS protestors plan to do in the future must mean something…
Annie, I’m having a hard time figuring out why you “would LIKE to support them” if you don’t have any clear idea what the movement is about. Care to elaborate on that?
And if you’ve read through all of those websites….even if you’ve only read the comments in this thread, and you still can’t put together any clear concept of what their goals are, and how they think we should start addressing them, then, yes, sorry, but you are indeed being willfully ignorant.
I’m sorry, but I believe you’ve misunderstood me. The message of OWS is clear: to stop greed and corruption in corporate America. I understand that. It makes sense. It’s a great thing to want. However, it is too general. It is not, in my opinion, a goal that can be achieved so simply. I think it’s actually more of a message than an actual goal, because it’s such a huge thing to try to stop. Of course, it would be fantastic if we can manage to stop those things.
Currently, there seems to be no leadership in OWS. Maybe the protestors can succeed without leadership… maybe. I just don’t think that’s the best way of going about it. I don’t think that occupying space in NYC (or anywhere else) is the best way of getting what they want. It was a great way to get attention… but now that they have some media attention, it might be time to try something else. There needs to be a next step. That’s what I meant by goals. There needs to be something that these protestors can do beyond what they are already doing, because it may not be enough.
Obviously, these are just opinions. I do not claim to be an expert on any of these matters. None of us are experts. But I would argue that the best thing right now would be for people to be open-minded about the opinions of others. If I disagree with the way OWS is trying to attain their giant goal of stopping corporate greed, it does not mean that I don’t think that corporate greed should be stopped.
I agree with you on one thing: nobody should be wilfully ignorant. And I don’t believe that most people are wilfully avoiding these issues, as is clear by the amount of passion with which we are all discussing this topic.
Thank you for being honest and pointing out where I was unclear. I’m sorry that I came across the way I did. Enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Cheers,
Annie
Ok, when this whole OWS started, I was seriously confused about the reasons for the protest (probably like the other 99% of us at home…). So, I went to Wikipedia to find out what was up with this. And yes, it’s all about Corporate greed… What really threw me was seeing that the statistics show a majority of these people pitching tents in parks and disrupting daily business are homeless and don’t work! Now, not to toot Newt’s horn here, but why should people who DO work hard, in crappy jobs, just to pay the bills and put food on their table have to go through the disruption of these protests? Why should a hard working, tax paying American who is also part of the 99% be penalized for the OWS Protest? I am glad I live at the other end of NY, because if I had to press my way through that BS to get to work, I would be doubly pissed about my crappy job! And I have to agree whole heartedly that this protest should be aimed at Washington DC! I mean, the politicians make the laws that allow for corporate greed. They make the laws as to the percentages we all pay. And I think there should be a standard, across the board tax. If every one had to pay X% (like say 10%) of their income in taxes, in every class, that would make more sense. That is how Canada and France are able to offer Health Care and other public services (Canada actually pays 15% of earnings and another 15% in tax on good, the HST which is Provincial & Federal tax combined into one handy outrageous tax for all). In my opinion, I find this a serious lack of actual action by the OWS Protestors. And in full honesty, I wonder if most of them, or even half of them, even know what the heck they are protesting…
And my curiosity begs me to ponder, why the hell do our politicians get paid so damn much while the rest of us, who pay taxes, and their salaries, are getting the financial shaft here??? REDUCE THE SALARIES OF POLITICIANS!!! That’s what I would be chanting in a good old march of protest on DC. If we reduced all the salaries of federal politicians by say, I don’t know, 25%, they would still be making 50 times more than I do, live comfortably, and be on a closer level to the so called 99%. Heck, reduce their salaries by 10% over 10 years and they can live like the rest of us! Just saying….
Politicians don’t make the majority of their income from the “paid” position they hold – they get it from special interests groups and put it in offshore accounts!
Thank you Ann for opening up this debate. I have been off of the blog for a long time now, periodically checking in when I can. When I emailed with a friend of mine, who I actually met here, back in the day, about OWS, she said, “Did you see Ann’s post about it?” I told her I didn’t and she suggested I read it and all of the comments to see all sides.
I always have admired and respected you and your views/posts. I don’t understand some of the nasty comments thrown your way, because you are such a great, talented, educated, caring person and don’t deserve the mean comments.
I’m glad this is here and the community you have here is a great one. I’m happy to have been part of it for some time now and will be back to reading it daily.
LOVED the post and explanation from your dogs. Perfect.
Ann,
As a conservative to a liberal i found your post to be SPOT ON. While its true the majority of the OWSers want to protest Wall Street, the protest has little to no definition, and is currently being hijacked by idiots and anarchists (see every IMF *international monetary fund* conference for the last 10 years as evidence). Finding a real politician, a real leader, a true principled elected official willing to do the public good, is rare these days, and even more rare they stay that way. Maybe its time to enact term limits in both the house and senate to bring in new blood and stop the incumbents from jockying for reelection every few years all the while giving away the family jewels in an effort to be reelected.
Nice posts and I also enjoyed reading all the perspectives. I am on the fence whehther to support the protestors. I don’t condone all the violence and agree with Ann that the police should always be respected and supported. But on the other hand, I am deeply disturbed that my husband and I work overtime (which we are fortunate to get) to make a nice life for ourselves and our children. We work extremely hard to stay ahead of the game, while we had to bail out those on Wallstreet with taxpayer money…then the best part was when they were all sent to spas because they were “stressed out.” I believe we need to let them know they need to be accountable for their actions. Why does the government have to make a law that says you can’t sell bad mortgages, that should fall under ethics and morality, something that is seriously lacking on Wallsteet. What happened to just doing the right thing?– What is ethically and morally right for the country. While Congress tries to pass the laws, the criminals on Wallstreet continue to move onto another plan to rake in millions from the backs of Americans. Protesting seems feeble in light of what has happened to most Americans,we should be demanding more in line with criminal charges to the CEO’s who made the mess. Maybe everyone in New York is working but look around, most other places are struggling. My heart goes out to all those who lost their homes and jobs because of their selfish business practices.