Bill Cosby "I'm 83 and Tired" I've worked
hard since I was 17. Except for when I was doing my National Service, I put in
50-hour weeks, and didn't call in sick in nearly 40 years. I made a reasonable salary, but I
didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the
economy, it looks as though retirement was a bad idea, and I'm tired. Very
tired. I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to
people 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 people too
lazy to earn it. 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; Muslims murdering Christian and Jews
because they aren't "believers"; Muslims burning schools for girls;
Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; 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 out of
"tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia and other
Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques and Madrasa Islamic schools to
preach hate in Australia , New Zealand , UK, America and Canada , while no one
from these countries are allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious
school in Saudi Arabia or any other Arab country to teach love and tolerance..
I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global
warming, which no one is allowed to debate. 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 or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to
fight it off? I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians
of all 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, rich or poor. I'm really tired
of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired
of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for
their problems. I'm also tired and fed up with seeing young men and women in
their teens and early 20's be-deck themselves in tattoos and face studs,
thereby making themselves unemployable and claiming money from the Government.
Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 83.. Because, mostly, I'm not
going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my
granddaughter and their children. Thank God I'm on the way out and not on the
way in. There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends
it on! This is your chance to make a difference. “I’m 83 and Iit was written'm
tired. If you don't agree you are part of the problem!
The other day a friend reposted this trite essay that’s been
floating around the inter-webs for a few years. Sometimes it’s attributed to
Bill Cosby, or George Carlin or some such liberal. But in reality it was penned
by a rightwing politician. My friend and some others said this resonated with them.
It doesn’t resonate with me and I wish it didn’t resonate with them because I
consider this a great example of hateful, lazy thinking. The last line really
tells you where the author is coming from; “If you
don't agree you are part of the problem!”… he said dusting off his hands as he
walks away. End of story. Now he can go play some golf.
Well sir, I don’t agree and the fact is you are not part of the problem, you are the problem. More specifically,
the kind of lazy thinking that this screed of yours propagates.
He’s tired of being told things that most likely
no one has ever told him. He’s tired of dealing with people he’s never dealt
with. And apparently he is unable to separate fact from fiction. And he’s
certainly not going to burn another calorie thinking about it.
I suspect that like my friend, this author gets
his information from 3 places, right wing media, corporate media, and his other
rightwing friends and associates. There may have once been a liberal media, but
that’s been mostly smothered to death by the profit motive. (But that’s a whole
other diatribe)
I do feel confident that I have a lot more
experience with real actual liberals than this author and by the way, none of
them hate America
I have lefty friends and I have righty friends. I
used to consider myself a center left moderate, but the more I see and hear
from right wing extremists, the farther left it pushes me. And no, liberal does not equal commie.
Most of my right wing friends are from my earlier
life or my in-laws.
After high school we all parted ways, they all
joined the military and I embarked on a journey that became a career in the
entertainment and media industry. I might’ve joined the military too, had I not
had a preexisting condition that precluded the soldier’s life. All of us would
have done just about anything to get as far away from our lives there as we
could.
I personally have been very lucky to have had a
widely varied and eclectic life so far. I’m not saying they haven’t but somehow
their world view has become very myopic. This is the only explanation I can
come up with for why some people seem to have abandoned critical thinking for
ideology and believe essays like this without ever thinking “is this stuff
true?”
So let’s take a look at this little piece of work
and take it apart brick by brick.
He starts out talking about how hard he’s worked
to get where he is and how he didn’t inherit his job or income, which I don’t
doubt is true. That’s also true about most every liberal I personally have
known, contrary to his implication otherwise. Everyone knows that a good work
ethic is a big part of being successful, but a lot of people forget how much of
a role, luck plays in their life as well.
For example, I’ll bet the author didn’t refinance
his house just before he got laid off from what he thought was a job that would
take him to retirement.
He was also lucky to have been born what he is; a
white male.
People like him have the attitude of “if I can do
it, anyone can. And if not it’s because they’re lazy”
Would he have that attitude if he were born a
person of color, or perhaps a female in a depressed area where the only jobs
available are min. wage fast food jobs?
I doubt it.
Tax hating republicans also forget that a great
thing about living in America
He obviously doesn’t realize that, actually, a
very small percentage of his tax dollars go to welfare programs.
I have had some great successes and some great
setbacks in life. On the setback side I have found myself in the welfare office
and in the ER at USC -County (you know, where the poor people go) at times in my life.
What I saw in those places were not people who
are lazy or felt entitled.
I saw people who are hungry or in need of medical
care. Old people, children, single mothers and yes even white people who are
unemployed or under employed who, at the time have no other recourse but to rely
on the safety net that the taxes of a humanitarian society like ours provides.
Of course every society has its share of cheaters
and freeloaders, but really, who harms our society more, people gaming the
safety net, or the people gaming the boardrooms and civic chambers?
How many welfare cheats equals one Bernie Madoff?
Or one Kenneth Lay? Or one Haliburton?
This author seems to make many assumptions about
people he likely has never met.
I’d be almost willing to bet cash money that the
things he knows about Muslims, he did not learn first hand from Muslims that he
works and associates with.
Did he ever ask himself, were these attacks on us
and others perpetrated by people because they are Muslims or because they are
mentally deficient radical extremists who have completely misinterpreted the
writings of their religion or their circumstances of life like, say, Timothy
McVeigh, or James Holms?
There are a lot of countries that do shitty
things to their populations, but so what? I don’t see us invading
If his concern for the way women and children in
Muslim countries are treated is so strong, I would think we would see more
evidence of him crusading for women’s rights in this country and perhaps not
voting for people who would like to repeal child labor laws.
His statement “I’m tired of being told that out
of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia and other
Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques and Madrasa Islamic schools to
preach hate in Australia , New Zealand , UK, America and Canada , while no one
from these countries are allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious
school in Saudi Arabia or any other Arab country to teach love and tolerance.”
is disingenuous at best, lazy at worst.
Another part of what makes America
And what about that Saudi oil? How would he react
if all that went away and it became much harder and more expensive to fill his
ten mile per gallon Hummer?
I’m guessing, not well.
And speaking of entitlement, I’m very sure that
not one person has ever told him to lower his standard of living. Ever. And why
would they. Since when are having a good standard of living and good
stewardship of the planet we live on, mutually exclusive ideas? Maybe someone
made fun of him for buying a gas guzzler at a time when gas was nearly five
dollars a gallon, (you remember, right at the end of the Bush regime) and his
feelings were hurt. He obviously mistakes being able to drive Bigfoot for a
high standard of living.
Of course you can debate global warming. You can
also debate evolution, gravity, the flatness of the earth, etc. Just because
you don’t like science doesn’t mean you can ignore reality.
The more I read this tome the more I think this
guy has a fundamental misunderstanding of how things work.
Let’s look at his hatred for addicts (and
presumably alcoholics). I’m sure there are a number of medical professionals in
this country that disagree with his declassification of addiction as a disease.
“Obviously when someone takes drugs or drinks too
much they immediately stop being a human.”
“Let’s just throw them away because loading up
the prisons with drug offenders is so much better and cheaper than rehab”… he
said, once again dusting off his hands and walking away
I’m not particularly fond of addicts either, but
ignoring the situation does not make it go away.
What do you get when you turn addicts into
criminals and send them to prison? Bigger better criminals.
One thing I partially agree with is the bit about
“sense of entitlement”. Particularly, those entitled rich people who got their
wealth the old fashioned way, they inherited it. The majority of liberals I
have known are hard working people with no sense of entitlement and by and
large, the conservatives I’ve known have a huge sense of entitlement. Not in
terms of what they think they can get from the govt. but in the idea that being
an American means they are king of the world and can say dumb things like
“freedom fries” with impunity.
Now let’s look at this last head scratcher,
clearly a result of watching too much tabloid television;
“men and women in their teens and early 20's
be-deck themselves in tattoos and face studs, thereby making themselves
unemployable and claiming money from the Government.”
Really? This is an epidemic in his world? I
wonder how many billions we could save if this didn’t happen? Perhaps if one
wanted to be a Wal-Mart greeter or work for the FBI, having a Mike Tyson style
face tattoo might be an impediment. On the other hand, I know at least one self
adorned individual, who makes a nice six figure living. (Not in a circus freak
show!)
It is too bad we all can’t be mistake free like
him.
By the way, the real authors name is Robert A.
Hall and he is not 83, he is 67.
He was a Mass state senator in the 70’s and 80’s
and served for four years in Vietnam
This thing has been around awhile and no doubt
has been edited, but the sentiment is consistent.
His “I’m a hard working self made success and if
I can do it anyone can and if they can’t they’re stupid and lazy” rhetoric is
hateful. It assumes that the only explanation for anything wrong in this
country is the fault of the“47%”, the sloth like idiots who aren’t exactly like
him. That thinking can only be explained as hate. He hates people he’s never
met because hating and dismissing are so much easier than thinking,
or problem solving.
Someone who sends this along and ascribes it to a
liberal like Bill Cosby is hateful.
Someone who sends it along with bothering to
question any of it is lazy.
