Top 1%

So, no more GST credit gravy train for me and hubby!  We've been 're-assessed'; one of us can't collect it because we're married now, and the other one can't collect it because we earn too much money between the two of us.

I'll assume that puts us in the top 1% of income earners in the country.  ...right?   Hubby even woke me up EARLY on a SATURDAY to tell me this delightful news!  We're just so excited!

It was a solid 12 year stretch of getting free money four times a year, so, can't really complain I guess.  I just wish the government was a little faster at doing paperwork.  While they were processing, or re-assessing, or sticking pencils up their butts, or something, they gave us each two extra GST cheques that we now have to pay back - a good $300 or so.

But that's alright!  I'm just happy knowing that I'm in the top 1% and don't actually need that money!  I'm glad to live in a country where the government has the foresight to know that.

Speaking of the top 1%;  I don't pretend to know much about what's going on with all this 'Occupy' stuff.  Something about all the poor people thinking it's unfair that all the rich people have all the money - I haven't even tried to follow it, and to be honest, I don't particularly care (I realize that makes me a terrible person, but hey!  I'm in the top 1% now).

But did you see this story in the paper?  Occupy Wall Street Kitchen Staff Protesting Fixing Food for Freeloaders.  I guess the Wall Street movement is so large, they actually have an organized kitchen staff to make meals for everyone (presumably so that the protestors have more time to stand around yelling?), but the kitchen staff is getting dog-gone tired of feeding the homeless people and the vagrants and the ex-cons and, well, you know, the yucky people.  So they've quit cooking until the yucky people go away.

Now, assuming I wasn't in the top 1% of income earners, and I thought that standing on the street yelling at a bank would make them share their money with me more equally, the only way, THE ONLY WAY, I could have time in my life to do that, (protesting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for no specific time period), is if I didn't have a job.  And if I didn't have a job, I would soon become homeless.  And then, I wouldn't get fed?  I'm just saying, they're pushing away the very part of society that needs the most help!  Maybe it's really not about the bottom 99% of people, but more accurately, the middle 75-80% of people....

I donno, recently I've considered cracking open the book 'The Irresistible Revolution' by Shane Claiborne again.   It's been awhile since I've read it; the gist of it is about social justice.  And Jesus.  And doing things radically.  Being creative with your responses to social injustice so that you actually make people think and respond.

You know, like that 'turn the other cheek' story.  When Jesus taught about getting slapped on the cheek, turn your head so that they can slap you on the other cheek - he wasn't teaching us to be submissive little nerds who are easy to beat up.  The way a person slaps was culturally significant at the time.  To be hit with the back of the hand was to be hit like a slave, but to be hit with an open palm was to be hit as an equal.  To turn the other cheek is to invite the opposing person to treat you as an equal, rather than the low life scum they assume you are.  THAT's the kind of revolution Jesus led.  It was creative, and it made people think.

Ooh, wouldn't Jesus have a hay day in one of those Occupy camps!  At first, all the Occupy people would be all like 'Sweet, Jesus! We've got the LORD on our side!  He's all about social justice and he's going to clean up Wall Street for us!'

But then Jesus would come into the camp and be all like, 'Holy Lord God Almighty', (he can say that - it's not blasphemous when Jesus says it), 'What are you people doing?!'  And then he'd start with something like, 'you really need to take the logs out of your own eyes before you can work on getting the slivers out of those Wall Street bankers' eyes.  How can you blame them for doing wrong when you're doing so much wrong yourselves?  Honestly people!  You're living here like dirty rats and look like idiots, you think anyone is really going to take you seriously? You've got enough resources, food and shelter but you won't share it with the real poor and homeless who actually need the help? What is wrong with your heads?  Oy Vey!' (Jesus was Jewish, remember?) 'You're letting theft and crime and rape, RAPE, happen right here in your camp while blocking the police from coming in to keep you safe.  Clean up your act, and I'll show you how a real revolution is done!  Oh, and while you're at it, if you'd pay your damn taxes, and invest the rest of your money, instead of spending it on new iPhones every six months, you wouldn't even be in this mess!'

And then he'd feel sorry for them, and heal the sick, and wash their feet, and help them organize a really creative and dignified game plan - one that would probably teach them all to be a little more compassionate towards each other.

One of the reviews of Shane Claiborne's book says this, 'besides illuminating his own faith journey, Claiborne is insightful on the huge U.S. cultural and economic divide: the problem isn't that wealthy Christians [or otherwise] don't care about the poor, he says, it's that they simply don't know the poor.'

In my opinion, the Occupy protest isn't a very positive way for the wealthy to learn about the poor.

Occupy could use some radical Jesus.