Is Anybody Listening?

It starts with a link. This showed up on my Twitter feed earlier today. http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

I spent every spare minute on breaks, at lunch, and as soon as I got home reading through the messages, looking at the pictures, crying. I feel so fortunate, so heartbroken, so uncertain. I am certainly part of that 99%, but I am not suffering.

I graduated in 2004 with a degree in Creative Writing that I have finally managed to wedge into my job at the veterinary clinic where I currently work. My grandfather, who had taught English at a university, had planned (very well), and was able to leave money for me. My parents (who raised me in a single-income household with a stay at home mother) planned well and were able to pay for my college education. Not just my tuition, but my books, my lodging, my living expenses. All of that, they gave me. I have no student loan debt.

My father is currently thinking about retiring. I wonder, sometimes, if he's as scared as I am. He works at Boeing and has for a long time. We made it through Boeing and Seattle in the 80s and I didn't know until I was much older how close some of those years came. As a child, I was in a private school (the tuition for which is now more than my college tuition was). When my parents could no longer keep me in private school, they moved so that I could be in one of the best school districts in the state. They will have been in the same house for 24 years as of this November. It's paid for, and because they've been there so long, it's still worth more than they paid for it.

I hope that if they ever need it, I am able to give as much to my parents as they gave to me. I have an inheritance. It was going to be my down payment for a home, but now it's my retirement plan. If anything should happen, though, it will be my parents' retirement plan. I hope that things will change, that my father will be able to retire. He certainly deserves it.

I have a job. There are a lot of times when I hate it. I'm doing the work of 3 people for the pay of 1. But I love what I do and I love my coworkers. It pays the bills. I have food. I have an apartment. I can afford cable and a cell phone and video games and all sorts of other luxuries. I have never been without health insurance, going from my father's plan, to my own at work, to private pay, and back to my own plan. And I'm actually putting money away in savings for the first time in my life.

Meanwhile, my friends are unemployed, underemployed, in fear of losing their jobs because their employers are running out of money. They're running out of savings and don't know how they're going to pay their bills. They're underwater on their mortgages or getting foreclosed on. They're considering filing for bankruptcy.

I am the first person to admit that I am financially irresponsible. I have learned from my mistakes. I have gotten better. I feel like an adult at last. How do I watch my friends, my coworkers, any other human being go through this kind of suffering? They didn't make ridiculous choices. They weren't out living the high life. They're just trying to get by.

More importantly, how do the people who get rich of the backs of all these people look at other human beings who are suffering and think that their yacht, their vacation home, their trip to Aruba is more important than food for those who prop them up? Be a fucking human. It's not that hard to care.