We hear from politicians at all levels what they are doing for us, when many of us seem to think they are the problem. Americans want to go home again.
UPDATE: There is an Occupy Atlantic City planned for 12:45pm on Saturday, Oct. 15. Click here for details.
Location: Atlantic City & all across America
Dateline: 10.014.11
Thomas Wolfe’s novel You Can’t Go Home Again, published posthumously in 1940, explores the themes of a changing America, including the stock-market crash and the illusion of prosperity. He writes about the passing of time and what time brings.
History is repeating itself.
Washington, DC tells us the recession is over, when many of us seem to be living through a depression. We hear from politicians at all levels what they are doing for us, when many of us seem to think they are the problem. Americans want to go home again. We remember and long for a simpler time and better place… the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Young people camp out for weeks on Wall Street, and now elsewhere across the nation, with no agenda, or, so we are told.
They have an agenda. They want an opportunity to succeed. They want answers, direction, and challenge us to follow them. Politicians wave fingers angrily at one another across the aisle. Yet, the only difference between the parties to many of us is what side of the aisle they sit on. They are so busy yelling, they’re not listening.
We miss old-fashioned news reports by guys like Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, et al. They told us the good and the bad, but they didn’t give us constant opinions. There was 1 editorial at the end of the newscast. Now we hear on hundreds of stations 24/7 what we should think, depending on our team, instead of information to form our own opinion.
The Internet is changing the flow of informations, so movements are afoot to restrict, tax, or limit use of it. Since when was free speech meant for those in power, instead of all who have something to say?
We miss simpler lives. We grew up, got a job, and worked our way up the ladder. For many, today’s ladder stops at $10 an hour. There was loyalty from both employer and employee to the other.
My generation was statistically expected to have three careers/jobs in our adult lifetime.
Today, the average American has 14 jobs by age 38. More than half our workforce is on the job less than two years. You can be working somewhere for 30 years and get fired because of ownership change, new corporate direction or money savings. Yes, it is their right to hire whom they choose, but, somehow, it seems our right to prove ourselves still valuable.
Here’s some straight talk to today’s politicians who need to hear it, with apologies to those who don’t. It comes from many of us.
Get over yourselves and fix it. There are plenty of things we can agree on, so let’s start agreeing. Get out of each other’s way, and start working together. It’s not about the redistribution of wealth…. or taxing the rich…. or supporting the poor. It’s about good old-fashioned common sense and respect for each other. It’s about living up to our social responsibilities for those less fortunate, or in transition without beating up those who aren’t with skyrocketing taxes for unbelievable waste and cronyism.
There are no entitlements on either side of the aisle. In fact, it’s time we get rid of the aisle and all learn how to play in the same sandbox. It’s about fair pay and fair taxes for everyone. It’s about the American Dream, an economy that functions properly in a free market…. without government interference…. Strangling regulations and paperwork…. and bail-outs every time something goes bump in the night. It’s about a capitalistic system that works, where we keep things in the U.S. working so we can stay working. It’s about a future so bright we gotta wear shades.
WE the people are tired of the wars that are draining us, especially the ones you fight in Congress, statehouses, and City Halls across the nation. And we don’t know why we keep doing stupid things, like spending $7 million to build a chain-link fence on bridges that block views, but don’t seem likely to block terrorism. I was seven the first time friends and I got through a barbed-wire fence. It was our neighborhood challenge to each other.
Stop wasting money. Don’t build that fence and tear down the walls you’ve put up between yourselves. Clear the view across the aisle and take a look around. We elected you to make a positive difference. DO IT. DO IT NOW, because it takes too many years in the election cycle to fire you. WE are out of time, patience, money, and tolerance.
Nearly four years ago I moved to Atlantic City with an economic vision and plan. This was long before the casino industry, city, state and CRDA admitted a new plan was needed. I had requests and invitations to call from casino presidents, council people, senators, assemblymen, and those running for office. Most don’t call back or answer e-mails. They invite the call because they are in the public eye when they extend the invitation, but could care less what happens when the spotlight is off.
July 2010, right after the Governor came to town, John Amodeo delivered to the Governor’s office ACVision, an economic plan that many A.C. residents agree can fix A.C. and transform her once again into a world destination. Moreover, it is a transportable economic model that recreates the economy, and can be transported from community to community, industry to industry. It doesn’t call for tax dollars, or government subsidies, etc. It merely calls for acknowledged support and visibility to raise the capital. There aren’t studies needed, no great brain trust of new commissions, councils, authorities, or committees. It puts government where it belongs, in the background administering laws.
Follow up calls and e-mails to the Governor’s office go unanswered. Instead, I have been added to his e-mail blasts constantly reminding me what a wonderful job he is doing. I wonder if my calls would get answered if I lived in Iowa?
During my tenure in Atlantic City countless residents came to see me. Their ideas on how to fix the city far outshine any the government, the casinos, or the CRDA have come up with in over 30 years.
The problem is, the people in America don’t count anymore, and the residents of Atlantic City never really did. They don’t have PhD’s, pedigreed breeding, and multi-million-dollar studies behind them, or any money left to contribute to campaign spending. They have dreams, and wisdom gained from generations of residency and lives spent living in Atlantic City. But that adds up to Zero…. The social experiment of Atlantic City has failed her residents, miserably.
Monday, Oct. 3, I moved back to Margate. I came home again. And, America wants to do the same. For nearly four years I lived amid shootings, carjackings, muggings, and great ideas with hope amid poverty. It’s time to deliver success and vibrancy.
I moved because it was time to come home. I also think more people might listen if I write from Margate, instead of Atlantic City. After all, those who reside in Atlantic City don’t know anything, right? So many conversations with so many in power prove to me the fight in A.C. remains over money, power and greed, both collectively and individually.
Elected officials across the nation take note: It is time to do things differently. WE don’t care about your negative campaigns, or your version of what a candidate is, or isn’t doing… blah blah blah…
WE WANT TO KNOW, IN FACT, OUR CHILDREN ARE CAMPING IN THE STREETS, DEMANDING TO KNOW:
What is your vision? How are you going to fix the mess?
What are you going to do differently? to improve our cities? our states? our nation?
How will you ensure Freedom rings and Liberty prevails?
When will Americans enjoy the pursuit of happiness again?
Start telling us why we should vote for you, instead of why we shouldn’t vote for the other guy.
Don’t you get it? It’s not about you anymore; it’s about us. Right here. Right now. Stop bullying each other. Grow up. Your antics are no different then the schoolyard bullying you are passing laws against. You know the old adage, monkey see, monkey do. Stop acting like apes.
It time to stop, look, listen and learn. It’s time to prove to Americans, you can go home again.
UPDATE: There is an Occupy Atlantic City planned for 12:45pm on Saturday, Oct. 15. Click here for details.
Geoff Rosenberger is a Broker Associate at Marketplace Realty. Read more of the acweekly.com columnist, Margate City resident and self-proclaimed visionary's "Geoff's Page," including local snap shots, thoughts, Atlantic City news, random musings, GLBT-related news, "The Real Report," and happenings every week — only at acweekly.com.
E-mail Geoff at geoffrosenberger@comcast.net or call him at 609-385-7585.
It was announced the encampment and occupation of Atlantic City would begin this coming Saturday, Nov. 19, at a location to be announced.
The group wants a totally peaceful and family-friendly occupation, keeping everything legal with strictly no drugs, violence, alcohol or weapons at the Atlantic City encampment. “We have high hopes and we know that we are capable of doing big things if we all work together.”
Atlantic City’s Brighton Park was occupied Saturday afternoon, Oct. 22, by a group of more than 30 people who stood in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Occupy Atlantic City members plan to meet again Saturday, Oct, 29, back at Brighton Park.
"I believe in the American dream. If you work hard and get a good education, you will do well and our kids should do better. Yet it's absolutely the reverse of that it seems.”
After a tour of the area the Occupy Atlantic City organizers agreed among themselves that their next in-person meeting would be at Brighton Park, in Atlantic City, Saturday, Oct. 22, at 11am.
Flanked by several paintings by local artists, Richard Stockton College president Herman Saatkamp warmed up a crowd of over 100 regional artists of various disciplines, intellectuals and public figures on Tuesday night, June 28, at Dante Hall for a presentation by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA). The evening marked the next step in creating an arts and cultural district in Atlantic City.
Atlantic City residents filled the Westside Complex auditorium to offer input to Susan Ney Thompson, interim director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), as they prepare to take over many functions of Atlantic City's municipal government.
The mood in the room during the town hall meeting was hopeful as people identified problems ranging from parking and bike racks to training opportunities for the city's youth.
Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation today to create an Atlantic City Tourism District and announced a breakthrough in the Revel Casino project.
On a sizzling hot Boardwalk Wednesday Governor Chris Christie did his best to say that the state was looking to help Atlantic City, not take over. “I’m here to extend the hand of partnership to the city,” Christie said. "We are entering into this public private partnership because we have to remake ourselves. We want to make Atlantic City a place where families and businesses want to be and want to come back to again and again.”
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1. NJDLMKR said... on Oct 15, 2011 at 09:36AM
“Geoff ... Great article! Many, many people feel the same way, we but don't feel it's necessary to go camping on city sidewalks. Those who are “occupying” are lost and leaderless shouting for demands that only show their ignorance of how the world works. They expect everything to be given to them without any effort on their part. With the leader of our country trying to divide us like never before your visions will have to wait ... until he is voted out of office in January of 2013. Bypassing the Constitution to further make the population dependent on the government is not the road heading home .., it's the road to socialism. The more people depend on the government to live and survive, the more we lose our independence. And why did the editors felt it necessary to place a link for the occupy folks on your column? They do not have the same values as the ones you are seeking.”
2. Rblaster said... on Oct 16, 2011 at 06:40PM
“^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Wow, that guy sure doesn't get it, does he?”
3. Tiffany said... on Oct 16, 2011 at 06:46PM
“Beautiful editorial, Geoff! Thank you for writing this and for sharing it! As for NJDLMKR - you might be surprised at the values that those of us who are a part of the Occupy Wall Street - and Occupy AC - have. We invite you to come have a conversation with us sometime. We're far from ignorant of how the world works. We're committed to working together to create plans to make it better.
”
4. njdlmkr said... on Oct 17, 2011 at 10:46AM
“So how'd the big Occupy A.C. work out? I must've missed all of the news coverage.”
5. Paula Woolfolk said... on Oct 19, 2011 at 09:46AM
“There's noooo place like home, for the Holidays!”