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| Mitt's For The Rich |
This is the most important election of my lifetime. As a young, African american from the South, I have never felt that our votes counted. I had always felt blacks were too marginalized, outnumbered and nonchalant to for our votes to really be decisive in choosing the President.
After President Obama won in 2008 I no longer feel that way. Granted I understand that it took a lot of white votes to ensure President Obama a victory, but what most people don't understand is this.. More blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc. than EVER before who always felt our votes and our voices didn't matter in this country no longer feel that way.
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| Obama's For the Working Man |
This is an important election because for most of my life I have seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I have nothing against the rich. Those who played fair and square and were ultra creative. However, I do have a problem with those who became rich through exploitative labor practices and unfair business dealings. As an employee, I know all too well how it feels to work for an employer who engages in trickery and deceit, racism, intimidation and who actively works to create a hostile work environment for their employees.
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| Stop Demonizing the Working Class! |
Now most folks would naturally say "Well, if your employer was so bad why didn't you just quit". Normally its white folks who ask this. People who by the design of America and its corporate culture and structure have historically had options. Many options. Over and above what blacks and to a lesser extent, Hispanics, have had when approaching careers, employment and jobs, to pick and choose. Jobs in the black community have long been hard to come by. Blacks have been (and are still) largely perceived as lazy and poor workers. This is a belief that is held by many, but in the once slave holding South, it is a "prevalent" belief that is held by whites.
I have seen the differences in treatment when employed by various companies. They will always pick one black, who we like to refer to in the black community as the "token black" to promote. They feel that gives them cover against any racism charge. It does not. I have seen blacks get micromanaged and every minute of their shift accounted for in ways that average white employee doesn't have to go through. When I worked for Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, it could have been a textbook example of how blacks and whites are treated differently.
When hired at Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a few of the black employees cheated on the lunch break and took extra time. A reasonable employer would have disciplined and/or fired those involved. Not Wingspan. Wingspan's management, young, inexperienced and white, immediately took ALL the African american employees and put us on structured breaks and lunches. However, they let the white employees breaks and lunches stay where they could decide what time they ate. It could be something as simple as this..
Or something as complicated as the company promoting and hiring permanent white employees with less experience or qualifications of any kind before they extended the same offer to their African american employees.
And this wasn't the end of it.. The racial hostility, being referred to as "roaches' by one manager and one African American team lead being called a "Nigger" made me look closer at the laws and regulations that govern business to see what recourse I had as an employee to seek retribution/relief.
The democrats have historically pulled for the working man. The common man. They understand how it feels to be on the losing side of power just because one is poor, or a minority. They understand the need for labor to prosecute companies who allow racially hostile work environments to take place. The democrats understand the need to make sure the least among us is protected from the abuses of those with a readily supply of money and influence.
The Republicans don't understand this. Just look at Texas, a red state, very Republican, with a laundry list of laws passed by its majority Republican legislature, that are very hostile to the average worker. Employees are often terminated for speaking out about ethics violations and/or abuse. Companies are shielded under the "Right to Work" laws where they don't have to give a reason to terminate someone. I have seen Wingspan and other companies routinely fire half their staff and rehire others for no reason at all but to, in my opinion, cheat the tax laws which gives companies hefty tax breaks for each new employee they hire. The caveat is this.. They only get the tax credit IF the employee quits, works past a year, or is fired. As most employees in a bad job market won't quit, and from what I've seen most never present good reasons to fire them, the company fires them for a bullshit reason to get the tax credit and move on.
Why do I feel this way? Why did I come to this conclusion? Well simply because I grew up seeing my mother and father and their sisters and brothers have normal jobs that they kept for years and years. They worked with the same people for years and years and they all retired. However the jobs I have had in this "new economy" in Texas the employers routinely without warning or provocation suddenly fire half their staff at around the eight month mark. They instruct their managers to do this as well. It didn't make sense to me until I came across an article written by the New York Times where a company in New York state was busted for doing this. This one particular company, if my memory serves correct, had hired and fired thousands of people in a two year period pushing their tax write offs and deductions and credits into the millions of dollars.
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| Employers Abusing Employees for Xtra $$$ |
We need good business people but business people with ETHICS and since the Republicans seem like they have never encountered an unethical business person, this is another reason they won't get my vote. Unethical business people are all around. Average hardworking Americans should not be preyed upon, used and spit out like tobacco. The effects of working in an environment with questionable ethics is that the employee involved, may leave the company so traumatized, they slip away forever out of the labor force. They end up on the system because of that psychological damage. There are long term health implications as well.
Without a doubt, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, was the worst company I have ever worked for. It was a lesson well learned. One that I will never forget. Which is just because someone starts a business and has money that doesn't make them ethical. I know you are saying "Well, duh" but honestly there are many people who won't listen to us.. The voiceless poor.
I have come across the numerous articles written about Wingspan. I am sure the company has a publicist. The majority of companies and high profile people do. All the publicist gets paid to do is make sure you get "good" publicity. And Wingspan's publicist has been busy. The articles I have come across paint a glowing picture of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, founded by Attorney Steve Horne, but I know different. I worked there. I saw the unethical practices and I endured the racial hostilities. I know that half these companies from Enron to Tyco to Lehman Brothers had glowing articles written about them on the internet. However these companies went bust from a lack of ethics. Enron destroyed many lives. So did Tyco. So did Lehman Brothers. Not to forget they played a part in almost Crashing the American Economy.
Recently I was looking on the LinkedIn pages of various managers at Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. Apparently the company has paid for its managers to have professional pictures made and uploaded to LinkedIn Some of the same smiling faces that called blacks "roaches" and that referred to the black team lead as "nigger" are on there crisp and clean.. Beaming into the camera. After reviewing the profiles I also noticed many were less than truthful about their qualifications and education. Go figure.. It all completes in my mind a view that one need not be "ethical" to succeed in business. One only needs to be ambitious and apparently that is something that Mr. Steve Horne definitely is.
I believe in my heart that President Obama will be a friend to the worker, a friend to labor, to those that struggle with powers far greater than they are. And this is why I will be casting my vote for President Obama this November. We don't need an America run by Plutocrats with far right ideologues. They care nothing for the poor. Nothing for the plight of the poor. Mitt Romney would be awful for America. He would strip every employee of basic bargaining rights and the Republicans would roll back every right of recourse the average employee has to fight against abuse and exploitation.
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| YES WE CAN! KEEP MOVING "FORWARD"! |
Disclaimer: This post is based on my personal experiences and what I saw/heard/and in every other way "experienced". This post is not meant to construe "Fact". It is "factual" to me, the author, however, you, the reader, are advised to draw your own conclusions. We live in a litigious society and we all know that money, and power, often sic's their lawyer dogs on those who speak freely to silence dissent and free expression. Thanks again for reading!
