Help a Man to Help Himself

Here is Norma Zager writing about wealth.

JRH 2/12/12

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Help a Man to Help Himself

Help!  The Rich are Coming!  The Rich are Coming!

By Norma Zager

Sent: 2/12/2012 11:58 AM

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime...” old proverb

Last night I heard noise outside my window. I peeked through the curtains to see a well-dressed gang of people carrying jeweled bags and roaming the neighborhood.

I couldn’t resist yelling out to them.  “Hey guys, what’s up?”

One looked around and eyed me suspiciously. “You rich or poor?”

“Pardon?”

“You rich or poor?”

“Why?”

“Just answer the question,” he barked.

“I’m not either.”

He turned to another gang member. “What do you think?”

“She looks suspicious. Let’s get her.”

I instantly regretted the fake diamond earrings I was sporting, slammed the window and ran to ensure my door was locked.  I wasn’t sure what or who they were and why they wanted to “get me,” but was taking no chances.  Needless to say, I was terrified.

That night watching the news I was shocked to see the gang featured at the top of the news report.

“Tonight the streets were filled with roving gangs of marauding millionaires attacking poor people by throwing checks in their direction. One single mother of five had her television set purchased at wholesale prices and six rich white guys flashed their Cayman bank account keys in front of her eyes.”

The roving reporter was interviewing her, asking why she was targeted.

“They said they were rich and they were going to get every poor person in this country and keep them down. She was sobbing. “The president warned us they were evil. Now I see. Now I see. We have to stop the rich. One threatened to open his pants and show me his Swiss bank account number and another held a Mercedes Benz key in front of my face.”  She audibly gasped at the memory.

The reporter faced the camera in his $2000.00 Armani suit and Gucci tie. “And there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen. At last the secret is out and the true intent of the rich is exposed. I’d say we are lucky to have found out the truth in time. From Beverly Hills this is Twist Turner reporting.”

He left the studio then headed out the door to his BMW convertible to drive home to his million-dollar condo.

If this is a bit exaggerated, forgive me a bit of poetic license to make a point.

I believe the America I grew up in praised the benefits of wealth. Who didn’t want to be rich? Until the 60s wealth was quite in vogue. As long as you didn’t do anything wrong to attain your goals.

Being able to pay your bills was laudable.  To owe no one anything.  To provide for one’s family and afford them the best education, the best foods, the best vacations and the best housing.

There is an old Chinese custom of paying off one’s creditors before the beginning of a new year.

When did being financially solvent become a crime in any country?

Russia decided Communism wasn’t cool when they had to wait in line for hours to buy toilet paper that made sandpaper seem soft.

The Eastern bloc countries that embraced capitalism are now flourishing despite the more socialist-bent European nations.

When did self-reliance and the desire to live one’s dreams, achieve one’s goals and aspire to a better life become heresy in this nation?

The funniest part of all this is that the wealthiest people I know are proponents of this class warfare mentality.

The most ironic part is the fact the President has amassed a war chest for the election larger than the GNP of most countries in the world. He doesn’t seem to mind the rich and their money when it suits his purposes.

Guilt over success seems epidemic, and tragically, the propaganda ploy is working.

Still, everyone continues to buy a lottery ticket each week. Are they trying to strike it poor?

Vilifying the rich has become as easy as blaming the Jews for the world’s ills.

Sadder still is that this mantra is being perpetrated and sustained by Jewish people.

Barbara Walters, a capitalist who has always dressed to the nines and eagerly signed each new and more lucrative contract without hesitation, paraded Bernie Madoff out to a blood thirsty public recently to garner ratings. In her inimitable style she exploited the story of the greedy, sociopathic Jew in front of a public eager to locate a scapegoat for their meager circumstances.

Well thank you Barbara Walters for bringing more attention to the bad rich Jewish guy.  You set back Jewish people centuries with that one.  What were you thinking?

Ratings, money, ratings, money? Was there any consideration of how this might play in Dixie? How haters may embrace this image of another “greedy” Jew, a shylock for the new millennium to hate and despise and use as a poster boy for their anti-Semitic leanings.

You added to the belief all the rich, including those horrible Jews, are out to get us.  Just what the world needed to see in bad times. All you needed to do to completely frost the cookie of hatred was to have him say “Let Them Eat Cake.”

I hope you are proud that you were a soldier on the Obama front fighting for class warfare. And you managed to sell out your own people for good measure.

What are we thinking as a people, a species, and a nation? As a young country, like a new car we need tweaking. Our brakes squeak, our power windows stick. We need service.  We are still under warranty.

You do not get a new car if something isn’t working. It is fixed.

You do not throw out a country’s ideals and philosophy because something isn’t working as well as it did two hundred years ago. You fix it, redesign and, as Tim Gunn says, “Make it Work!”

Where in the Constitution is there an expiration date?

Where does it say, if something in this country isn’t working as well as we planned, change the national policy to Socialism and become the very European countries we came here to escape?

We are the United States of America, not the divided states of America.

We are a proud nation, a young upstart on the world stage and its greatest over achiever.

Are we resented for this?

Yes.

Are other nations jealous of our amazing success?

Yes.

Should we fail just to please our detractors?

When did the mantra of this country become pull others down so we can become greater?

When was our ideal of pulling everyone up to their greatest potential as human beings and a nation erased from our national consciousness?

The upcoming election is not just about the economy.  It is not about who is rich or poor.  It is about who we are as a people.

Are we a jealous bunch of losers, sniffing and wallowing in our own envy and resenting those who have achieved?

Or are we a great nation that welcomes and embraces exceptionalism?

I believe the choice is as obvious as a heart attack.

We must never give in to the dark side and choose envy and sloth over optimism and hard work.

We have already started down that slippery slope, so let’s all reach out and grab someone’s hand before we slip into the mire of negativity and abject failure.

America is a charitable nation.  The highest form of charity is to help a man to help himself. That should be our first goal for ourselves, and for all others.

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The series “Postcards from America—Postcards from Israel” by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager is a compilation of articles capturing the essence of life in America and Israel during the first two decades of the 21st Century.

The writers invite readers to view and experience an Israel and her politics through their eyes, Israel visitors rarely discover and Israelis often ignore.

This point—and often—counter-point presentation is sprinkled with humor and sadness and attempts to tackle serious and relevant issues of the day. The series began in 2008, appears both in print in the USA and on numerous websites and is followed regularly by readership from around the world.

Zager and Bussel can be heard on live radio in conversation on the program “Conversations Eye to Eye between Norma and Ari.”

© “Postcards from America — Postcards from Israel,” January 2012

Contact: bussel@me.com

First Published Jan 30, 2012