A City of Un-Rest.

New York City is known as the “big apple”, “the city that never sleeps”, “Gotham” and is the largest city in America. The city is also known as the financial and real estate center of the earth. It is the home of the Knicks, the Jets and the Giants. Then there are the Mets and the soon to become the Brooklyn Nets.   Now it appears it has become the “Demonstration City”. It’s mind-boggling to see how many activities and additional people can fit into this City.

We have front row seats to some major demonstrations here in our neighborhood, also known as the Financial District of New York City. It has made for some interesting times as well as an opportunity to learn about the issues. We have learned about police brutality and how the media can make or break these kinds of activities depending upon whether they choose to cover them or not.

 Mayor Bloomberg predicted two weeks ago that there would be rioting in the streets if the economy, jobs and poverty aren’t dealt with effectively. President Obama encouraged people to quit whining and get their marching shoes on. Considering the state of affairs the lack of activism and revolutionary like tactics has been mind-boggling to me. Perhaps what we are seeing now is a beginning.

The “Occupy Wall Street” group has been occupying Zuccoti Park (they call it Liberty Park) just around the corner from Wall Street now for 11 days. They state they are a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing they all have in common is “We are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.” Take a look at their website for a lot more information. Click here. Recent supporters on site include Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon.

One of the groups that is participating in this occupation is the Granny Peace Brigade.  Check out their website by clicking here.

Yesterday, September 28, 2011 also saw over 700 United and Continental pilots marching on Wall Street. They marched in an orderly, single file (in contrast to the Wall Street Occupation group) around the financial district all morning and then had a rally in Battery Park. It seems they took a 40% pay cut in 2006 and have been working/flying without a contract ever since.  Like the one pilot I talked with said, “Our offices fly at 500 miles per hour so we think we deserve a decent wage.” The pilots converged on New York City from all over the country on their days off. They believe that Wall Street Financiers must take steps to improve the economy.

Meanwhile in another part of the City there are demonstrations at the United Nations. I don’t know much about them but they are concerned primarily with the Israel-Palestine issues being dealt with or not. There are a few other groups up in arms which I don’t know enough about to comment on at this point.

So currently New York City is a laboratory for the political and economic issues of our times. It is mind-boggling!

Stan the Man     

Okay. I’m blaming my mind-boggling absence from this blog on several factors but particularly my inability to focus lately. There has just been too much going on. There have been too many distractions in the outside world as well as way too much going on in my own head. The net result is the inability to focus sufficiently to write something that might appear coherent. The fact that I’m writing now doesn’t mean I have resolved the focus issue.  Expect some lack of focus.

We had Hurricane Irene. We had Tropical Storm Lee. Then we had the 10^th anniversary of 9/11. That event was accentuated by a supposed terrorist threat on bridges and tunnels of New York City and Washington DC. This threat of further terrorist activity resulted in a mind-boggling ramping up of security. The traffic was impeded by multiple check points. Crowds of tourists as well as New Yorkers were herded and watched carefully by heavily armed NYPD cops. They were everywhere. We decided to leave during these “festivities.”

Flying to Ft. Lauderdale and driving to our Bal Harbour apartment we were immediately struck by the contrasts with New York. Where was the traffic? Where were the people? Where were the uniformed cops on every street corner? We gazed at an open sky rather than towering skyscrapers. We were greeted by moderate humidity and 80 degree temperatures. Perfect! The perfection didn’t last. Upon our arrival at the apartment where we hadn’t been for 60 days we were confronted with mold. Yes, mold had attacked our clothes and other belongings. It seems one must have the air conditioning running even when not present in Florida. Otherwise it is considered an invitation for mold to move in and take over.  We had been unaware of this, being from much less hot and humid climes. This mold is dangerous to breathe in so we spent several nights in a beach front hotel while the professionals cleared out the mold. That wasn’t too bad of a result but certainly not what we had planned. More money out the window.

Meanwhile, the mind-boggling politics of Washington DC became even crazier, weirder and more disgusting.  In addition, the Republicans jockeying for the right to run for the US presidency continued their 8 ring circus. I have never known so much about politics and wished so much I didn’t.

During all this and more I kept reading my Nook which I have taken on as my new friend. I love it. Just a mention of the latest Nook book I read: It’s called Rules of the Tunnel and was written by Ned Zeman who is a journalist. He has written for Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, the New Yorker and then for Vanity Fair. This is his personal story of suffering from depression and anxiety. It’s not pretty but I recommend it. Depression and other mood disorders, which 1 out of every 7 Americans suffer from under normal conditions, must be an even greater malady today with unemployment and the recession impacting so many. Recent research indicates an increase in child abuse since 2008 which could well be related to stress and depression. Isolation and rumination are key contributing factors. I will probably write more on these subjects in the future.

Getting focused?

Stan the Man