I don't give a healthy crap about the selfish national group known as stockholders, Ken. They're as piggish and greedy and selfish as the corps. they bow down to. Since when did the needs of a community/state/nation be superceded by the greed of an ever-growing, more demanding faceless corporation? These would be the corps. that: bank off-shore to avoid their responsibilities as U.S. taxpayers, which in turn means they are accepting and using all manner of local and state resources without contributing their fair share to the maintenance, upkeep, and delivery of those resources: police, fire, water, sewer, trash, electric, gas, schools, libraries, roads, bridges, etc. These are the corps that hire armies of accountants and tax lawyers to find every conceivable loop-hole to avoid paying their fair share, that you and I and our neighbors cannot afford to. These are the corps. that have bought Congress, and managed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to alter/revoke the rules of the game, tilting the field to the corps. advantage. We now live in a plutocracy, the United Business States of America. We are lucky to retain the few freedoms we have. Everything else we once knew is an illusion. Six major corporations own and are responsible in our once-great country for 1500 newspapers, 1100 magazines, 9000 radio stations, 1500 t.v. stations, and 2400 publishers. Where's the diversity, the individuality, the willingness to point at Washington, D.C. and say STOP! or ask questions, or investigate. There is very little individuality left in America, Ken. Our malls, strip malls, fast food joints, our cars, retail box stores, WM with its $7 Billion taxpayer subsidy, all look-alikes in a look-alike, PC world, a socialist world of conformity and quiet compliance.
For every shareholder who benefitted from a stock deal, there are more losers that have been hurt. For every corp. acquisition, there are people out of work whose losses spiral throughout their communities. We're out of balance, sir. Do you like the direction America has been in, for years? I sure don't. The middle class, responsible for supporting the other two, has all but disappeared. Community school districts across the nation are struggling to educate. Tax and Spend has been the applied response, but that has never worked, isn't working, will never work.

All we seem to have heard about over the months since Aug, is how Black Lives Matter. I am not seeing much evidence of that among blacks in the St. Louis metro area, both sides of the river, or nationally. Again, all shades commit all manner of atrocities. That isn't likely to change. What's confusing, in my fertile, aging mind, is the sheer volume of public nonsense (fights, shootings, police killings, beheadings, etc) from an ethnic group that constantly and consistently complains that: white don't treat them fairly; police harass them; banks don't loan them money; retail security guards follow them around stores, and all the rest. Personally, I think there is a correlation between how members of this ethnic group, blacks, live on a daily basis, and the ways in which they are perceived and treated in kind. Maybe it's just me. I dislike stereotypes. At the same time, 14% of our country's population is black, yet make up 40% of our prison population. The entire national criminal justice system can't be biased towards blacks. There's too many of them crossing the line of social behavior to believe that. I understand that we are only 4-5 generations removed from U. S. slavery conditions, and that it does indeed take time for any group to re-form itself. But how long does it take? Public schools are open to all. Public universities are open to all. Bank loans and mortgages and rental properties and homes for sale are open to all. Motels and restaurants and nightclubs are open to all. Major league sports teams are integrated. Voting rights are established for all. How many different immigrant ethnic groups have migrated here, established themselves within a generation or two, and not been a societal burden to the extent blacks have been ? Yet, blacks have high high school drop-out rates, high teenage pregnancy rates, tend to live in higher crime zones, own less homes and operate fewer banks and businesses, go to college less. It's very disheartening to read and see and watch an ethnic group basically hold itself back, embarass itself, and be a public burden. I don't know what the answers are. Common sense, personal pride, family structure, life goals, these are not restricted to any one group. I just don't get it. I don't.