House, Car and Family on $65 a week?

I had lunch with my Mom yesterday to celebrate my birthday. Her treat!!
She took me out to a fabulous Chinese buffet...near the Beach in Sunny Isles, Florida...and we were chitter chattering between trips back and forth to the buffet tables...chocolate fountain and all....and then....we got to talking.
We got to talking, about my plans next weekend to meet with some of my oldest friends whose families had also purchased homes on Long Island about the same time as our family did in the early 1950’s.
My Father was a Brooklyn kid, and a returning Soldier... who married an English girl, who became his “War Bride”...and by 1954, with 2 growing children..my brother and me.... they left the boroughs of NY.. for a life in suburban Long Island, still pocketed with tomato and potato farms...
My father was an appliance Salesman...who worked for VIM’s...As you might imagine the appliance business was very strong.... and a necessity for the emerging housing communities on Long Island...he managed the store and earned $65 per week.
My mother was a stay at home mom. She proceeded to tell me, that they also purchased their newly built 3 bedroom/2 bath Split level house for $17,500... they put a few thousand down...and took out a 30 year 4% fixed mortgage....plus we had a new car, a Nash, and a family of 4 to feed...my younger brother was not born yet...

I sat in utter amazement that they could accomplish all of that... on $65 dollars a week of income?
She told me that once a month, my dad would get a little excess income from being the store manager...and that they were also able to save after all the expenses were paid.
They were a part of a newly emerging middle class. No credit, little to no debt and money in the bank. It was the “best of times” as she put it...
I started to think about, what in the world has gone wrong...in just 50 years?
We have millions of people who are struggling, unemployed and within a short period of time... will basically run out of money and exhaust all resources....those older Americans’ who have lost their jobs....people in their 60’s... will be taking social security at an early age 62, just to have a source of income.....putting more pressure on a pressurized system.
Many younger Americans will lose their houses...not educate their children..and conceivably could be destitute in short shrift...
I am not talking about irresponsible people...I’m talking about normal hard working people... who have also embraced the American Dream of home ownership, education and living a Middle class life style...
We are on the brink of the “worst of times”...and getting worse..

What is most troubling...is that years of Administrations, both republican and democrat have slowly distanced themselves from the lives and everyday Americans’....and effectively have become the chosen few. While the issues that face people, have been politically abandoned for the sake of the wealthy.
The middle class is evaporating, like the moisture on a black towel...that dries on a sunny day... it is happening very fast...they are overcome with debt, have no resources left and there are no job prospects in sight.....possibly... for years to come......
All that the past 30 years of Reaganomics has done is to widen the gap between the rich and the poor...and frankly they don’t give a shit...things are good for them...

The suburban middle class life which.... my Mother and Father worked so hard to achieve.. Has basically been lost over 2 generations...
This is the heart of the problem... history has taught us that... when there is no middle class, and all that exists... is rich and poor...that that society is destined for, violence and potentially revolutionary behavior and failure.

I just don’t know what to say or do....it’s beyond my comprehension...just the same as living on $65 a week was.... in the 1950’s..
So as my mom, reached into her pocket to pay for the buffet, drinks and a tip....I thought to myself... Damn that was a week’s pay in 1950!!
But she always has something in Reserve....or she wouldn’t do it..

Thanks mom!!...love always...rayray

Don’t be fresh!!

I believe that everything that ever was...has already been thought of before…… simply finding a new way to say it….. is what gives it a fresh voice….fresh meaning….. and. .who among us doesn’t love the taste of something fresh..like... fresh fruit?
One fresh idea can quench a lot of thirst…..the next time you eat a cold juicy grape….try not to smile...
Get fresh with the next person you meet...and you’ll see them smile too....If you get fresh with them....they might even get fresh with you...
When I was younger...fresh.... got you a smack in the mouth...and it wasn’t a kiss...now...I’m enjoying getting fresh with everyone I meet....of course...I’m being silly.....or am I?

Today.....I see that many people are very thirsty for hope and inspiration...real thirsty....like they themselves have been wandering in the desert for 40 years, their throats have become very dry and parched........wishing they could just reach that magical oasis ahead....where they could feel that satisfying first cold gulp....which could wash away years of pain and soothe us from head to toe... the well is drying up...and all they see ahead are mirages.... “the cup has not runneth over.”

All deserts have aquifers...it’s the surface on which we live that is dry...unfortunately... the water, to sustain us, lies much deeper...

We are our own desert and we are our own oasis...we are the cause of the drought and the rainmaker too.... maybe, up until now, we have been unwilling to dig deeper within ourselves...to tap into that well spring.... our reservoir...... our heart is our reservoir...it’s deeper than any well that man has ever dug, nor ever will...when we are willing to dig deeper into our own selves....and unclog that which blocks our path...we will re-discover that bountiful aquifer that has always been within us......but the real beauty is.... that once we drink from that deeper well we will find that this tap will flow so freely to the surface, like a uncapped oil well(i wrote this before the BP Oil spill..lol), or a geyser in Yellowstone.....that our thirst is less noticeable now... because we are happier..

Our heart will always guide us which is right and which is left...choices will clarify quickly, decisions become precise and unscathed by ill thoughts that have continually crept into our head and deadened our heart..

Our own newly retrenched aqueducts...can now flow from the heart and nourish the head...
That which we could never before conceive of will become real to us....possibilities abound...our true self can emerge and our path can be lit up like the runway lights of an airport... at night. When you combine truth with energy... our true purpose will be revealed to us and our compass reset....

However... the final discovery and triumph comes when we realize that there is such abundance... that we must share it with others...because that bounty... was never meant for us alone.

“Flew into Miami Beach, BOAC”

Last night..PBS...celebrated and presented the GERSHWIN lifetime achievement award in song writing.....to .. Sir Paul McCartney,...in the East wing of the White house, before the President and many honored guests...
Back in April I had the opportunity to see Paul Live in concert in Miami....and I wrote a piece about it...and I figure the timing is right to put it up on the Blog...so here it is..... rayray

That verse was taken from the Beatles tune. “Back in the USSR”.
I recently attended the Paul McCartney concert in Miami, part of a 5 stop “America’s” tour which includ Phoenix, LA, Miami, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City.

A new friend of mine and her young daughter, went together to see the show. While on the way I mentioned to JB, the young lady, that the Beatles music took the world by storm in the early 1960’s, when I was about her age, and that their first live performance ever, in the United States, just also happened to be in Miami Beach, live on Television on The ED SULLIVAN show... in 1964 nearly 46 years ago.

Back then, television was in its infancy, to a large degree, and was broadcasted live. Ed Sullivan’s variety show was wildly popular across America. In fact, this was a major way that many American families first began to experience cultural events featuring world famous acts and actors...yet experienced them from the comfort of their own living room. If you had a television, and Ed Sullivan came on, the entire family would gather around it every week. It was a family event each week.

But that night, was very significant, for any Baby Boomer. We remember it, as if it were yesterday. It was as significant an event for us, from an indelible memory standpoint... as much as the horror of the attack on Pearl Harbor for our parents, or the Kennedy Assassination, or September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, which will forever be etched in our children’s memory.

This event, of course, was peaceful, not violent or shocking.. But... joyous and so memorable for Parent and child...It was unifying...
We wanted to show off the Beatles to our parents, like a child wants to show off a new holiday toy. We embraced the Beatles as ours. And as a statement to our parents of what we wanted as kids...love and peace and music.

We wondered whether our parents could relate to the Beatles and embrace them as we did...especially with their long hair, pointed boots and dressed in all black...The Beatles spoke to us and we listened...just as we wanted our parents to listen to us....I think they did...of course they did...
My mom, I’m sure could sing or hum the tune to “Michelle” or “Eleanor Rigby”...in the snap of a finger.

I thought it was notable, and to my pleasant surprise, while on Stage... Paul, made mention of the Ed Sullivan show and coming home to Miami Beach, in recognition of its significance to them and to America and to every person in that audience that saw it live back then in 1964......we were unified in that moment...their success and our lives were forever intertwined... and I really appreciated that he took a moment before the performance got too far underway, in a sense, to sanctify that moment. It certainly didn’t go unnoticed by this writer.

In those 46 years in between visits to Miami, we have all been through a lot...Cold wars, hot wars, good times, bad times...and through it all... there was the Beatles... of course we lost...John Lennon, to an assassin and George Harrison, to illness.... and Ed Sullivan...the father of the Variety show... and the P. T. Barnum of his time. Paul took time from the show to mention those 3 during the course of the evening. It was a magical evening.

We left that stadium humming “Hey Jude” and I was so grateful to witness his return to Miami Beach, sort of where it all began for all of us........

Attached is a list of songs that I put into my phone that evening. I think I missed a few..
Paul McCartney concert April 3rd, 2010

Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band
Helter Skelter
Yesterday
Get Back
Lady Madonna
Day Tripper
Hey Jude
Live and let Die
Let it be
Give Peace a Chance
A day in the life
Paperback Writer
Sing the changes
Back in the USSR
Ob-la- di Ob- la- da
Band on the Run
You
Feel the Thunder
Where my love goes
Eleanor Rigby
What the use of worrying
Ho Hey Ho....Ho hey ho...Mrs Vandebuilt
Everybody gonna dance
Here today
Blackbird
Two of us
I’m looking through you
My love does it good
Let Em in
Jimi Hendrix tune


For us to remember.........Ray, Nancy, Jenna-Brooke, Judiann

If I were Blind...

How about a little change of pace?...here's a poem I wrote... as the backdrop for my book by the same name....rayray


If I were blind
And couldn’t see
I wonder how the world
Would be

We’d have to lend
A special ear
To every sound
Loud and clear

Every touch
Magnified
Every smell
Categorized

The color green
What does it mean?
We would learn a life
Never seen

Only felt
Only smelt
Only heard
Every word

But the truth, in fact
of being blind
Has little to do
With seeing fine

It’s all about beliefs
You see
That clouds our vision
Dramatically

We have our role
And keep it tight
Never open
No insight

That’s the blindness
Of which I speak
It’s reciprocal
Is what I seek

Clear in purpose
Opened wide
Be forgiving
From inside

Accept that life
Is just about
Breathing in
And breathing out

Enjoy each moment
While it lasts
Because before you know it
It’s in the past.

The unemployment Stimulus package

In the aftermath of the Senate vote...60/40 for the unemployment extension.. I would like to say....Bravo.... to the supporters who withstood...the strong filibuster...no doubt.....that this democratic option was certainly exercised to its fullest extent ....however.... the underlying philosophy... by the opposition still remains troubling to me....

Because it has become a philosophy of confusion...and the solution is found in separating issues... so people can clearly understand...better perhaps....or for worse...but either way...as long as the core facts are made apparent to most Americans....

There is so much confusion....that I thought I would just capture a few thoughts...that came to me yesterday....in an emotional way...and ...I needed to calm down a little....to write effectively...although sometimes just getting the thought out is all that is needed...even.. when things seem so obvious....but I think some of these thoughts are worth mentioning again...

1.Unemployment is a benefit that these workers qualified for. It is not a hand out... nor charity. It is the equivalent of less than minimum wage...

2.Unless you earned it you don’t get it...those collecting the benefit were all good wage earners that lost their jobs.

3.Employers pay Payroll tax...to the State... for this possibility/potentiality... and...That is why it’s there... like insurance for losing a job.. it is not a freebee...it is the cost of having a business in America and hiring employees to help a business grow.. which adds to the good and services that comprise our national economy....this extends to workers compensation costs for when employees are injured on a job. Should we castigate a disabled employee..for collecting on workers comp?

4. Here’s some food for thought.......When you give an hungry person or a family... $300 dollars...what do you think he/she will do with the money?.... if you answered ..eat....then you are right...so the money is not going to buy crack cocaine or speed or alcohol...it is going to go to the essentials that a family needs to survive...

5.So when we re-circulate this $12,000,000,000 (that’s 12 Billion dollars) of funds back to the workers who earned the right to that money...what happens to that money?...if you answered... its spent....you are right again!!!...the money is put back into the economy in the form or all kinds of consumer purchasing....

6. In fact.. if they stopped paying these qualified benefits to those 30,000,000 (thirty million) or so unemployed Americans...the economy would continue to tank even further..

7.This is the perfect example of biting ones own nose to spite one’s face...

8.the Hard-line approach taken by the filibustering Senators...was not only morally misguided...but proved that they did not see the connection at all... to the increase in spending activity...which will stimulate the economy...estimated to be $1.60 of economic growth for every $1.00 dollar of unemployment.....so....on the 12 billion spent.... it adds nearly 20,000,000,000..(nearly 20 billion real spending activity and economic growth into the economy....rayray

Election day...... in July?..

You might find it rather odd that I would say that it’s Election Day in July... tomorrow.........
We normally think of that occurring in November... on the 2nd Tuesday. But this year its different...This year Election Day is tomorrow...7/20/10.
This is the day that the Senate is supposed to vote on the Unemployment extension bill...
There will be more eyes focused on the Senate in Our nation’s Capital... in Washington DC...than anywhere else in the country...Tomorrow the Senate is under the looking glass... exposed and vulnerable.

Tomorrow the Senators, who oppose this bill, might as well pack their bags and hit the road.... if this doesn’t pass, maybe not tomorrow, but as soon as their incumbent seat becomes available.

They will be gone...for their failure to have the guts... to face the fact... that they failed the American Worker....and callously...and stubbornly and ..with malice....blamed the American worker for its failure to prioritize the issues that have crippled our country and blamed it on lazy American workers..who are unemployed and desperately need these funds to survive and feed their family...it borders on treason.. in the name of fiscal accounting.....and... its entirely possible that the damage has already been done...
The Republican senators.. who acted as a bloc...to filibuster all attempts to come to a decent solution...mocked the American worker by their inaction....and yet they want to retake their powerful seats and drive this country forward...Are they kidding?
Tomorrow is truth or consequences.....

Truth...because they must recognize that people, the American people come first, not political party...and consequences... are that they will be removed from their esteemed place in the Senate...one by one.

They never conceived that they were playing with fire. That’s how arrogant they have become.....and now on the fortnight of history...they could salvage their situation...or they will get burnt beyond recognition...

I have hope that they have the clarity... to come to their collective senses and for once ...do the right thing and extend the benefits.... and possibly... finally...feel connected to the collective sigh of relief that will emanate from every town... in every city.... by every family... and by every person... who has been under the extreme pressures that comes from a lack of money in this crazy world we live in.....rayray

"Can you visualize the problem?

Sometimes numbers can be very deceiving....and particularly hard to understand.... Here’s an example that really hits HOME.

It is estimated that 1,000,000 homes will be foreclosed upon this year...and the scope of that problem is very difficult to understand...so I thought I would put this into a different perspective in order to more clearly visualize what this means...
If the average lot size of a foreclosed home... is 100 ft wide... that equals 100,000,000 feet... (one hundred million feet)

1 mile = 5,280 feet...therefore....if these foreclosed houses were lined up side to side...the length would be approximately 19,000 miles.......

That’s the same as... New York to San Francisco...back and forth
7 times........rayray