Signe Wilkinson Philadelphia Daily News Jul 6, 2010 |
Thankfully the weather seems to have shifted to fall here, for our air conditioning has been out for over a week. We need to gen-up some cash quick, before winter, for our unit is a heat pump and without a couple thousand dollars, we won't have heat, either! Yikes.
The cartoon reflects my desperation. I am already doing some dubious work for money, and I wonder sometimes just how far I would stoop for more cash. I have children to feed, a house to maintain, bills to pay...and no matter how well I do my job (or how poorly) the wage is still the same. *sigh* I am all for merit pay, personally.
My current status has made me more empathetic with those who might resort to illegal enterprises, whether they be white collar crimes or tending gardens of verboten herbs. I understand laws, how they are more-or-less standards we tend to agree upon for a civil society. I know also that laws are impossible to really wholly enforce unless people comply. Though this air conditioning inconvenience is minor, I am starting to better grasp the dimension of disregard for law that prevails when well-being/family is threatened in any way. It is becoming increasingly difficult to comply with the body of law when hardship comes knocking. That's a fancy way of saying, when people are pushed and repressed, they rebel.
I just watched a documentary that forewarns that the greatest threat to civilization as we know it is exactly that: the repressed "developing" nations are likely to reach a critical mass and...well...explode.
From CommonDreams:
Published on Friday, December 7, 2001 in the Toronto Globe & Mail
"Our Best Point the Way: On the 100th anniversary of the Nobel prize, 100 Nobel laureates warn that our security hangs on environmental and social reform:
The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed.
1 comment:
We have never had a/c. We also make about a tenth of what you must make at the college. I do not understand your money troubles. However, we do not live as richly as you do. Not saying you are wrong to do so, just saying. Worrying about money is not worth it to me.
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