The story of 'they'

I tend to talk a lot about 'THEY' these days... Here is a true story, fictitious names, about exactly who 'they' are and the ridiculous lengths 'they' are willing to go to get our money...

Being as brief as possible, the story is about a caring business owner, John, who had the responsibility to take care of the finances of one of his long term clients who had grown also to be very dear friends over the course of many years. So close that he had the full trust of these clients and functioned on their behalf as power of attorney.

John needed this P of A as Penny was now a 76 year old woman and no longer capable of properly caring for herself. Her husband, Dan, had been ill for several years, Alzheimer's, and is now in a VA nursing home. Dan is somewhere close to 80 years old. He likely no longer even knows who Penny is... Penny is fortunate to have many long time friends who care deeply for her. Some of these close friends help to look after Penny, cleaning, shopping and the like.

One day one of these long time family friends,'Becky' received a phone call, on behalf of Penny and Dan, from a phone company. can I name them? Should I? Ok... AT&T.

But, this story IS NOT ABOUT AT&T, it is a story about 'they'. AT&T is but a single representative of 'they'. All of the large phone companies represent 'they'. So do the mortgage companies, the large banks, the credit card companies, the insurance companies, the hospitals, the drug companies, the payday loan companies, the rent-to-own companies, I could, obviously, go on much more here but I think you get the point. These are but a few of the representatives of 'they'. The 'they' who clamor after our wealth.

Apparently Becky became a little confused by the phone call. Becky is in her 50's, as am I, and I can attest to the fact that a little confusion does occur from time to time... Somehow she believed she was signing up for some sort of internet advertising for Penny and Dan's business, which was closing and liquidating. Surely 'they' would never 'intentionally' mislead her...

The next month when the phone bill arrived, at John's business as usual, a strange charge of 49.95 was noticed on the bill and questioned. The description of the charge, on the bill itself, was very... well... nondescript... So John first checked with Becky, who was unsure what the charge was for herself. So John called the company, AT&T, to find out what the new 49.95 charge was for. Turns out the mysterious 49.95 charge was for high speed internet access. Which, as we all know, is cool. Cool unless, you are a 76 year old woman who can no longer care for herself or an 80 year old man who is in a VA nursing home. So John explained this to the phone company along with the fact that Penny and Dan did not even OWN a computer. So AT&T canceled the service and advised John to remit the bill minus the 49.95 charge. Which he did...

So done deal right? No problem.

Wrong...

When the next month's bill arrived it still showed an unpaid charge of 49.95 and also included a 5.00 late fee on that amount. So, once again, John called the phone company, explained the situation, and was instructed to ignore the 49.95 charge as a billing error. Penny has died now, cancer, Dan is still in a VA nursing home and John is a very busy man, running a small business.

Now six months have gone by, the errant 49.95 charge remains on the bill and remains unpaid. A late fee is added every single month, like clockwork, and now the initial 49.95 has grown to more than 80.00. It has also now been turned over to a collection agency.

John's answer at this point? "Let 'them' come and take it from Dan"...

My whole purpose in relaying this story is merely to point out the fact that these people, these corporations, 'they', pull this same sort of scam all across this country every single day. Penny was fortunate to have a professional business owner who attempted to deal with the situation on her behalf. Even he cannot seem to prevail.

Try to imagine a 76 year old woman trying to deal with it, alone. Imagine all the busy, at times inattentive, people in this country who are forced to find time, they do not have, to deal with these obvious 'in your face' rip offs. 'They' have found the young, the elderly and the distracted/irresponsible to be easy prey for their dishonest and unethical practices. 'They' continually rip off ordinary people at every single opportunity and intentionally make it nearly impossible to correct a situation once the cycle has begun. 'They' have become so blinded by greed, corruption and the "love OF money" that 'they' know not what 'they' do.

These corporations are the cancer that grows and spreads in our society and 'they' must be cut out.

Our government, all of it, all of 'them', democrats and republicans alike, are the strongest allies these corporations have. So yes 'they' includes our own government also... 'They' don't ever seem to hear anything we say. We try to explain to 'them' where and how 'they' have gone horribly wrong. But 'they' have their own game to consider. 'They' depend on each other. Our government officials receive campaign funding, and God only knows what else, from these greedy, corrupt institutions. 'They' need the money. 'They' must have the money, and the perks. Our government has it's hands in the pockets of all of 'them'. Need I say AIG, GM, Chrysler, all the major banks, all the large insurance companies, many others. Now 'they' want our entire health care industry. 'They', between 'themselves' have many (secret?) agreements and understandings that we will never know about. Of course the Federal Reserve Bank is a part of 'they' as well. 'They' are particularly good at working in secrecy, behind closed doors, concealing the truth from the American people.

'They' are all pretending everything is fine or going to be fine. Our country is falling apart all around us this very moment. 'They' are jockeying for position, trying to stay a step ahead of what is to come. For the sake of brevity I am not going to go into what I feel is to come here. Some of my previous posts point to much of what I expect. Also, I believe, merely reading "The Prophesied End-Time Revealed" presents a very clear picture of our not too distant future.

Until the day all this greed and corruption no longer exists this economy and country will continue to fail. 'They' have not changed a thing still yet! 'They' only struggle mightily to reflate the credit bubble just long enough to get out of office and out of town. 'They' MUST face and confront all of the greed and corruption and eliminate it, but 'they' dare not. It is the way 'they' have evolved over time. 'They' know no other way to function.

Our very own corporations and government are the beast that devours us. The beast that attacks our young and naive. The beast that attacks our elderly and vulnerable. The beast that attacks those of weak mind, body and spirit.

That is who 'they' are. That is how 'they' operate.

'They' seek only to steal our wealth and our freedom.

Is there anything at all we can do? YES! For one, the most obvious thing we can do is throw out every incumbent in office in the house and the senate in every election cycle beginning with 2010 mid terms. The house's approval rating is in the low teens. How DO they manage to return to represent us year after year? Decade after decade? Are our elections still valid, honest? Or have they become so gerry mandered and politicized that they no longer even resemble what they were once meant to be? Are we Iran?

There is one more thing that we CAN do. One more thing that, in my opinion, we MUST do. We can have a major impact through the use of a non-violent resistance/revolution. All Americans have to do is clamp SHUT their collective pocketbooks! WE represent 70% of the US economy. WE can help the markets force ALL the greed and corruption out of the system. 'They' need the money a lot more than we do. It is all 'they' seek, our wealth. Our freedom be damned. Our constitution trampled under foot.

For any Americans out there who might fear government repercussions for voicing their own heartfelt opinions...

You have lost your freedom already...

We cannot and WILL NOT fear those who represent us!

This economy has been a debt/credit/FED/government, fueled manipulated house of cards for decades now. Lets fix it. Together.

Twitter is down. A denial of service attack. Could 'they' possibly be behind it? Would 'they' seek to disrupt/destroy our communications network? To put a stop to the voicing of our opinions? Would 'they' now seek to remove our first amendment right? Remember Iran and keep a close eye on exactly what 'they' are doing. Not what 'they' are saying.

As John Lennon once said 'Strange days, indeed'.

Greg