Remembering My Mother...

Lois Johnson 1964 (striped jacket)

This time of year is always a rough time of year; I lost my Mother on New Years Eve of 2000.  However one of my Mother's oldest friends sent me a picture of them in 1964, my Mom was 16 years old.  It feels like I'm looking into a mirror I look so much like her.  This made my day and I know it will make the rest of this season all that much better.


I remember for almost two years after she went on I didn't look in the mirror because I wouldn't see myself I'd see only her.  I totally forgot about that until I saw this picture today.  

Occupy Movement.... Confused Feelings

Morning all...

As I do what I tell myself I shouldn't do in the morning (tune into the news) I can't help but speak up on this...

Port closure -West Coast...

I am a Customs Broker by profession. What that means is I am one of many people in the country that is an agent to Importers that processes their inbound shipments through Customs and various Government Agencies. Now once I do this work which is a headache one willingly jumps into, I have to send a trucker in to one of these ports to grab these containers to deliver to the final destination the Importer, my Customer.

Now I have many Customers, most of whom are small to mid sized businesses (35 and under employees) these are people that in spite of the economy refused to lay people off. All employees agreed to a shorter work week ( yes all employees) as the Importer has been very good to them over the years. One of the trucking companies I use instead of laying off their people laid off the OWNERS and THEY got 2nd jobs so they didn't have to lay any of the workers off.

They are the 99% too...

Now I support Occupy 100% however I think that in trying to prove an Occupy Point one should really check to see what they are doing to the 99% in the process. In some ways it makes you no better than the 1%.

Oakland Port has been suffering for awhile due to I don't know... Bullshit? What was once a vibrant port is turning into the step-child twice removed. But guess what? Shutting the port down doesn't help it. Taking the protest to the downtown Oakland streets where the decisions are made makes sense. Giving them the flybird on their doorstep will have a stronger effect than at the port - because they do not want their lawns dirty.  They could give a damn what you do at the port - believe me.  It's like the Rodney King verdict - tearing up your own streets when that shit should have been taken to Simi Valley.

Now I'm going to drag myself into this office and explain to my customers why they won't get their containers today and they will be just as conflicted as I am - they support the Occupy, but dammit they need to feed their families too.  What was that, don't cut off your nose to spite your face?

Think about it...

Holla at me - always open to talking about it - but you know me I give as good as I get... Peace... PLEASE.