WHAT IS HAPPENING?

If you are about my age then you have the fond grammar school memories, of weekends off from school and getting up RIDICULOUSLY early. Which at that age was about 7a.m. you'd totter off into the kitchen doing your utmost best not to wake anyone up, make the most humongest bowl of your favorite cereal. Then you would skulk back to your room like a little sneak thief, full of excitement because you knew what lay ahead. And that my friends was SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS!!!!!!!!!

Now, I don't know about you, but my favourites were Davey and Goliath, you know the one where the little dog was always like "Day-Veeee". Remember that episode when he wanted to join the "jickets"? Classic. Another of mine was conan and ookla the mok, He had a flaming sword and called it the "sun-sword". And the one that did it for me was plasticman!!!!! He was married to a pretty blond girl, named penny, and he had a baby, "baby plas" and of course that was all beyond our child brain's comprehension because come on, really. Ok, Plasticman, Wife and Baby, we don't need any plus or equal signs here but at age 7, it's like DUHHH. Then they came up with my all time favorite of all of them ...HONG-KONG-FOOEY!!!!! (voice by Scattman Cruthers, for those of you who don't know him he's the black actor in the Shining that Nicholson chopped in the gut as he was running at him, with a fireman.s axe, yow.) But I'm not writing to talk about cartoons although they do play an integral part in what I have to say. Let's not forget the Smurfs! The Smurfs are the forefathers of Anime. Anyway. As time has progressed, as we have aged and sadly as some of our close ones have died. What has been happening to us? The protests have stopped, the rallies have stopped. I mean over BIG things, like the amazing vanishing of all affordable housing in the 5 boroughs. THAT'S A BIG DEAL!! And all over the city, the people you talk to are not from here! Sad to say that they're taking up most of the housing old and new. New York born and bred's that stay are a dying breed. And I'm prouder that proud to be one of the mighty few. I remember a time when I was growing up when the people, the working class, the men, the, women, the heart and soul of this city would go to battle and I mean it was a struggle, every free moment that they had and rally or protest or petition to LET THEIR VOICE BE HEARD! And THAT was the norm and city government used to listen. But City Council got hip to that and just kept speeding things up from proposals from this or that person, then to council deliberation then council vote and then THAT became the norm and it's what's in place today. That's why you see all of the protesters at City Council/MTA meetings,if they are allowed in for that particular meeting. Because that's the only place to go now to even attempt to be heard. But it's already too late, from the time those chamber doors open, council has been seated and the first protester opens his mouth. The decisions on the agenda up for vote have already been made, at their very first meeting And teachers!!?? WHAT!!?? So many changes in city government has happened in the inner circles and the meetings that are held behind closed doors that now,? I've never seen teachers so disrespected by city government in my whole life. There was a time when being a teacher was something to be proud of. Now if you want to be a teacher you have to go through Army boot camp, complete NASA's astronaut training program, get a degree in binary coded perpendiculated nuclear physics. And THEN to reward all of your hard work, your ass, guaranteed, as a starting new teacher in this city will wind up in one, of the many, most broken down schools in the system of the Board of Education. When I was in school my teachers were like second parents. I learned so much between the lines that the sum of the substance is immearsureable. Teachers are to be honored, respected and appreciated because they shape the minds of our future for 6&1/2 to 7 hours a day for a full work week and the children that work hard are to be held high, it's the right thing to do.

And on a side note to how much our world and its workings have changed...It amazes me how many things people consider "advances in technology". What was so wrong with things before manufacturers and corporations began to read our minds to magically find out what we want? I don't mean jumps and leaps in medical tech, or in computer tech, effective recycling, and even or I should say ESPECIALLY how we have benefited so much from harvesting energy and power from water flow, wind power, soler panel innovation. All excellent. All amazing ways to help build and save and join together to build unity and peace. I'm talking about things that were just as good as the other stuff we had, but has been revamped by the company to be re marketed and sold, to us as we are seen in their eyes, cash cows. There are many many things that we have now that are unnecessary. The next time you turn on your satellite t.v. and can't find what YOU want to watch, out of all those channels take a second and ask yourself, "is this better?".