Dear OnceUpon a Slytherin,

I don’t check my email much so I’m sorry if you wrote this epically long ago. I agree with you. When I started this blog I was just writing down random thoughts I had. I did go through a period of frustration with vegans as they can be pushy and obnoxious towards my beliefs. But, you are right. I am making an effort to try to understand people with different views than mine and in order to do so, I need to be tolerant of their views as I wish they would be with mine. So, I’m going to change the title.

A lot of my facebook friends do not like the fact that people, including me, write political posts on their walls. I’ve had people that I haven’t spoken to in over 8 years leave nasty messages on my wall degrading my political posts. Well, this is what I have to say about that: If you think writing about fashion, and posting pictures of yourself in different hairdos, or writing about sports stats is most important than the next leader of the United States, the person who will determine your political, economic, religious, and social future, then you deserve what’s coming. Grow the F up.

I currently live with two law students. One of the girls is awesome and the other one is particularly bizarre. Sometimes I feel sad for her because she seems depressed. She spends 12-14 hours in her room at a time on weekends, emerging on Sunday afternoon at 4 PM even though she went to bed at 10PM the night before. She eats lean cuisines at every meal, which is neither fun or nutritious. The worst part by far, is that I have made more friends here in 3 weeks than she has in three years. I’ve heard she does well in law school but to be frank, I can’t picture her ever succeeding as a lawyer with her awkward interpersonal skills. She does not know how to “read” people, or anticipate other people’s reactions. She lacks all sense of awareness of the world around her and has no common sense (which I heard is pretty integral to law school).

My roomate is very close with her sister who she refers to as a “little bit Aspy.” The proper way to say this would be that she has mild Asperger’s Syndrome. As someone who studies Psychology and Neuroscience, and has a sister who does suffer from a similar disorder, I find it offensive to refer to anyone, especially your own sister as “aspy.” If your sister really does have an Autism spectrum disorder, then say that, don’t joke about. And if she doesn’t, still don’t joke about it.

My roomate has recently been upset by the fact that the LSAT will not give her sister extended time to take the test, despite her “condition.” My roommate claims that her sister is intelligent but has difficulty transferring what she reads onto a piece of paper. While I think it is important to accommodate people with special needs from grammar school through college, I feel differently about some graduate school programs. Graduate school entrance exams are designed to see if you will excel in a particular field- they are not designed so that everyone can succeed. The point of a standardized test is that EVERYONE is taking the SAME test under the SAME conditions. Once we start giving people extra time or special accommodations, the test is devoid of standardization. My roomate’s sister should have to take the same LSAT as everyone else in the same amount of time. There isn’t going to be someone to help her transfer her thoughts on a law review journal when she is in law school, and more importantly, there isn’t going to be someone helping her when she is trying to make it as an associate after graduation. If this girl doesn’t do well on her LSATS, that doesn’t mean she won’t succeed in life- it just means she is not meant to be a lawyer. People are going to say this statement is offensive or prejudice against people with special needs but it’s not. It’s realistic. If you can’t get through one standardized test, how are you going to get through law school? What about the bar? What about working 12 hour days?

I know it is upsetting to realize that something is out of your reach- I have experienced it myself with the MCAT. I know that the MCAT is not a measure of my intelligence. The only thing the MCAT signifies is how well I did on that test. It will not determine how I succeed in the rest of my life. Unfortunately, it will determine whether I get into medical school or not. One of the most stressful things about taking the MCAT is the timing of the test. You have anywhere between 10-45 seconds to answer each question, which is a pretty short amount of time considering you have to read a passage as well. Once the MCAT becomes un-timed, it is a completely different test. You can not tell me that a score from someone who claims they have a learning disorder and requests extended time and takes the test in 8 hours, is really comparable to me taking the same test in 5 1/2 hours. There are so many additional factors at play such as the added stress level for someone taking it in regular time, the inability to eat during the time course, and the fact you are probably taking it in a different environment.

I don’t really believe that standardized tests tell us much, and as I mentioned before, they certainly don’t determine how successful you will be. All they measure is how well you have done on that test. Unfortunately, they are used by all graduate schools and in most cases it is to bring down the number of eligible applicants. Adding all types of special accommodations removes the whole concept of standardization and in my opinion makes the point of the test obsolete.

Another thing that drives my crazy is the division of race in standardized test scores. As a white person, I have been told by several pre-med advisers that I will not get into medical school with my MCAT scores. Even with a 3.8 GPA, my chances of getting into medical school are < 40% according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. However, if I were Hispanic my chances would increase to 72% and as an African American they would increase to 86%. Clearly my MCAT score can not be a real indicator of how I will do in medical school or what kind of doctor I will become if being born a different race means I am twice as likely to matriculate into medical school. Medical schools do not let students into their program if they aren’t 100% sure that they will succeed- it is too costly for the school financially. So at the end of the day, what is this really testing? Not much. It is just a sifter to easily sort through all of the medical school applicants. Schools know that they are throwing away good applicants that have low MCAT scores, but at the end of the day they have so many applicants that they are bound to find what they need among the high scorers.

Although it took me a long time to recognize, not doing stellar on the MCAT has been a blessing in disguise. It has allowed me to do some soul searching and discover what I am really passionate about, and what I excel in. I know I could have been a great doctor, but that’s not the point. I am trying to impress upon people that not every standardized test, and not every graduate school is for them. There are reasons why we take these tests, although they are not always fair, but we can use these experiences to our advantage instead of complaining the system isn’t fair. Life isn’t always fair and the sooner you face that, the better.

https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html

I believe that the reason we have the republican and democratic conventions is so that people can see what the different parties stand for. Except we have been listening to them talk for the last 9 months and I don’t know how many Democrats can stand to watch the RNC and vice versa.

I tried to watch the RNC, I really did but I honestly can’t watch the Republican National Convention anymore. I can’t watch Mitt Romney promise the American people that on his first day in office, he will repeal Obama Care even though he enacted a very similar system as Governor of Massachusetts.  I can’t listen to this bullshit anymore that the government can not demand us to get health insurance, yet they can control my vagina and force me to have a child I do not want. Rape is a form of conception now? I can not watch Hermain Cain say that Obama deserves only 51% of the credit for catching Osama bin Laden and that it was mostly due to plans George Bush allegedly enacted during his presidency that helped us track him down. George Bush had 8 years to find Osama. I can not watch Paul Ryan. Not now. Not ever.

Here are my favorite synopses from NOLA.com about the republican platform:

On Tax Reform:

“It says a Republican administration would extend the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, pending reform of the tax code. It says the party would strive to eliminate taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains altogether for lower- and middle-income taxpayers. It also would work to repeal the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax.”

Well that sounds really good. Except, how many low-income individuals do you know who are sitting on dividends and are struggling with their capital gains taxes? Only people with money have investments you shmucks. When people say they live pay check to pay check, the literally mean they do not have a dime to spare after they are done paying rent, buying food, and getting through the day. They don’t mean that they put away $10,000 and then have no spending cash.

On Defense:

“The platform says Republicans are “the party of peace through strength” and support the concept of American exceptionalism - “the conviction that our country holds a unique place and role in human history.” It criticizes the current administration for its weak positions toward such countries as North Korea, China and Iran and its reductions in military spending. The Republican national military strategy “restores as a principal objective the deterrence using the full spectrum of our military capabilities.”

Peace through strength? That’s beyond an oxy-moron and just plain moronic. And I would love to know how you want to fix the economy by cutting taxes and increasing our military defense spending. Where do you think money for our military defense budget comes from?!?!? If you want to know why we are in so much debt, please check here:

http://costofwar.com/

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/08/gop_approves_platform_banning.html

And my favorite…Education:

“Republicans support consumer choice, including home schooling, local innovations such as single-sex classes, full-day school hours and year-round schools. It says Republicans renew their call for replacing family planning programs for teens “with abstinence education which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and respected standard of behavior.”

Consumer choice?? You don’t have that much choice. You go to private school, religious school, public school, or you are home schooled. If you are poor, you go to public school. Period. Local innovations such as single-sex classes? Is that an innovation or a severe regression? Next stop, single race classes. Sure, why not? It’s much easier to teach a homogenous population. We have done a great disservice to our country with the deconstruction of our educational system. We have made decent education available to only those who live in good neighborhoods or can afford to send their children elsewhere. We have devalued the meaning of our educational system so far and have left our citizens with a weakened understanding of the world. Sometimes it seems as though this is what Republicans want. They want to keep people uneducated so the don’t have the cognitive skills to reason for themselves and see the real intent of the republican platform.

I want a Republican from a blue collar background to explain to me why they should have to home school their children while making ends meat

I lived in New Orleans for approximately two days before I had to evacuate due to Hurricane Isaac. As this was my first real hurricane, and my boyfriend had lived through Katrina, I decided to leave New Orleans on Monday afternoon before the storm hit and drive to Houston. Driving through Louisiana was beautiful- rich green and lush wetlands everywhere. I was bizarrely excited about my impromptu road trip, even though I was slightly worried about all of the clothes, furniture and knick knacks I had just spent two days filling my apartment with. Still, I carried with me a sense of freedom and adventure- this is why I came out here. I didn’t come to the south to flee hurricanes, but I came to be on my own and take care of my own life.

            I drove west on I-10 directly towards the sun, with the windows open and red hot chili peppers blasting. I really enjoyed the drive for about the first six hours. I stopped in several McDonald’s to fuel up on coffee and at one stop I began talking to another man waiting in line. He asked what I thought about Isaac and I told him that I was evacuating and that he should probably do the same. Louisiana had ordered mandatory evacuations of several parishes and voluntary evacuation of several others, noting that many residents weren’t taking these warnings seriously enough. It kind of baffled me that after the devastating effects of Katrina, that people would take these warnings so lightly. My new friend in line at McDonalds told me he was probably just going to go to his family’s house and cook some gator and turtle and hang out. I was slightly confused by his passiveness about the storm, but then again, maybe he had better skills to weather the damage than I have.

            As the girl behind the counter handed me my iced coffee, my new friend was shocked and said “they make cold coffee now? Is that a new thing on the market?” I gave him a puzzled look and was relieved that the server at McDonald’s was also kind of confused by his remark. “No sir, it’s been around for a long time,” she said.

            Now that I am safe in Houston, I still can’t help but think about how different we all are as Americans. I know that there is great diversity in this country but when I think of diversity, I think of NY. I think of a melting pot of every race, religion, ethnicity in the world. I grew up in Queens, the most ethnically diverse place in the world. But even with this great diversity, people in New York City tend to think alike. The south is a new kind of diversity, one that I am still trying to understand. I was born in the same country as these people, with the same government and allegedly the same opportunities, yet we could not be more different.

            In my quest to find myself and the right path for my life, I found myself driving 1,400 miles across country from New York to New Orleans. I drove straight south towards the heat, in terms of temperature and politics. It took six hours to drive through the tangled mess of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the rest of the North East, leaving everything behind that was familiar and moving towards a vast empire that was not.

            As I drove through the infinite space of Virginia and West Virginia, passing farm houses and pick-up trucks plastered with Romney 2012 stickers, it began to dawn on me that the current divide between Democrats and Republicans may be too large to reconcile. Part of this can be attributed to the bullshit propoganda enforced by both sides, yet on the other hand, the lives of people from the liberal, city-thriving coasts, could not be more different from middle America. In a way, it is becoming impossible for me to conceive that we can ever follow the same laws. How can someone who lives on a farm with 600 acres understand the problems that I face living in 600 square feet next to 20 million people? Sure, gun control isn’t a problem when you can fire your weapons anywhere you want and barely hit a tree. But it is a problem when someone starts shooting people in a movie theatre in Colorado, or on the street outside the Empire State Building. I don’t want crazy people having guns because I share the sidewalk with thousands of crazy people every day. I don’t just believe in gun control because it is the liberal thing to do. I believe in it because it is necessary. Do I think Obama wants to take away your guns in rural Virginia? Do I think he wants to stop you from hunting? No way, and I think its egocentric of people who even think that.

            My first overnight stop was in Roanoke Virginia. I knew someone who had gone to Roanoke College so I thought it would be a cute place to stay. As I drove down the main street in town, almost every store was either boarded up or for rent, with Romney posters in the window.  A group of drunk bums hung out on the street corner where I parked my car as I had dinner in one of the only two restaurants open in town. The whole situation made me uneasy. Not even because of the bums, but because in such an economically devastated wasteland, people honestly believe that Romney will be their savior. They have so quickly forgotten how we entered into this recession when our last republican president started two separate wars, lowered taxes for the wealthiest Americans, and allowed our banks to drag down our middle class. They dislike Obama because their lives are no better than they were four years ago, however, they have no understanding how hard it is to rebuild an economy once it has been destroyed. These people somehow believe that Romney will revive the economy by cutting their taxes and I want to know the rationale behind these thoughts. I want to sit down with these people and ask them point blank to explain the logical progression of how the economy will resolve itself under Romney’s care. After eating the most mediocre/borderline terrible reheated dinner I have ever had, I thought for a moment that the best thing Romney could do for this place would be to buy cooking lessons for these chefs so that people might actually want to eat at their restaurant.

            I really didn’t know what to expect on the next leg of my trip-Tennessee and Alabama are not states I know much about, and almost nothing within the last fifty years. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the charm of both Knoxville and Birmingham and in fact really impressed with Birmingham. As I scarfed down pulled pork at Jim n’ Nick’s BBQ, I read an article in a local paper on the history of Jim Crow laws and how segregation stifled the growth of the city. As I flipped through the next few pages, I stumbled upon ads for Alabama’s gay and lesbian film festival. Maybe it is naïve of me to think that a city that was once so backwards could not reshape itself and start to be progressive, but I have to say, it was the last thing I was expecting. Alabama’s gay and lesbian film festival? Really? In many ways, Birmingham, a city that is mentioned in every US history textbook as one of the most segregated, unequal places to live fifty years ago, has surpassed other cities in liberal states, in its thinking of the equality of citizens.

            As I continued my drive through the vast farmland of the deep south, I passed through Mississippi and finally Louisiana. Of the thirteen states I drove through to get to Louisiana, five of them, all located in the south, are among the top ten poorest states in America. While there are a lot of ways to define poverty in a state, such as unemployment rate, or percentage of the population living below the national poverty rate, there is no arguing that Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are some of the poorest states in our “great” nation. It’s hard for me to understand why these states, who seemingly need the government’s help the most, are all red states. In all of these states, like every other state, there is a select few who hold an inordinate amount of wealth.  It is understandable to me that these people might vote Republican, as the Republican party is there to defend them and ensure that they hold on to as much money as possible. I don’t agree with what they are doing, but I can at least understand the rationale. However, for the people in Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana who are either unemployed, or working several jobs that still don’t pay the bills, I can not fathom why they would support a party who wants to bring down every social program that is holding them up- Medicare, Medicaid, social security, unemployment and disability benefits, food stamps….the list goes on. The only answer that I can conceive, is that they are so poor, that if you tell them they will have $10 extra on their paycheck, they think that it will make their lives better. In reality, new tax laws will not significantly change how much they bring home each week, but what it will impact is their ability to receive food, housing and medical care.

            What I can not comprehend is how among the sea of jesus fish stickers and 30 foot crosses on the roadside, people who are so adamantly into religion seem to have lost the concept of supporting the greater community. I am disgusted with the level of selfishness sometimes in this country, with right-wingers slandering everything that Obama does as Socialism. Since when did caring for the welfare of our neighbors become such a deplorable act? Again, I can see why extremely wealthy people do not want to pay for the poor, but then they shouldn’t bother going to church for two hours on Sunday to cover up who they really are- just admit you’re a selfish asshole and move on.  The Swiss Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg had a theory that moral reasoning has six different developmental stages. In his theory, he postulated that each stage represented a new perspective that must be understood before a new stage can be reached. Stage 1 is completely egocentric and focuses only on the direct consequences for the individual. The second stage of moral reasoning, is all about self-interest and the motto “what is in it for me?”. There is limited focus on the needs of others. This level is normally attributed to children. This is where the majority of our country stands at the moment in my eyes. As a whole, we do not understand that by investing money in our schools we can create educated, innovative thinkers that will build the future of America and put us back to work. We do not understand the benefits of everyone having health insurance so that we can have a healthy workforce and live prosperous, healthy lives. We do not have the foresight to see that in the long run, investing in education and healthcare now will cost us less money in the long run than continually paying for our mistakes. Not only that- it is the right thing to do. This is America, the land of plenty. There is plenty to go around it just needs to be shared. We are not redistributing the wealth as the tea-party claims. We are making sure everyone can afford a place to live as well as food to eat. We are making sure no one dies because they can’t afford medical care. This is not a third world country. This is a first world country and we claim to be the best.

            I am not saying our government is perfect. Our government is ripe with corruption and wasteful spending, and I can understand how both Republicans and Democrats get disgruntled with the opposing parties as well as their own. I care a lot about politics and heated debates get me really fired up, but sometimes I just can’t listen to it anymore. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight for a strong federal government. Both democrats and republicans are guilty of pork- barrel politics and wasteful spending and that needs to be eliminated on both ends. At the end of the day, as dysfunctional as some of our government programs are, the poorest people in this country rely on government issued food stamps, government subsidized housing, medicaid, and emergency programs just to get by. Yes FEMA was a disaster, but if the federal government hadn’t stepped in, the victims of Hurricane Katrina wouldn’t have been living in trailers but would have been homeless on the street. When deciding who to vote for in the next three months, it is not necessarily helpful to think if your life is better off than it was four years ago, but instead to ask yourself what your life would be like if you didn’t have a government safety net. If Romney is elected, my life won’t change drastically aside from my general aggravation levels, but I am scared for the poor people of the red states that I encountered on my journey.

My five year college reunion is approaching. If you had asked me during college where I would be five years in the future, it would probably not be where I am now. I would have imagined that I would be in medical school, or in a PhD program, well on my way to becoming successful. Instead I feel that my life is at a standstill, and in that respect, I know I am not alone. People in their twenties at this point are supposed to be so happy that they have a job, that they aren’t supposed to complain about anything. Twenty-somethings are in a constant battle with the superiors at their companies across all industries. Managers know at this point they have so much leverage because there is such a high unemployment rate, that someone will come along and replace you if you ask for money. But I am here to say that not everyone is replaceable.

When I was hired at my job six months ago, I was hired way below market rate and was given a laundry list of the skills I didn’t yet have and a promise that we would renegotiate my salary after I had worked for three months. After three months, I had worked my butt off, and my manager loved me but when it came time to giving me the raise I deserved, she had a new list of skills I had to acquire. I left my three month evaluation frustrated because deep down I knew that they were going to continue to feed me empty promises of a raise unless I actually took action.

I know that if I threaten to quit my job unless I am compensated at an appropriate amount, that there is a solid chance the whole plan will backfire in my face. My company has an exceptionally high turnover rate with its staff and it is not afraid to fire people on a whim. However, I don’t want to work for a company that places such little value in its employees. Not everyone is replaceable. I am about to kick off three new projects simultaneously and I will use timing as my leverage against my company. There are definitely other people capable of doing my job, but that doesn’t mean I am completely replaceable. If they are smart, they will realize that, but if they’re not, it’s not a place I want to be working anyway.

I complain to my friends sometimes that I am frustrated about where I am in my life. One of my friends keeps telling me, “you’re doing great. you’ve always had a job since you graduated.” Maybe that should seem satisfying, but it doesn’t. I feel like I have to accept a salary that is way below me, along with all the shit that goes along with my job because we had a “recession” and other people have it worse. Personally, I don’t think I can do that. My first job after graduation was a “stepping stone” job, I told myself. It didn’t pay much but the benefits were great and I thought it would lead to great career options. On paper, I’ve been promoted several times, although when I switched companies I had to take a serious pay decrease, mostly due to the fact I had no leverage since they knew I was losing my previous job.

My worst fear is that us twenty-somethings will all become complacent. We will try so hard to get better jobs and continually be disappointed until we all give up. We will be a whole generation of stunted individuals with low self-esteem and sense of self-worth. We will be more self-destructing than we already are.  We aren’t being selfish, we are just trying to earn what we deserve.

One of the worst things about having a car in Manhattan is finding a place to park. Maybe other drivers are as neurotic as I am not when they look at cars parked on the street, but maybe not. I hate when there is too much space between cars, or when cars aren’t parked as close to a fire hydrant or crosswalk as they should be, because this is space that combined could equal an other spot. I often think of inventing a huge magnet that will allow me to drag cars together to conserve this space to make room for my car. Bad parking is a huge pet peeve of mine that can seriously cause anxiety if I don’t keep it under control.

The other day I found a spot on Park Avenue. As I pulled in to the spot, a doorman from the building in front of the spot starts shooing me away. Literally like I was a bug. A fly that was buzzing around his eye. I ignored him and proceeded to park my car. The doorman came up to me in his thick Russian accent and rudely asked me to move my car so that the entrance of the Park Avenue apartment was not blocked. Maybe if he had been nice about it, I would have moved a little bit. However, he was a prick. A snobby, entitled doorman who saw me as a mere peasant blocking the entrance to the royal court. I told him that my allegiance was with the drivers of NYC and that if I obliged his request and moved back, then no one could park behind me and a spot would be wasted. He asked how I would feel if someone parked in front of my building. I said that I lived three blocks away and people parked there all of the time and it really had no impact on my life. He looked puzzled that people weren’t confined to walking only in a straight line to get to the street. He  asked me with such intent how the occupants of his building were supposed to get to the street. I walked between my car and the car in front of me and merely said, they will walk with two feet like the rest of us. Then came the best line. Vladimir, or Borris or Alexander, or whatever other name this man had, touched the car in front of mine and looked at me with such disgust. “And what?” he said as spit flew out of his mouth, “they should touch the dirt on these cars and have to wipe it off themselves???”

Oh Vladimir, you blew any chance of me helping you. You are no better than the obnoxious people you work for. My pupils were dilating in disbelief. ” You’re not going to show me any respect?” he called.

As I got in my car and turned on the engine, Vladimir went inside, with a grin on his face, content that he had won. I moved my car backwards a few centimeters and grinned myself. I had given him about as much as he deserved.

The OWS movement parallels any civil rights movement. In the 1960’s and 70’s we fought for gender equality, racial equality, and sexual equality, and now in 2011, we are finally fighting for our economic equality. In the past, we could have attributed our economic inequality to the fact that we hadn’t yet achieved racial or gender equality (some argue that we still haven’t), but now we have to admit that the gap between rich and poor is a world-wide pervasive phenomenon unattributable to our race, gender, sexual identity. Like any civil rights movement, there is initial adversity to the movement. People don’t understand what the movement stands for and how protesting and rallying will change anything. While decades ago there seemed to be an overarching theme or message, today this movement is unlike the ones before because it stands for so many issues. I am not saying this is a bad thing, but it means the movement needs to be extremely organized and focused. The 1% are going to paint this movement as irrational, and down-play its importance by saying there is no clear-cut motive. But there is a motive, even if it has many facets, and that is something that scares the people in power. Fifty years ago it was absurd for an interracial couple to get married. This concept now seems outrageous and yet, same sex couples today are fighting to obtain the same basic rights. In the 60’s, blacks and whites lived in different neighborhoods, went to different schools, ate at different restaurants- the same way the rich and the poor in this country remain segregated to this day. It is amazing that we are still fighting for the same basic rights that we were fifty years ago- the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, something that was established for us well over 200 years ago.

It baffles me that people still don’t understand what the OWS movement stands for. I’m going to be honest- I think at this point if you don’t know what the movement stands for, you either don’t care to know or you are a Republican pretending not to know. Either way, I am going to give you my explanation using the story of my life to point out why we need this movement.

I grew up in NYC. I was lucky to live in one of the best school districts and I went to great public schools until i was 12. I went to one of the best high schools in the city and arguably, maybe even the country. I worked exceptionally hard in high school and college and I graduated from a top private liberal arts school with high honors. I began my first job four years ago as a Research Assistant at Weill Cornell Medical College. I am going to preface this story with admitting that I am exceptionally lucky and that my parents paid for my college education in full and I graduated with no loans (OWS message #1: The average US student graduates college with over $25,000 in loans. This is an enormous amount of debt to incur considering how much entry level jobs pay in the US. The cost-benefit ratio has completely disintegrated). Coming from college where I never had any of my own money, it is hard to comprehend what different salary levels meant. In college, I made $7 an hour as a peer tutor, so when I was offered $33,000 a year with benefits, it didn’t seem so bad. (OWS message #2: Most entry level jobs do NOT offer medical benefits, in which case it is impossible to afford them or even to apply to a plan as an individual. Mitt Romney supported mandatory health insurance for everyone in the state of Massachusetts, and now that he is running for president, he is singing a completely different tune. This is infuriating. Republicans insist that the US government is not capable of creating a viable healthcare system. Well, that’s ironic, since all members of Congress are part of a government run healthcare system which happens to be the best in the nation. And oh yea, they keep these benefits for LIFE).

I quickly learned that my salary did not amount to much at all, and that if I wanted to pursue a career in science, I would have to go back to school. After a year of working full- time, I started taking my pre-medical requirements.  I continued working 4 days a week while I was going to school, which brought my salary down to about $1700 a month after taxes. That wouldn’t be so bad in some other cities, but in NY, after paying $1100 for my half of a studio apartment, and $350 in transportation costs just to get to job, I wasn’t left with much. (OWS Message #3: Why was I paying over 1/3 of my salary in taxes, while CEOs and Wall Street brokers making millions were paying less than 20%. Seriously, How can you even justify that anymore? You don’t want to give up your millions, try living pay check to check. You want to know why people are mad at Wall Street- it is because of corporate greed. Yes, I realize every asshole company that pays their CEO whether they succeed or run their company into the ground isn’t on Wall Street, but Wall St. has become the symbol of greed because that is where it is prevalent in a sickly amount).

I am lucky that I had parents willing to pay for my books and some of my living costs when I went back to school,  but after they spent $160,000 to send me to college, I couldn’t bring myself to ask for their help. There were some weeks that I lived off of $11. Some months where I had $3 in my bank account by the end of the month. And other months where my boyfriend told me he couldn’t pay his half of the rent at all. I opened different credit cards to stagger my payments until I got paid again. I would split a turkey sandwich between lunch and dinner (thank god for Subway $5 footlongs) and would volunteer to  do different research studies- testing out new food, or mouthwash, just to pay my electric bill. I didn’t have TV. I mean I physically had one, but it didn’t have any channels. Having financial problems turned out to be more stressful than all of the scholarly, career, relationship, health related problems I had ever faced in my life combined. (OWS Message #4: Banks are out of control. The fact that Bank of America, Chase, TD and others were thinking of charging a monthly fee to have a checking account and use a debit card, is deplorable and outright disgusting. Banks don’t even offer interest rates, you basically keep your money there for free. I don’t really defend people with credit card debt, unless it is health related, but I don’t condone the way credit card companies screw people either. Sorry Wall St. but banks are directly related to you so you’re going to have to take the blame. )

At the end of last year, I got promoted and started making a decent salary where I could actually support myself. I finished up my pre-med classes, and I had finally reached a comfortable place. I thought that I would have a year to work full- time, and save up money so that I never had to live like I had for the past few years. Shortly after my promotion, my boss told me that Cornell was shutting down all of the research labs within our department, effective next June. For those of you who don’t know how research labs work, investigators work exceedingly hard to get government funded NIH grants. After Wall Street crashed our economy (and yes, they did crash our economy along with a few other giants, so don’t even try to dispute that) the first thing to be axed was any public grants going towards education, public health and research. (OWS Message #5: Opponents to the OWS movement criticize the protestors for not using their time to get jobs. Well, there are no jobs out there- you destroyed them all. We don’t make anything in this country anymore because it isn’t profitable. Our manufacturing industry is dead. Republicans don’t want to pay taxes to support government jobs in education, research, civil service, police and fire departments, healthcare, etc, etc. Where would you like people to work? And in addition, a lot of members of the OWS movement do have jobs and they go to these protests after working 8 hours. So while you call them lazy, they are actually twice as hard- working as you are).

When I got my termination letter from Weill Cornell Medical College, my reason for termination was stated as “lack of funding.” We regret to inform you bla bla bla. We are so sorry we can not continue your employment. bla bla. The same week I got my termination letter, Sanford Weill, chairman of the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College and an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University, put his NYC apartment on the market for $88 MILLION. Lack of funding my @$$. Who is this Sanford Weill you may ask? Former CEO of Citigroup, with a net worth of $1.8 BILLION. He is not free from his share of controversies in Wall Street and regardless of how much money he donates to good causes, no one person should ever have more money than the GNP of another country. (OWS Message #6: Members of the middle class continue to lose their jobs and struggle, even if they are highly educated people, while CEOs and bankers are making millions and billions of dollars at our expense. Do NOT forget that when the banks f$%*&ed up, America bailed you out. We emptied our pockets and gave you over $500 BILLION  (http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list) for screwing up. Where is our bailout??? We are constantly harassed for applying for unemployment. We are told we are lazy and didn’t work hard enough. Is that what we told you when you needed our money because your greed clouded your judgment and foresight?!?! Our government keeps threatening to take away our unemployment benefits, which ironically a greater percentage of our hard earned money contributed to than yours. Our government keeps threatening to end “wasteful, entitlement” programs like social security.  You don’t think getting billions of dollars in bailout money is a little over-entitled? Stop trying to take away benefits that we paid for). As far as I understand, Sanford Weill will hold a corner office at Citigroup until the day he dies. I am sure he left Citigroup from the top floor, with a helicopter and then jumped out with his golden parachute. I got a 3 week severance package and barely a goodbye. If you don’t understand why people are pissed off, you really have no soul.

To make matters worse, my mother lost her job two months earlier than I did, the same month she found out that she had cancer. This sounds like really bad luck; a rare occurrence. But it happened to my ex-boyfriend the same way, and it happens like this more often than you think. Murphy’s law. Again, I feel fortunate because my parents are not divorced and my father is still working, and we can afford to pay for my mother’s COBRA insurance which is almost $700/month (OWS Message #7: If my mom were single, and had no savings, she would probably spend the majority of her unemployment benefits just paying her COBRA. If she never had health insurance to start with, she would have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Over 50 MILLION people in this country are uninsured (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-17-uninsured17_ST_N.htm). Health complications are the #1 cause of credit card debt in the country and that needs to stop. Take away Congress’ health benefits until they can come to a resolution on how to help the other 300 million people in this country. See #2, 4).

My parents had a retirement account but you destroyed it. I had a college fund and you lost it. (OWS Message #8: YES YOU DID DETROY IT. The average Joe trusted you with his money and you blew it. You blame us for investing with you- What kind of logic is that? If you paid a doctor to heal you, and he messed up, you would sue them for malpractice. If you paid a plumber to fix your toilet and he flooded your house, not only would you not pay him, you’d ask for money for damages. Well, I paid you to grow my portfolio, and you lost half of it, and then still got a bonus. Not only do you not deserve to get paid, but I deserve to get paid for my damages, even if it comes out of your own pocket. The same way the rich got screwed by Bernie Madoff and wanted retribution, the “little people” are getting screwed by the 1% and want their share back).

I can keep going, and I might continue on another day. But for now I strongly urge all of those people who question the motives and significance of the OWS movement to think a little harder. Yes, sometimes the protests inconvenience our daily routine, but that is the point. The way we have been living has been inconveniencing millions of people on a regular basis and it is time to change that. It is time to stand up for our economic rights, our health rights, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness- the things we were promised a long, long time ago.

I am frankly disgusted by a recent article on CNN.com detailing the new 53% movement. I understand that the OWS movement stands for so many issues and ideas that is easy to disagree with their dogma at times. However, the intention of the OWS movement is to represent everyone in the 99% and stand in solidarity to enact change. I hate how everyone against the OWS movement pins protesters as lewd, dirty, lazy hippies who don’t want to get jobs. Sure some protesters are just tagging along for the ride, but others are graduates from Harvard and Yale and some of the most prestigious universities around the country. How do you respond to that?

I am appalled by Frank Decker, a figure-head of the 53%, who claims he once lived below the poverty line but that he didn’t struggle to “support lazy ass people who want nothing but government handouts.”  I can not believe his short-sightedness and lack of any sense of the greater good. Well Frank, I ask you this: While you were living below the poverty line, did you ever accept any charitable handouts? Maybe your family helped you out, or a local food bank, or maybe even the government.  When you were going back to school to earn a degree to support your family, did the government or schools give you any loans or  scholarships because you were financially disabled? My guess is that at some point you accepted help from someone. And just to be clear, you were in the 47% at that point in your life- the 47% that you now look down upon with disgust. You were part of that group that didn’t pay taxes and yet benefited from the work of others, including my parents. I am proud of you that you went back to school and earned a degree that you can support your family with. But you didn’t do it alone. Don’t forget that.

There comes a time in almost everybody’s life when they need help from someone. Some of us are fortunate to be born into rich families, but for the remaining 99% of us, we need to rely on each other. We struggle at different times- different phases in life and different economic waves. We struggle for different reasons. There are always going to be people who don’t want to work and are in fact lazy and benefiting from our social services. But we live in a society where we have to give people the benefit of the doubt and help those who are truly in need. You shouldn’t be angry that 47% of our population doesn’t pay taxes- I am positive that they would much prefer paying taxes to the destitute lifestyle in which they currently live. You should be OUTRAGED however, that the top 1% of this country controls the majority of the wealth, political power, banking industry, and most importantly, all of our futures. You should be sickened by the fact that every time you get paid, you give out over 33% of your paycheck to the government, while top earners pay about half of that percentage wise. You should be fuming that the 1% received billion dollar bailouts when they f@%*ked this economy, not that people who worked hard their whole lives receive meager unemployment benefits. You have every right to be mad Frank, but I urge you to think long, hard, and most importantly, rationally, about who your anger should be directed at. Maybe you don’t agree with everything the 99% stand for, but for the most part, whether you want to admit it or not, they do in fact stand for you.