Today, I experienced an awe inspiring thing.

[Leftist Agitator]

I am a graduate student at West Virginia University. For those who may remember my previous posts, I am a late-deafened individual who was pursuing an MBA (which I received in August... Hooray!), and am currently pursuing a Masters in Industrial and Labor Relations. I managed to find a wonderful otolaryngologist and audiologist who were able to work with me and provide a solution for my impediment, namely, a highly specialized hearing aid that makes the most of my residual hearing, and enables me to follow auditory dialogue, with the aid of lip reading. I have never been more thankful for the restoration of my hearing than I was tonight.

Tonight, I attended a presentation delivered by the Dean of The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, Ms. Christine Poon. Her presentation was quite good. At one point, she mentioned that the Occupy Wall Street protestors lacked a coherent message, that they were unsure of what they collectively wanted. As I was silently fuming in the crowd, one of my classmates immediately shot his hand into the air, where it remained through several questions. When she addressed him, he said (all of the following is paraphrased, and thank God I was sitting right next to him, or I never would have been able to keep up),

"What the individuals at Occupy Wall Street are protesting is an economic order in which 1% of the population controls a disproportionate share of the wealth. Thirty years ago, the upper echelon, the top 1% controlled 9% of the wealth. Now, that figure is almost 25%. For 30 years, the average American, the 99%, have seen their incomes stagnate, after you adjust for inflation. What the Occupy Wall Street protestors are protesting against is a system that rewards the wealthiest while ignoring the rest of society. Another aspect of this economic injustice concerns the fact that in our current system, (and I remember this almost verbatim) there is an almost incestuous alliance of the wealthy and our politicians, and the only voice that matters is money. Politicians are seduced by the promise of campaign contributions, and when the rich have bought everything that they need, the only thing left to buy is the government."

Keep in mind, that this crowd was comprised of business students. MBA candidates, MS-ILR (like me), Marketing, Accounting, etc.

He received a raucous round of applause that I was proud to participate in.

P.S. To her credit, Ms. Poon said, "I agree with much of what you said." Just pointing out that she recognized the legitimacy of his argument.

P.P.S. Christine Poon was a seemingly very pleasant person. Granted, my brief encounter with her is hardly a viable basis for forming a judgment, but she seemed very sincere, especially with respect to my classmate's grievances.

[Electric Monk]

1. I think you'll love this cartoon

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2133776

[Warpy]

2. Wow, you got your hearing back just in time

because that was really worth hearing. I love when people articulate this stuff so clearly.

(I just got my eyes back, at least to 20/30 with glasses, so I know how big a deal it is to get something back)

[Leftist Agitator]

3. I went through more than 1/2 of my MBA program...

With no hearing. I learned to lip read pretty quickly as a result. :)

I am a very lucky person in that I was able to get such excellent care without health insurance. As it turns out, sudden loss of hearing is eligible for charity care at my local University Hospital. I have a bill to keep paying off for my hardware, but it's totally worth it IMO.

Congrats on getting your vision back!

:hi:

[aquart]

7. Congrats to both of you!

May all your senses keep getting better.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Thanks for sharing that

:-)

And good on you

[TygrBright]

5. Ms Poon is part of the 99%, too.

Many of the Oligarchs' helots, flunkies, shills, and enablers are. We look at someone with a Mercedes in the driveway and a Jag convertible in the garage, and a McMansion and a 30-ft boat and think they're part of "them" rather than us... but they're not.

The kind of wealth and power that our Beloved Oligarchs command is as far beyond the gated communities and fancy cars as they are beyond a migrant harvester's camp.

There are a great many of the 99% still engaged in the process of perpetuating the old top-down, kleptapitalist political and economic models. They make a good living at it, they believe in it, it benefits them (to a point.) They haven't yet been thrown under the bus and they are confident that the smash will not engulf them and their children. Well... sort of confident.

"Ordinary" wealth is problematic in a number of ways, yet it is also constructive and necessary within reason. We cannot make mere "ordinary" wealth the enemy. That is part of the divide and conquer tactic that our Beloved Oligarchs have successfully employed for the last three decades. Holding out the "hope" that you can achieve such wealth (assuming the skeery brown people and welfare loafers don't stand in your way,) and the fear that "when" you do, the eebil gummint will confiscate your hard-earned lottery winnings has distracted far too many of us.

Fortunately, we're starting to wise up.

I know many "ordinary" wealthy people. Some are assholes. Some are extremely decent, caring human beings. Most are somewhere in between-- they have their asshole moments and their moments of transcendence. Some are happy-- oddly, most aren't. I don't know a large enough sample to generalize but my guess is that the unhappiness comes with the realization that wealth doesn't buy a loving family and caring neighbors and a simple life and time to look at the moon.

One percent of 300 million people is three million people. Even that is too large a number. Our Beloved Oligarchs are probably less than 300,000 people altogether. Ms Poon isn't one of them. She's one of us.

Sounds like she's starting to realize it, too. Great story, and thanks for sharing it.

Our hope must be that we can offer the Ms Poons of America the opportunity to see hope and a new future for their children and grandchildren, and a chance to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.

appreciatively,
Bright

[LuckyLib]

9. This is very well said. And needs to be an original post to get wider viewing.

Thank you!

[iris27]

6. Awesome!

I remember reading your posts from the day after you woke up late, having gone overnight from left-sided deafness to both sides. I'm glad that you were able to find such good doctors to work with you. And what a great thing to hear from your fellow student (and the support from other students)! To see that so many business-inclined folks "get it" is heartening!

[Leftist Agitator]

8. I was lucky.

I have wonderful doctors, one of whom gives me free care, with respect to his payment. He's my oto, and he's great. Though I have the sneaking suspicion that he's so awesome because he wants to write an article on me for the NEJM. :P

Seriously though, Doc, if you're reading this, you rule.

:)

And to be fair, I only went to B-School because a Masters in a Liberal Arts discipline doesn't provide many opportunities for good jobs. Such is life, I suppose. But it flabbergasted me to hear the future "titans of industry" respond as they did.

There is a lot of resentment out there, business inclination or otherwise.

[klook]

10. Fantastic post.

Glad you are making good use of your revivified ears, and thanks much for this report.

As an aside, for some reason I got involved in a hypothetical discussion the other day about whether it would be worse to lose my sight or my hearing. I said, without hesitation, that if I were faced with such a horrendous choice, I'd choose to keep my hearing and lose my sight, because I love music and sound so much. But I also love photography and other visual arts, not to mention movies, sunsets, the changing faces of my loved ones, and a million other sights. So I'm hoping I get to keep on being lucky on both fronts.

I have a very high admiration for audiologists and otolaryngologists, and have sometimes thought that audiology would have been (or might someday be) a good career path for me. Your inspirational story is another argument in favor. I really appreciate your sharing it with us.