Rant #618: It's Over

Two things ended yesterday.

At least for all intents and purposes they ended yesterday.

First, the Wall Street marchers who have camped out at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park have been removed, some forcibly, by police.

The park needs to be cleaned, and more importantly, the owners of businesses in the area, as well as area residents, have had it up to here with the debris, noise, and let's be honest about it, the vermin that have been attracted to this form of disobedience.

I really think most Americans supported the marchers, and other similar events across the country, when they first started out. People were finally getting together to try to alert those in power that they were aware of what was going on and weren't going to take it anymore.

However, over the past weeks, the marchers really have become nothing but squatters. They don't really have any focus anymore, with many factions breaking away from the original intent of those gathering at these events.

It's really flash mobs gone awry. Every freak in the area of these marches have been drawn to them, and reports of rape and other violent acts have become the norm.

They made their point; now it is time to move on.

Then we have a group at the other end of the equation, those making money like they had their own machines printing legal tender.

The National Basketball Association lockout has reached its apex, or nadir, depending on where you stand with the issue, and it appears the season just may be lost because millionaires can't agree with billionaires on how to split a multi-billion-dollar pie.

They haggled back and forth for weeks, but the players have rejected the last offer by the league in a 50/50 split of basketball revenues.

The players have threatened to decertify their union, and the players, in turn, will probably sue the league for anti-trust violations.

In times when the recession is eating away at about 98 percent of us, how can the players--and the owners--justify this game they are playing, one which doesn't involved a bouncing ball or a hoop?

They are as out of touch with what is going on, what the original Wall Street protesters were yelling about, as any group of people could be.

The other thing that links these two "ends" is that at this point in time, does anybody really care about what happens to either group?

Sure, I am sure there is more sympathy for the Wall Street protesters, but I think their welcome has worn thin.

How anybody can support either the owners or the players in the NBA dispute is beyond me.

Quite frankly, I am turned off by both "ends."

I think it is time to move on.

I think the protesters should investigate some more concrete means to get their points across. They are all over the place as far as the issues, and from where I sit, it looks more like a circus than a protest.

The NBA players and owners should look at what is happening in this country and the world, and they should kiss the ground that they are who they are.

It is time to move on. It really is.