Editor, OBSERVER:
I wanted to take the time to recognize a most wonderful lady that I met while standing in line at Subway in Fredonia Walmart.
We started a conversation in which I learned that she lost her husband three years earlier to cancer.
The loss came quickly, five weeks after diagnosis - and only eight weeks after losing her Mom.
While talking to her she said to me "appreciate your husband, you miss the little things they do when they are gone." This made really stop and realize exactly what Thanksgiving is about. Not about the Black Friday bargains, but what we truly should be thankful in this season.
Meeting a wonderful person like this lady was truly a blessing, and it reminds me that there are good people in this world.
Let's be kind to one another during this holiday season and appreciate the time we have to share with those we love.
God bless you, kind lady.
CHERYL CROWELL,
Westfield
Wall St. protest lacks punch
Editor, OBSERVER:
After sitting back and taking it all in, I must say this Occupy Wall Street movement has failed to deliver a meaningful message and has turned into my generation simply whining.
The original message, as I understood it, was to send a message to Wall Street that we're no longer going to stand by as we get laid off and you rake in profits because of crony capitalism. Not such a bad message, right? Well I happen to agree with the core of that and most Americans should too. Unfortunately, as quickly as it started, the message dwindled down to an anti-capitalism and entitlement movement.
It is truly disheartening to hear people of all ages, mostly my young generation, making statements that it's time to end capitalism, simply forgive everyone's debt, and just about any concept that is exactly the opposite of America, capitalism, and democracy.
You cannot graduate from college and expect a vice president position without having to get your feet wet for a few years. You cannot expect the government to simply make things happen, our system wasn't intended for that, it won't be free and painless and it won't work without a systematic change. That change will come with a cost and it will be negative.
The cost will likely be your freedoms, all of them, including the very speech that allows you to attack the system that afforded you life and the freedoms you're exercising. (Notice the circular connection and run on? That's intentional.) It's simply disingenuous and it's not acceptable.
At the end of the day, Occupy Wall Street has failed to bring anything to the table to force real change. If you're for going to bed with the politicians, then you ought to be occupying their streets as well. Both parties and Wall Street are going to bed together at the expense of our blood, sweat and tears. The only difference is that the politicians are supposed to be representing us as a whole, not special interest. They're mainly to blame.
NICHOLAS TUCCIO,
Jamestown
