Subways and Protesters

New York Part 1

New York is so intriguing I’m splitting it into a 2 part series.  First, let me say my friend Deanna is the hostess with the mostest.  She was the ultimate tour guide, friend, story teller and chauffer. 

Friday-  Deanna came and picked me up from Club Applebee’s. She came in-laughed her famous ah-ha laugh and said “Only in New York- we have got to get out of here” (see the previous post).  With that, we walked a couple blocks to a little swanky African café and ordered a bottle of Chardonnay.  

There are certain friends that you have that you may not see for years, but you spend 5 minutes catching up and it feels like you just had lunch with them yesterday.  Deanna is one of those friends. 

So half way through the first glass, we were caught up on major life events including jobs and travel (kid and husband for me- string of hot men for her). So we are done our bottle of wine and a couple appetizers and I ask her if she has her phone on vibrate because about every 10-15 minutes the table shakes a bit.  “No, that‘s  the subway” .  Yep- I’m a bumpkin.

So afterwards we take the subway about 25 minutes to her apartment.  It’s a cool area that is in the process of “turning”.  It has a lot of green space and young people.  NY is a cool place with a ton of diversity, activities, bands, shopping and food.

Saturday we went on a walking tour of the city that included crafts in Chelsea, the farmers’ market, Soho, the Strand, China Town and a bunch of other neighborhoods.  By evening, we ended up at the Wall Street protest.  It was electrifying, depressing, inspirational and frustrating all wrapped into one.  There were people shouting, preaching, singing, drumming, sleeping, and watching everywhere.    I’m proud of people there wanting to be heard.  We all know something has to change and apathy is definitely not going to fix it.  But the frustration is… no one knows how to fix this mess we are in and it seems too big. 

But the key points of frustration from the protest were:

1)      Our government is corrupt and protects the rich.

2)      Corporations are greedy.

Honestly, those 2 points are nothing new but the feeling is that it is the government and corporate greed that got us into this economic mess and only the common person is paying the price.I’m really not a political person. The negativity wears on me but it’s irresponsible to be apathetic and ignore it. But that is exactly what I have been doing.

So here are the solutions for me.  You can disagree but I encourage you to figure out your own actions.

1)       Support a 3^rd party.  If you are a strong Republican or Democrat this sounds like hooey.  But ask yourself if your party is trying harder to do the right thing or support the party line.

2)      Buy stocks and products only from companies I deem ethical.   I don’t believe that laws should drive CEO compensation, the market should.  I am part of the market and I vote with my money.

3)      Buy local when possible.  I’d rather my money go to small businesses and my community than Walmart.  Now nobody I know is making toilet paper and if I find someone,  I don’t know if I’d buy it. So there has to be exceptions to this rule.

 I didn’t want to write about anything negative or too serious in my blog.  But being a wanderlust is about discovery and this was a little about political and self discovery for me. And of course after this experience, Deanna and I kicked back at an Irish pub with a burger and beer.  Whew.

Part II- Back to the Happy Place with some hot sheep shearing men!