Charlie the Central Park Carriage Horse & Occupy Wall Street
“A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel” (Proverbs 12:10).
“There is a touch of divinity even in brutes, and a special halo about a horse, that should forever exempt him from indignities.” – Herman Melville
You may wonder what comparison could possibly be made between one Central Park Carriage Horse named Charlie and Occupy Wall Street but in his own simply way Charlie symbolizes many horses and people forced to work under strenuous stressful circumstances. However unlike poor unfortunate Charlie people have the ability to speak out against forced corporate slavery.
Charlie, a 15 year old draft horse died while on his way to work in Central Park October 23rd. Findings from a subsequent necropsy showed that Charlie suffered from stomach ulcers and a fractured tooth. Charlie had no voice. He could not call in sick, nor was he given the proper veterinary care that could have prevented his suffering and death. Most of us who are blessed with a job do have sick days so we can call out, see a doctor and have our medical needs taken care of. Charlie had no such choice. Day after day no matter if it was 100 degrees outside or below zero Charlie was forced to work while in extreme pain.
New York’s esteemed Mayor Bigbucks showed little empathy for Charlie’s long term suffering and death. “Like everyone, eventually they die.” “Some die on the streets.”
Damn.
Very little feeling for the hardworking horses who endured pulling fat, greasy, well fed rich tourists and visitors around Central Park, the 1% who could well have afforded to give Charlie an opportunity to live out his senior years on a farm, running free, sheltered in a warm barn with regular vet check-ups, but no like Mayor Bigbucks there is little sympathy for Charlie.
How does Charlie’s sad end relate to we humans, well many equally hardworking New Yorkers do not have sick days. Please support and sign the petition to pass the Pass the NYC Paid Sick Time Act. Please go to the following link and add your name and voice for the 99% who work hard every day yet are fear losing their jobs if they take a day off sick from work to care for themselves or their children. Stop the indentured servitude and the return to the sweatshops of the 19th Century. Thank you.
http://signon.org/sign/pass-the-nyc-paid-sick?source=s.fwd&r_by=239048
Charlie you are one of us. Rest in Peace my Equine Friend.
Luke 19:13
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
Occupy not merely to possess but to Improve the lives around you. Please support the Occupy Movement.
I’ve been following the Occupy Wall Street since it started several weeks ago. How fitting that the movement should have begun in New York, the Financial capital of the world. Many dismiss the occupiers as grungy, lazy college kids with no cohesive message but even with many individual messages the overall message is restitution and recovery for the 99% who were not bailed out by Washington. These are young people who upon college graduation will be saddled with overwhelming student loan debt and no decent jobs with which to even make a dent in that debt. They join with the ranks of others who have lost jobs, homes, are drowning in various types of debt, etc….
Occupy Wall Street is truly a grassroots movement of the common man unlike the Tea Part who represent the 1%. In the last four years the twisted biased media has vilified the working man, unions and any other means the average person in this country has used as a pathway to success. The newspapers and TV news takes the extravagances’ of a few top earning overtime union kings and queens and make that the norm for all union members. I like most union members represent the 99% who work ridiculous amounts of overtime not for the fancy mansion on the hill but to support my family, pay household expenses and maybe take a short fun vacation trip, however I’ve yet to experience the last option.
Occupy Wall Street is akin to the movie Spartacus where the slaves rose up in rebellion against their masters. Well the wage slaves have had enough, as Peter Finch’s character Howard Beale says in the movie Network, we’re as mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore. It’s either fight back or see our lives and the future lives of our children swallowed up by the greedy 21st century robber barons. For those who say the very rich or corporate leaders are the ones who create jobs you are partially correct in that estimation. The jobs they create all get shipped overseas where these corporate giants use the fact that there are no labor laws or unions in foreign countries to continue their own unique form of wage slavery. Why pay an American ten dollars an hour plus benefits when you can pay some poor native of Southeast Asia or South America one dollar an hour or less and not have to conform or answer to any human rights rules or violations.
As people of faith we are to occupy not just by sitting on our butts in our respective houses of worship but to participate, to use our gifts, talents and abilities to improve the lives of those around us, to speak for those who have no voice. So my friends Occupy until our Lord returns. Occupy so that we may give an account of excellence for the least of these for the Master.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/30-0
The Parable of the rich man and Lazarus (also called the Dives and Lazarus or Lazarus and Dives) is a well known parable of Jesus which appears in one of the Four Gospels of the New Testament.
According to Gospel of Luke (Luke 16:19–31), the parable tells of the relationship, in life and in death, between an unnamed rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. The traditional “name” Dives, is not in fact a name but the word for “rich man”,[1] dives, in the text of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate.[2] The rich man was also given the names Neuēs (i.e. Nineveh[3]) and Fineas (i.e. Phineas[4]) in the third and fourth centuries.[1]
Hoovervilles
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1642.html
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 