February 4th, 2010
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…when you have worked for 15 years trying to make a decent living for your family while running your own business and then have someone slap you in the face with it. Let me explain where I am coming from.
A friend of mine was telling me about this web site of a person who takes pictures for people. I won’t call him a photographer because I think that gives him to much validity and here is why. This is a direct quote from his web site:
This is a family and friends hobby! We strive to do the best job at the lowest cost to you. We have found that most professional photographers charge large amounts of money to do something that is very in expensive. The money is not what we are about!! The small amount of profit we make goes to better equipment so we can improve the quality of our photos for you.
After researching this “company”, I can find no business listing for them which means this “hobby” probably has no business license, does not collect and pay sales tax, does not pay yearly personal property taxes on every piece of equipment they own for the business, does not pay income tax on the money they make from this endeavor, and the list goes on and on and on.
Being a small business is hard work and it comes with lots of expenses that most people do not have a clue about and that is OK. But to insult a group of people in an industry who are just trying to get by, is wrong and in this case, it is quite likely illegal.
I know that many people reading this will think that I am being overly sensitive on this topic, but this one just seemed to be the straw that broke the camels back and I just needed to get it off my chest. Thanks for listening!
January 25th, 2010
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If you will notice, I did not ask “Are you prejudice?” in the title of this post. I want to know what it is that you are prejudice about. I will share a couple of the ones that I have come to realize that I have. Please don’t condemn me for them. I guarantee you have some too if you will just be honest with yourself.
OK, here goes.
I was just became aware that I am prejudice based on national pride. I just saw an article about the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in Beirut and was saddened to hear it. However, when I read the article, I was thankful that there were no Americans on board. Why would that matter to me unless I was prejudice? Chances are I would not know any of the Americans either had they been on board.
I can also be a theological snob. I sometimes have found myself feeling superior to other Christians because I feel like I have a better grasp of Christianity than they do. I have been a Christian for over thirty years, but that does not make me a better Christian than someone who has been one for a shorter period of time. Maybe it makes me a worse one because I obviously still have issues. My struggles have just become different than the ones faced by most new Christians. Does God love those younger Christians, or atheists for that matter, less than he loves me? Definitely not! If you don’t believe me, go read your Bible. He loves us all.
I have gained enough life experience, at 44 years of age, to realize that I do not know it all as I once believed when I was 22 years old. However, there is still a long way to go. So, that brings me back to my original question. What is your prejudice?
January 12th, 2010
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So, I am standing at the local grocery store and I make a humorous comment (at least I thought so) about global warming, since it was below freezing outside and has been record cold here lately. The cashier made the comment back to me that Global Warming is not the biggest lie we have been told lately. I agreed with her and she continued, “Let’s just say that I never dreamed of being 40 years old and working here”. I agreed again and remarked that it is also really difficult to be a self-employed small business owner with all of the taxes involved etc. We were just joking around, even though it was all true.
On my drive back home it hit me that most Americans really are not living “The American Dream”. In fact, I believe that the Dream has become distorted, with the average American thinking it is about fame and fortune, rather than what our Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
I really think that most of us would be very content with just being able to work at a job we enjoy and earn a decent living for ourselves while supporting our families, living free to pursue our religious beliefs, education, and personal happiness. Maybe we just need to get back to the basics. Maybe then my newly found cashier friend could do something else that made her feel happy rather than working at a job she does not like just to make ends meet. Maybe it is just a dream.
