What I think about the Occupy Wall Streeters

I've waited several months, content to watch and learn as much as I could about the latest group to capture national attention: Occupy Wall Street. I've watched the news reports on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC. Sometimes, I must admit, I have felt like I was living in three different worlds, the one Fox News portrays, the one the other liberal networks choose to show, and the world I actually live in.

Here are my thoughts about the people who make up Occupy Wall Street. Some are sincere, some are just lost souls, some are professional agitators. But the truth is, none of them know exactly what they are demonstrating against.

They say they can't find jobs.

I suspect that's been true of most of our generations. I know when I graduated from high school in 1963, jobs were really hard to come by. I looked for work from June of 1963 until March of 1964, when through the efforts of an older sibling, I was lucky enough to finally get a job with a little bit of a future.

Times were tough for my family, nine kids, a dad who worked two and three jobs, a mom who stayed home to raise the kids. We grew up in the projects. Dad died when I was in 10th grade, leaving Mom to face the responsibility of providing for me and my 10 and 13 year old brothers. She only had an 8th grade education, but we survived.

They complain about the huge amount of their student loans.

College wasn't even a thought, but when my younger brothers got old enough and wanted to go, my older brother and I found a way to help them. I didn't start college until I was 29, and I did it working full time, and taking out student loans.

Yeah, it took a long time to pay them back, but that was just the luck of the draw. Sometimes, a person has to decide if something is worth sacrificing for.If you want it bad enough you will lose sleep, skip a few meals, and sacrifice any way you have to in order to achieve your goal.

They say the middle class is being destroyed and the wealthy are getting wealthier.

Well, maybe so. It took me a long time to make it to middle class. Funny thing, all of my siblings finally made it there too. None of us are rich, but most of us are doing ok. In fact, most of us are now retired and living the good life. But we don't begrudge the rich their wealth. It doesn't matter how they got their wealth - it's theirs not ours.

They say capitalism doesn't work.

They don't know what they are talking about. It works better than any other system the world has come up with. We have seen first hand what other systems are like - remember communist Russia - Nazi Germany? I'm not willing to throw away capitalism because of a few rotten eggs.

But in the end, I don't think the Occupiers have any idea about what they want. They just really want to make noise. Where are their solutions? What do they stand for?