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Aaron Schmidt seemed to have disappeared. The University of South Dakota freshman wasn't responding to emails or cellphone messages, and his family hadn't heard from him in days. It wasn't until police were called that a clue turned up: a credit card purchase for a bus ticket to New York City.
Turns out, the 18-year-old had boarded a bus in eastern Nebraska — a mere $40 in his pocket — with plans to join Occupy Wall Street protesters in the city where the movement began. His father and uncle flew to New York from their homes in Wisconsin, and began handing out fliers with his photo to protesters.
Schmidt eventually responded to a relative's text message, two days after his parents reported him missing to campus police, and he met up with his father and uncle in New York.
Schmidt said he didn't think he needed to let anyone know about his plan to take the more than 1,200-mile trip, and he didn't foresee it being such a big problem. He had taken part in small Occupy Wall Street protests in Omaha, Neb., and South Dakota, but he wanted to see what it was like in the heart of the movement.
"I wanted to learn more about it. It's hard to know exactly what's going on with something until you experience it yourself. It's hard to judge something from afar from reading things simply online," said Schmidt, who had never been to New York before the trip.
He slept on cardboard in Zuccotti Park for two nights because he didn't have a sleeping bag, and he munched on food distributed by other protesters.
'Kind of a weird deal'
Family members had a hunch he might be at the Occupy camp in the park, where anti-Wall Street demonstrators have centered their activities, after his parents scoured his credit card bill and found the bus ticket purchase. His relatives have long known that he was a passionate advocate for what he saw as the world's injustices — but they certainly weren't prepared for his New York trip.
His uncle, Al Boelter, said he wasn't angry with his nephew but worried about his safety in a new city with so little money.
"I said Aaron, it's cool to go around the world, but you just can't take off and not tell a soul," Boelter recalls telling Schmidt when they reconnected. "It's kind of a weird deal. I'm just glad it's over."
Schmidt said his time in New York and at the encampment was "fun" and "interesting," though he said the park was smaller than he expected. The protesters had many views, he said, although he doesn't think that hurts the cause.
"That's a problem for having a unifying voice, but I don't think it's really a problem for the movement because everyone is there for the same fundamental reasons. It's just everyone wants something different out of it," he said.
Schmidt, who is unsure if he'll return to school and has returned to his hometown of Waunakee, Wis., said he will continue to take part in issues he finds important. He is currently volunteering to gather signatures to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The Republican is being targeted largely because of a GOP-backed law he helped pushed through that strips most public employees of their collective bargaining rights.
"If I don't participate, I'm basically accepting whatever happens. I can't complain," he said. "If I participate and try to do something and the end doesn't fit me, I can complain. I can say I went out there and I tried."
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Good for him to care about a cause. He should have told his parents though, young people don't think about how hard it is on their parents who love them so much.
I don't need an article like this cluttering the news line. Who cares.... happens all the time. Tell me about what good kids are doing for the country, What the cost of the McCain wars are. P/S 3.4 trillion. Write about stopping the Bush tax cuts for 3.9 savings..trillion from the defecit
This story reminds me of the account from late October about a NJ dad who dropped his twin 14 year old girls off at Occupy Wall Street one afternoon, after they harassed him for days. I wonder if he ever got them back.
I guess he went back to living in his parent's basement(:
Hahahaha.... Caring about a cause... What cause? End capitalism? Punish the employed for having jobs and not suffering?
It's a bunch of unshowered scum complaining about having to pay back debt and/or their own poor decision-making in regards to choosing a major.
Frankly, I'm amazed this piece of garbage was even missed.
I'm actually quite delighted that this 'movement' is still alive... It almost ensures that none of their so called concerns are never taken seriously.
I'd volunteer the use of my swimming pool to them for the purposes of ritual suicide, but something tells me that they won't be subsidizing the cleaning bill.
Hey self-made,
Don't you follow anything but MSNBC? Haven't you seen that a big majority of the OWS protesters are veterans?
Do you really hate your country's Constitution? Do you really hate the people who fought and died for our rights? You are un-American. All you can do is complain and call those who are concerned for our future 'unshowered scum.' I hope one of those Vets sticks you stupid head in your pool three times and pulls it out twice.
Go back to your home in Afghanistan or Iraq, or China, or North Korea, or wherever you come from where you obviously don't believe in the American Constitution. You are no good. You are a Communist. You believe that all the power and money should go to the rich and powerful who control this country. The only reason you are still able to move around freely and post this tripe is because of two groups: Those who protest when they feel things are not going right, and those who fight and die to protect those in the first group.
Go lie down! Bad troll!
This is for Dave - who has a fetish for basements - Dave if it's good enough for Mitt Romney voting from his son's unfinished basement, I guess basements are good enough for everyone
"...everyone is there for the same fundamental reasons. It's just everyone wants something different out of it." ??? Translation, please? The guy sounds more than a little confused. But then, I guess that's true of most of the OWSers.
GAdude,
It does not take much brain power to "translate" what he said. Fundamentally they are all there because Wall Street is slowly sending us into another Great Depression or worse. Income disparity is reaching the same levels it was at before the GD began. The reason why you can link the two is that once the lower classes have no more money to spend and the rich stop spending their money as well the economy rolls over and dies.
We are heading straight for it, yet again, at record speed and no one in the upper echelons of society seems to want to stop the crazy train from rolling, no offense to Ozzy.
This is what they are there for, because the people in a position to fix this mess are not only doing nothing, they are speeding up the process. That selfish attitude is why these people are protesting, they want to see the rich contribute to this economy.
Before you start off on charities, did you know charitable donations are a tax deduction? In a sense the rich can get back that money they gave away through deductions.
Right now the rich are contributing around (pause for BS figure) 5% to the economy. They are not creating jobs, they are not spending their money, they are not expanding their businesses. What they are doing is laying off workers, cutting salaries, sending jobs to China, Mexico, and India, and contracting their businesses through mergers and sell offs.
Any business not hiring, not spending money, not expanding to jump start the economy is part of the problem. Any business sending jobs off shores complaining about high pay requirements or regulations is part of the problem. Any investor short selling and playing the markets are the problem. Nearly all banks are a defacto part of the problem, and a very large chunk as well. People using credit cards to buy more then they can afford are part of the problem. Finally, our do nothing Congress is a huge part of the problem.
The only right answer is to take a risk, hire new employees, and expand your business while giving raises. You not only put more people to work, you give them more money that they can use to pay off debts or to spend into the economy. If businesses changed their motto to 'responsibility before profit' we would not be here, right now in this position.
We would not be doing too great but we would be much better off because we would at least have a healthy work force and the 2008 bubble burst may have been smaller, or not happened because banks would not have immorally and willfully bundled their craptastic loans as triple A's.
No kid, it's no big deal. You're a freshman in college, probably being paid for by your parents. You decide to leave college and go to New York and don't think it's no big deal if you don't tell anyone? Sounds like you're pretty much a self centered brat. Every week college students vanish without a trace, and most of their bodies are eventually found somewhere. Thank God mommy and daddy gave you a debit card or credit card so at least they could use your capitalist tendencies to track you down.
Add in the fact that the government let those big oil industries rob us blind through the futures markets. Big oil business individuals who's reserves are only limited by the capacity of their hard drives and their oil refineries are their cpu processors and their barrels of oil are the stocks they buy and sell several hundreds of times a day to other big oil companies such as themselves and yet the governments around the country and the world are sitting back and letting these damn criminals destroy all of our economies. If the damn politicians aren't going to listen and do something about these oil speculators and every other criminal just like them that are destroying our countries then yes, the OWS are doing exactly the right thing. If it isn't stopped it will come down to the conservatives cocked and loaded and taking aim so better the pressure is put on big business and the politicians this way first.
This young man is doing the right thing. someday it will be a person that thinks like this 18 year old that will eventually fill the government and big business criminals offices and I will feel much more inspired to read they started out the way this young man is rather than the big companies spoiled brats that is being taught theivery is the way to go forward.
Geowil
"Any business not hiring, not spending money, not expanding to jump start the economy is part of the problem. Any business sending jobs off shores complaining about high pay requirements or regulations is part of the problem".
Are you serious? Unless a business is running at full capacity with the employees it already has, it's usually foolish to add more employees. If a business has idle capacity and wants to hire one person at $50,000 the business has to generate enough new revenue to cover that person and the associated costs and maintain at least the same profit.
Almost any smart business man would not expand in this economic climate, because of the uncertainty in DC. No one knows what the idiot in the White house is going to do next. Is he going to raise taxes? If so where? What new regulations are going to effect the business? The EPA is going to shut down some coal burning power plants, how much will that increase energy costs? A business can not go blindly and expand, they need to stick with their business plan, so when the time comes to expand because demand increases, they can go to a bank and show them sound business practices.
It is going to get worse before it gets better, but we can speed it up by putting someone in the White house who knows what their doing.
You're absolutely correct. It's what we were saying in 2007 when the republicans took unemployment from 3.4% and drove it up to 7.6% and left office with a 10.64 trillion dollar deficit and then to find out afterwards that they hadn't even figured in the costs of their wars. We said then that things were only going to get worse as most of us knew the conservatives would fight anything the democrats tried to do tooth and nail as they actually had the balls to tell the nation they had no intentions of doing anything to help the economy other than to destroy the President and his administration for four solid years. They told us themselves that they intended to make things worse and they have.
Johnny,
That is why I prefaced that with "take a risk". Risk taking is the only way we are going to get through this and we might fail. Accepting that we might fail but doing what we have to anyway is what we need to do, not pussy foot around it until it is too late to do anything to stop a larger crash from occurring.
The businesses that are too afraid to lose because we live in uncertain times are not contributing to fixing the problem and are not offsetting those that are shrinking, thereby making the problem worse. The only way to grow the economy is to hire more workers. That is the only one, true, surefire way without spending a dime in the Government to grow the economy. Problem is that most business are ball-less and even if a CEO had the balls to take a chance their shareholders would probably fire that CEO.
The American way is about taking a risk and making it payoff, not waiting for someone to hand you your success.
Mikela the democrats took the senate and the house in 2006 and took office in 2007 and claimed they fixed everything...Barney Frank was on CNBC not even 60 days prior to the crash claiming Freddie and Fanny were well......
Please knock it off with the Constitution garbage. The majority of the OWSer's don't know jack shti about the Constitution. The Constitution doesn't give you the right to "occupy" anything; it doesn't give you the right to block off sidewalks, roads, bridges, or ports. The Constitution doesn't give you the right to interupt others freespeech. Many of the things we hear from OWS bitching about are PROTECTED by the Constitution.
The Constitution isn't something you bitch and whine about when it suits you and completely ignore when it doesn't.
David conservacrat
The reason the democrats took the house in 2006 was simply because america had found out it had been lied to in order to start a war which in turn led to a 400% increase in gas prices which in turn led to businesses failing not just across the country but around the world because of the cost of transportation and then hikes in everything domestic to pass the cost onto the consumers but because businesses could no longer afford to operate, people lost their jobs and homes. It was either pay another 300-500$ a month more in gas to get to work and back or pay the mortgage. Can't pay the mortgage if you're pumping all your income into your gas tanks thus the economy pitted and unemployment rose to 7.6% and was already rising fast even before the democrats took the three houses.
Did anyone else notice, when he went home, he moved on to other protests instead of continuing to support the OWS?
mikela- Do you realize that even though gas prices have jumped up considerably in the U.S. Gas prices have been very high in Europe and Asia for more than twenty years. The U.S. is still the second country for lowest price of gas, with Mexico having the lowest.
Sorry Kevin but in the nations that aren't following america's example of just drilling and capping and putting on the futures markets, their gas prices in their countries are somewhere around 15cents a gallon. Besides, for speculators to tell me that I should feel lucky they only upped the prices 400% at my expense and I should feel lucky because of it... well those are the criminals that were doing it to the other countries to begin with and got away with it all these years. To cripple the nation and tell us we should feel fortunate... this is what the people are now beginning to uprise against as it seems our politicians are also trying to brain wash us into believing the very samething. I just don't buy it.
Ummmmm? Second country out of the three in N America??? If you're talking worldwide...not so much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_usage_and_pricing#Typical_gasoline_prices_around_the_world
Uhh, yeah. Your BS is far worse than Kevin's. There is only one country that has gas in the 15 cents a gallon range, Venezuela. All of the countries with low gas prices, including the US, have low prices because fuel is subsidized, some times heavily, such as Venezuela, in those countries. Like wise most countries with high fuel prices have high associated taxes.
People bitch and whine about speculators when gas prices are high, but when they're low it's also due in large part to the speculators. Don't hear much bitching then do we?
You speculators don't deserve a voice. You should simply do what you do best and that is steal off us in silence.
You need to be outlawed and taken out of the oil industry completely. You do not belong there period.
Saudi Arabia - .91$ a gallon
Kuwait - .78$ a gallon
Egypt - .65$ a gallon
Nigeria - .38$ a gallon
Venezuela - .12$ a gallon.
Just to name a few and I would also point out that unlike the oil that is drilled off our shores and never sold in this nation but instead is capped forever to be placed onto the futures markets for price fixing reasons entirely, those nations that are actually producing also have the lowest domestic prices in the world to their own people.
If you do not own a tanker, do not own a refinery and have absolutely nothing to do with the oil businesses other than buying and selling shares in order to drive up prices and force people to crumble around you while you profit off their miseries, then you do not belong in the oil business period.
mikela and Backcountry 164- Back country wikipedia is wrong. You should actually do some research and find a more reliable source.
money/cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/
Mike the gas prices in the countries drilling the oil is that low, my apologies, but since the environmentalists fight to keep drilling off our land we have to rely on other countries to provide it to us. That's not the Republicans fault as you earlier insinuated. There is no drilling off our shores because of environmentalists.
They have however began drilling in North Dakota, but it will be awhile before we will see a change in prices. It's not going to happen overnight.
Mikela you have revisionist history, the democrats including BOTH Clinton's Al Gore hell even Kerry all talked about taking out Sudam for quite a while. You are also busting your own gas story, those countries who have gas so cheap produce it while those countries who need it but do not produce it redistribute their money purchasing the fuel. It is just another form of wealth redistribution....
The United States is sitting upon the third and probably even the biggest oil reserves in the world. I keep hearing the uninformed saying we should be doing more drilling and that would drive down prices and that this administration is what is holding it up. That is all a line of crap! The speculators used the war to drive up prices by buying and selling amongst themselves. A barrel of oil went from being sold 10-14 times a day to being bought and sold hundreds of times a day and all by the same buyers and sellers. This country has been selling leases offshore to companies from other nations and not one of them were used to produce anything more than profits once they had been drilled and then capped.
We do not need to drill another well for many years to come. We simply need to take those wells and start producing from them and take them off the futures markets. Just like the people of the other nations believe, I also believe these wells belong to the people of this nation and any profit made from them after being refined in this country should be dispursed to the people of this country and used to pay for healthcare and deficit reductions.
Take the speculators out of the market completely and put our own citizens to work producing and refining our oil for our own country use and let the world fight over the rogue nations oil. Their profits are mainly used to arm and train the very terrorists we are constantly at war with anyways.
Did you not read my post or do you not understand what a subsidy is? Gas prices are low in these countries BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENTS SUBSIDIZE THE INDUSTRY. Do you really believe that gas can be refined for 12 friggin cents a gallon even if the oil was free? Durrrr. Either you're clueless or you are intentionally spewing BS rhetoric. Either way you've completely discredited yourself.
Actually Kevin I did do some research and came across the article you mention however did not use it because it states quite clearly that the prices were updated in 2005. Did you miss that little fact or do you believe gas prices 7 friggin years ago are still relevant today? At least wikipedia has more recent figures, some even from this year.
Either way your claim of "second lowest" is BS even according to the link you provided
I guess they have taken the speculators out of their own domestic market just the very same way we should be doing it here as well. Like I said, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what has been happening here and around the globe with the damn speculators. OMG! Iraq is gonna nuke us! Up gas a buck a gallon. Oh no! A hurricane might hit our non producing platforms that are drilling and capping! Up the prices another .25$ - .75$ a gallon! It's a holiday weekend! Up it another .75$ a gallon!
I guess you didn't read mine when I said to take the speculators that have no interest other than driving up prices out of the market and do exactly what the rest of the rogue nations that are producing do and that is to take all these capped wells and start producing for our own country and not give any oil corporation the rights to the well. Drill for the people, by the people. Produce for the people by the people and refine for the people and by the people period. Not a drop to go onto the open market period.
You guess??? Really??? You're going to rant and rave about speculators using info that you guess is correct? Well guess again. Oil is traded on the global market. Any impact speculators have on the price of gas here in the US is exactly the same as they have in every other country in the world.
The price of gas is 12 cents a gallon in Venezuela because the government pays for 90% of its cost whereas most countries in the world tax gas using it as a revenue source-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/low-gas-prices-plague-venezuela-2011-03-16
Speculators are boogie men being used to con you into believing we need to spend more money on green energy. Like I said, when prices are high everyone bitches, but when gas was a buck and a half a gallon in the beginning of '09 no one was bitching. Why was the price of gas so low then mikela? That's right, speculation drove the price down. Works both ways. You want to stabilize the market? Let's elect a President that isn't clueless about the economy and one who won't make the speculators nervous Nellie's.
Two problems- 1, the government can't to jack shti without spending twice as much money as they should. If you think nationalizing the oil industry here in the US is going to lower prices you're crazy. Crony capitalism will take over and the buddies of which ever party is in power will rake in a ton of money. Think Solendra.
2- We can't produce enough oil to cover our current needs. Not even close. What do you think is going to happen when we tell the rest of the world we're not sharing our oil? You don't think there's going to be retaliation? You think those other countries are going to sell us the oil we need to make up the shortfall? Prices here in the US would go through the roof as supply falls well short of demand
You blow a lot of hot air but until you get a clue how things work in the real world it will be nothing more than that- hot air.
He should be handed the bill for all the hours the police put into tracking him down because of his selfish, self centered actions not to inform anyone about where he was going. The police have better things to do than waste time tracking down some teenager who exhibits very poor judgement. It is one thing to care about issues, but there is also a thing called personal responsibility that this kid has apparently not been taught by his parents.
I don't think the police put much time in...His family went to NYC, his family handed out flyers...not the police. It isn't even clear if the police actually checked the credit card statement, or if they suggested the parents do that...it says the parents scrutinized the statement and discovered the charge for the bus ticket.
Yes, he should have told his parents where he was going, out of courtesy, and out of love. But he is over 18, and he is at a point in life where he doesn't have to tell anyone.
He is a gee willicors kind of dumb kid from WI . what do you expect out of cheese heads? You are right he should get the bill and then he will understand all about how the economy works.lol
He really needs to go back to school so he doesn't wind being a democrat !
He is (OWS) one of Obama's Witless Idiots. He isn't responsible for anything or to anyone. Protest on young one. You are well on your way to being a Rainbow Family member.
Of course. Everybody should let the police know everything they plan to do. Unless, of course, you are a rich Republican and the US Constitution protects you.
Surely you aren't serious. Are you all from Alabama where a police state is in force right now.
You got it vfabo Vote for anybody but Obama bin laden
Why should he be handed a bill? He's a grown man, and doesn't need to let anyone know anything. What are you some sort of overprotective parent?
What's with you guys, do you only think about "how much something (anything) costs"? Is that the only thing that's important to you in this world?
Bad Bob.amazing you think only Republicans are rich.Brainwashed much?????
Why? He's 18 years old, an adult. He was under no legal obligation to check in with anybody, much less the police.
MarineDoc, when Daddy is footing the bill for his college and all of his expenses, then he has an obligation to let his parents know. He OBVIOUSLY is NOT a grown man or he'd respect his Dad more than that! This brat is very self-centered. Even if he's paying his way for everything, he should have some decency about him. I have a feeling that Dad has had nothing but problems with this total brat!!!
JG,
Why do all of the stupid arguments start off with something about "the bill". He's grown man, and can do what the hell he wants. Period. End of story.
When you talk about "footing the bill" and expect offspring who are of age to check in every 15 seconds about their whereabouts you end up with an idiot son like McQueary who couldn't make a decision without asking daddy first.
I'm trying to raise a man. What are you doing?
you people just love to judge a young person following there dreams!! u are all dead at heart with no vision...bunch of phucking blind sheep..this kid will end up being a great leader one day..unlike the rest of u followers and hypocrites! !the only thing he is missing is a sense of responsibility, but when did any of u morons have that at that age?
SInce when are we required to check in when we decide to go somewhere? We are slaves to noone's paranoia.
I didn't see anywhere in that article that his parents were "footing the bill" for his college.
Didn't this knucklehead get the memo? OWS died two weeks ago.
He's a legal adult and the article doesn't say anything about him being on parole or probation, therefore he is not under any obligation to tell anyone in his family his whereabouts or check in with them in any way. It's as simple as that. It doesn't matter if his dad was paying for his tuition or living expenses (something the article does not explicitly state), and it doesn't matter if the police DID get involved, in the limited way that they did (as far as the article states, all the police did was help ID his credit card purchase of a bus ticket). He wasn't breaking any laws. His family are the ones who flew out there, distributed fliers, etc., and he did eventually answer his phone -- the police don't appear to have done any search and rescue, used any helicopters, or done anything else outside the ordinary day-to-day scope of their job. What is he supposed to be paying them back for? For doing the job they are paid to do every day?
This young man has done what many more should do - He has sstated if he did not try something he had given up his right to compalin.
This is what I tell my friends about voting - if you do ot vote you give up you right to complain.
He might be an adult but he is probably still dependant upon his parents to support him while he is in school. If you noticed they had the credit card bill that revealed that he had bought a bus ticket to NYC.
I've always taken the position with my kids that as long as I am supporting them regardless of their age, they follow my rules. If they want to live their own life by their own rules, then they can pay rent, buy groceries, pay taxes and utilities. If you want to be an adult in my household, you pay your own way.
Then of course there is what any decent person would do and is tell their family where they are going. Most parents actually give a damn about their children's welware and would be worried about them if they came up missing.
Gee, John,
You must have wonderful children. They will never do anything wrong with your kind of upbringing. Tell me... do you use the buckle end of the belt when you whip them for downloading songs on the computer, or just the leather end?
That's how the world turns against parents when Junior reaches 18 - all responsibility and no authority. He should have called; then again I don't recall the Army checking with my folks before stuffing me in a cattle trailer.
The police wasted time at their own peril - the family had a grounded hunch.
You know jeffybigpoop, I have never used corporal punishment on any child, ever. I never had to. If they didn't do what they were supposed to do, they lost privileges. Such as having friends over or going out on the weekends. I know that is really hard to wrap you brain around. That parents can be parents without beating kids to death but it's true.
There's an idea that you have to earn your way in life, you aren't entitled. I know it is an ancient and archaic idea that is so "last century" but that is the way the real world is. No one owes you anything. You have to get out there and earn it.
John - when my daughter was eighteen she came home with a seventeen year old girl who had been abused by her father, my daughter on her own went to court, became her guardian, while this young lady was waiting to turn eighteen because she had enlisted in the Navy
I did not know about it until her friend and my daughter arrived - fed and clothed and gave this young lady pocket money for six months
Very proud of my daughter - I raised my children right I guess
Yes this young man should have made a phone call - but possibly he was concerned of being talked out of his decision - sounds like a good family
You are correct when you say he is of age and has no legal obligation to notify anyone, he does have a moral obligation to let those that love him know where he is going. The fact that he doesn't feel the need to let family nor friends know where he's going is most troubling. This isn't like he was going out with friends for a drink, staying out all night or just being an 18 year old, this is just leaving on a 1400 mile trip with out the decency to tell anyone.
You can say all you want about him being a man, but being a man carries responsibility.
I like the irony of this kid using a credit card to fund his way to a protest against those capitalist pigs on Wall Street.
Thank you jrl-281852 for saying it so well. Of course he doesn't have to tell anyone anything but if he truly was mature he would at least say he was going on a trip so his family would not worry.
'He's under no obligation, waaaahhhhh' or Bad Bob's 'So you're saying he needs to check in with the police?'.....sorry, folks, checking in with your parents so they won't pursue their parental responsibility to actually make sure that their child isn't dead or hurt somewhere isn't endorsing a police state......and anyone who falls back on that argument is the kind of clown the OWS was designed to attract.......what do you wanna bet the credit card receipts were easy to track down because they came to the parents house in their NAME? He obviously didn't work....nobody said his job was missing him.....and apparently he doesn't take his college classes too seriously......just another spoiled kid who is ashamed of the fact that his parents actually worked hard enough to provide him an education...OH THE HUMANITY!
Marine doc. Re your post 2.10. The kid is legally emancipated. Whether he is grown up remains to be seen. However, just taking off from Wisconsin (I believe) for New York without telling anybody (remember: this is during the mid-terms of the fall semester.) does not make me think he is very mature; otherwise he'd have had the foresight to let somebody know he was going bye-bye, where, and for about how long. Who knows, maybe he'd have left a contact - asuming he had one. No, he doesn't impress me with his maturity. Emancipated or not, he still exhibits a remarkable lack of maturiy.
I'm glad you're trying to raise a man. I hope he's a lot more mature than this kid.
This in no way reinforces my belief that OWS protesters are a bunch of dou$#y brats.
.
My question is this: 'Did this young man (not sure the term man is the correct term) really pass the entrance exam to get into colllege?' He is 18 years old going on 12!
OnTheRoad - There are 18 year olds that act like 12 and then there are 18 year olds that act like 30
Mozart wrote his first Concerto between 6 and 10 - Napolean was a General at 26
We used to kid my oldest son at 16 - that he had the brain patterns of a 50 year old - worked out fine for him
My grandfather used to say "Thank god we're all different lest we be bored with each other".
Barbara: re your post 5.1: Both Mozart and Napoleon were geniuses, certifiably so. Look at the majority of Mozart's manuscripts. They were clean - no erasures, and few - if any - corrections. He composed the music in his head. He then edited it, re-worked it, and then re-edited it, as often as he felt necessary, before putting the finished music onto the page.
Thank you for that quotation from your grandfather; there's a whole lot of wisdom there. With your kind permission, I'd like to use/quote his expresion.
Glad he cares about his cause, but here is a good example of the short sighted and self centered attitudes of many of the people who have been the voice of this movement. Here is an idea....grow up and start acting like adults!
Then you haven't been listening to the voices very well...they span quite a range of ages, educational levels, economic levels. And yes, he should have told his family...but what he is doing is a big part of growing up, an important part of growing up. Additionally, a lot of the OWS movement is about things that will impact him as he moves through adulthood, and he understands that if he doesn't make an effort to shape his environment, he has to accept whatever others determine the parameters will be.
But the voices of the movement are many, and if you are going to criticize, which is your right, you should try to get it right. While a lot of the press has focused on some of the student protests, the groups that are converging are much broader than that. Like me...over 60, employed in a professional position, not quite the 1% by most measures, but pretty close, top tax bracket, certainly, graduate degree, parent, married to the same person for over 40 years. Corporations are NOT people, unregulated greed in the financial industry (as the most recent visible culprits) is tearing our way of life apart, money is not speech...
Should stick to something he is good at like tipping cows.
Wow. I would think standing up for what he believes in IS growing up. It is his parents who have a problem.
I have to answer this. Yes, he is doing a wonderful thing. Yes, he is growing up. No, his parents do not have a problem other than loving their child. When someone you love disappears from the face of the earth, you worry and try to find out what happened to them.
terriels, I hope that some day you love someone enough to worry if or when they disappear from your life. Good luck with your future, and I hope your parents finally tell you that they love and care about you. You obviously need a hug from somebody.
An Iowa Native - I see, adults pin tea bags to their $2.99 straw hat - wear trifoil hats and parade around toting sidearms - sounds pretty adult to me
@ JS in SD. Somehow I doubt this is the only 18 year old out there that has exhibited poor judgement, but you chose to get on here and talk crap anyway so it makes you feel better. At 18 I was in the military and on my way to Europe. I agree with UrbnPrsn's post. What would you have him do? Have mom and dad pay his way? So then you can complain about him having them pay? It's Saturday night, get off the couch and do something besides troll news sites.
Why hello pot! How goes the trolling of news sites tonight? You must have a hot date with rosey palm this fine Saturday nite.
If his parents are paying for any part of the college tuition or sending him money they should stop without notification. After all if he doesn't have the common courtesy to inform his parents he's going to NYC then they don't have to notify him of their plans to withhold financial assistance. He should get the full Occupy experience and have no funds to get to NYC like the $40 to purchase a bus ticket.
I am sure if his parents want any advice on how to raise a socially responsible kid they will call you straight away. I hope you haven't reproduced, you sound like a swell parent, bleating the same tune that has this kid's future all fubar'd up in the first place.
And whether his parents are (or are not) paying his tuition is absolutely none of your business. how they choose to spend their money, what the do or do not ask in return, how they choose to communicate with their child...is none of your business.
Hey Dad, time to stop paying for his college, his credit card and all the other expenses he incurs. If your son is NOT polite enough to tell you about a 1,200 mile trip and he left with $40. to go to NYC where sandwiches can be $10., then he's NOT very bright! OK if he wants to 'occupy' whatever, but he would not be 'occupying' my house any longer. Dad, he has NO respect for you......you don't owe him a dime!
He is probably a steelers fan. lol
Who says dad is paying? Maybe that is why he didn't think to notify them? Many kids these days pay their own way...
Thank you KG - that was my thought exactly.
JG, I guess you missed the BOA commercial where the dad of a silly coed checks her bank balance online finding $40 and exclaims "Uh Oh...better drop some money in her account." THe silly coed checks the balance at the same time exclaiming "WOOOHOOO!! $40 in the bank!! Let's go SHOPPING!!"
JG,
When I was a young Lance Corporal and had 30 days leave, I packed my ALICE pack, bought a Eurail pass, bought a discount a flight ticket from my dad who worked for American Airlines, grabbed my address book (no email, Facebook, cellphones, back then) and $200 in cash and flew to the first European destination leaving San Francisco--Frankfurt, Germany. I never paid for a hotel or youth hostel, I never slept outside. I never went without a meal. I learned to speak to people, make friends, trust and learned to think quickly. I visited 8 countries and stayed 4-weeks. Came home with $25 in my pocket.
Just because you cannot imagine learning to survive in that environment doesn't mean that it can't be done. It's sad that people want their kids to grow up, live, get married and die within 25 miles of their home, and see other countries merely as vacation spots and their citizens as resort employees.
What happens when we raise a generation of useless offspring dependent on their parents for every move?
@JS in SD - I doubt there was much money spent by the Police Department. Their "clue" was the credit card bill showing the bus ticket purchase. That clue was found by the boy's parents and given to the police. Then the boy's father and uncle went to NYC and found the him by handing out flyers. Yep, lots of police dollars and man hours spent on this case .....
Last time I checked, adults dont call their parents every time they decide to do something.This is the problem with instant gratification technology.When I was 18 we didn't have cell phones and computers. My parents trusted me and knew I could take care of myself.
Wow I like this guy. He is 18 and actually participates instead of complaining. He's independent and didn't feel he needed to tell others where he was going. What is so wrong about that? Not everyone needs to be standing in the toilet paper isle on a cell phone asking someone else what brand of paper to buy to wipe their ass. No one had to call the police. No one had to look for him. Maybe if more parents quit holding their kids hands and let them grow and experience, and think on their own we would all be better off. Besides the parents said they kind of thought that was were he was. It actually sounds like the parents did a good job on this kid. Now all they have to do is nudge him out of nest and let him finish muturing and live his life on his terms. Good job
Maybe you can hit him back on FB or something. Take it slow.
The police in NY are stretched pretty thin these days. They shouldn't have had to spend one minute on this self-absorbed kid. He should have to pay for his family's plane fare and apologize for the trouble he caused. Instead of worrying about the government workers, he should spend some time worrying about the panic his parents went through. Since he's so happy sleeping on cardboard in the streets, that's where his parents should make him sleep from now on.
If the mayor wasn't trying to protect his rich buddies the police could stay home. There is never any trouble until the police show up anyway.
Correct Keith if people would stop calling the police maybe there wouldn't be so many of them...My ideaology is mostly to the left and I have never called those piggies for anything...I can take care of myself unlike these GOP fools who run and call the cops when they can't back up their big racist mouths...And the 1%'s who need help holding their purse strings....HA
That has always been true for me. Danger was only seconds away and the police were across town.
sw philly, my but you and your sister keith are just a couple keyboard internet bad azzes! LMAO your both pushies, here is some tissue for when your finished squatting.
Sorry whuck - we didn't know any dick suckin cops would be reading these posts, most of you can't read
keith your having "those" fantasies about going to Penn State again?
whuck and Keith-1952, you are both suspended for a week for violating rule # 1 of the Code of Honor.
If a missing person shows up at an OWS rally, they're still a missing person. Either way, they're lost...
If a person beleives what Fox news tells them they are lost.....He was trying to find out for himself unlike the people who let Hannity tell them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha!
Good one!
@sw philly uh Hannity isnt news he is a conservative commentator. the REAL fox news tells BOTH sides unlike CNN and MSNBC who only shows one. need to get a clue...you arent as smart as you think you are.
Todd Edler - Obviously you haven't read the latest findings - only 16% of Faux News watchers know the truth of what's going on in the news. Obviously you represent the other 84%
Barb You are full of it. I watch both Fox and MSNBC and they both have slants on stories, but what I do find is that there are stories that I see on Fox that are nowhere to be found on MSNBC.
By the way where is your source, and what is the truth?
He wants to recall the Republican Governor in Wisconsin so he;s a Democrat.He is another perfect example of why Democrats had to invent Affirmative Action so their Democratic voters could get into college.
You would need some kind of special " Action" to get into college..
Affirmative action helped me; I am female, and in the 1960s and 1970s, women didn't become accountants. At the University I entered in the late 1960s as a freshman, only one woman got a degree in accounting that year. I am also a Democrat. Of course, my 680 on the SAT and my scores of over 700 on both sections of GMAT didn't hurt. and by the way...I am pretty close to the 1% at this point in my life. I am gainfully employed in a professional position, and helped my spouse start a business that now employs over 100 people.
Corporations are not people, money is not speech. The poorly unregulated financial services industry is just the most recent example of how unregulated greed has torn at the foundations of all that I hold dear in this country.
@I.M. Curious,
You mean rather than the old traditional conservative way...nepotism?
KG in Midwest, I'm glad you experienced affirmative action and have benefited from it. I didn't because I started college in the late 50's. My sweetheart of a husband and great teenage son encouraged me to fulfill my dream in my 30's. I got my engineering degree because they were willing to keep the household running while I attended classes and did homework. I, too, am with the OWS.
KG and jean - thank you for all you did in the 70's by joining the work force. Women in the work force saved the lives of millions of men. Before women were common in Construction we were expected to do work that was beyond the capacity of the human body and to risk our lives daily in order to have a job. I am not sure what else you accomplished as women but I know you made the workplace safer.
@kg in the midwest...im glad you succeeded. One thing you left out of your comments however, who is in charge of regulating the financial industry? the federal gov't. thats who...dont have a problem with the protesters. just think they are occupying the wrong street. Should be in D.C. where the problems all originated from. Both sides are equally guilty and wont (cant) change anything until they put partisan politics aside and start working for the people. going to take a mass firing at election time to get them to change.
Oh get a grip. This kid rather wanted to experience, than sit on his butt at home in one of these chats bitching. I love it. He didn't ask anyone to look for him. Sure he could have left a note telling his parents what direction he was headed and a general idea of when he would return. Not every one feels the need to share the color and size of their bowl movement to any one that will listen. I sense alot of envy out there in the expressed hostility.
Sort of like that kid that flew to Baghdad without telling his parents.
He wasn't missing afterall; he knew where he was all along!
Good for him. We need more will to fight for what they believe in instead of hiding on chat and watching TV all day.
The selfish little twit could have informed the people who love him more than life itself...and yes it is selfish...it was all about him and what he wanted to do.
I'm all for protesting but a 10 second call to his family would have saved them heartache.
I can not imagine what his parents went through not knowing what happened to their son.
The article said they had an inkling he had gone to OWS. Yes, he should have told them, out of courtesy and love. But maybe he didn't because he wanted to avoid a scene...or pressure to do things "their" way instead of his way.
Really why the hell is this news and why do YOU PEOPLE respond ... Who the hell cares. Write an article about what kids are doing to help themselves or the country. Writer an article about the cost of the McCain wars.. 3.8 trillion. Write an article about not renewing the Bush tax cuts to save 3.9 trillion from future defecits!
I wish the Basketball thing would not have been settled! Who can afford or wants to go see people bitching after they are making 10 20 50 100 million a year!
What this kid pulled was insensitive and showed a somewhat youthful lack of concern for his family but the bottom line is that he broke no laws and just acted like the inexperienced young man that he is. One poster here stated that he should be made to reimburse the police for their investigation costs. What a crock that is. If this was Nazi Germany then I could understand needing to report his movements to the gestapo. "Let me check your papers"..."we have ways of dealing with people like you"
We seem to have evolved into two polar opposite camps in this country. The ultra liberal everything free for everybody freaks and the quasi conservative do it my way or else morons.
I really like this kid..... His passion is what this country needs more of....
PS, He should have told Mom and Dad what's up though...
What you call 'passion', I would call 'naivete'.
Typical lack of responsibility from a Progressive
vv
I think that the Republican Party will loose the Congress..House next year. Their candidates just loosers. My ..Bachman..Tina Fey better! Cain lost! Perry hunting with Cheney on the Bush farm. Has a very brilliant coat.! Cheney has requested all to wear lights! Newt just crooked. Remember the censure!
Please learn ENGLISH then post.
Super:
You nutty! Very Strange! I think you have loosed your mind!