Letters: LI debates Wall Street protests

Regarding the letter writer who said that the Occupy Wall Street protesters are college kids with loans they don't want to pay back, is this person paying attention to what is going on in this country ["Wall Street and protesters' messages," Oct. 10]?

My daughter graduated college four years ago and had trouble finding a job in her field. She decided to go to graduate school, thinking that maybe the economy would improve by the time she graduated. Well she graduated this past May and was not even able to land one job interview. She is in debt for $70,000.

At the moment, she is in Peru (paying for it out of her own pocket), teaching English and learning Spanish in the hope that when she returns she will have a better chance at landing a job.

Give these kids a chance to pay back their student loans and they won't be marching down on Wall Street.

Pat Rydberg, Huntington
 

I feel that it is time an adult spoke up. There are many well-meaning people who feel that they are helping the protesters with moral and material support. However, what they are doing by prolonging the "occupation" is in effect facilitating child abuse. The protesters believe that they are engaged in a noble cause and that somehow this diffuse demonstration lacking a common purpose will rectify what is a vastly complicated structural problem that defies easy solutions.

This is well known, but mentors and perhaps parents are setting these children up for failure. Their goals may be political or philosophical, but they will not benefit the participants eating and sleeping in the park. It is to our disgrace that homeless people have to do so, but now we are encouraging our children to do so.

This is not Woodstock, and it is not the Arab Spring, which is destined to be a terrible winter. This is street theater.

No jobs will be created by pitting Americans against Americans. No jobs will be created by attacking Wall Street, especially for the protesters attacking Wall Street. No jobs will be created by attacking capitalism, the world's greatest creator of jobs responsible for the world's largest middle class. The vegans railing against the meat industry will create no jobs, and the protesters railing against the coal, oil and gas industries will not find jobs in those industries. The idea of taking from the rich and expecting it to benefit the poor will not result in greater equality. It never has.

What this movement does, unfortunately, is plant the idea that instead of rigorous intellectual effort by the employed, solutions will be found by mobs congregating in the park. Perhaps it is thought that those activities will spur the politicians and industrialists to greater action. Unfortunately the opposite will result. Those afraid of anarchy will be spurred to greater action to prevent it. The world has witnessed this before and the results were never pretty.

Bernard Kram, Plainview
 

The fact that these folks call themselves the 99 Percenters is a joke. They should be calling themselves the 49 Percenters!

Only 50 percent of Americans shoulder the burden of paying taxes for everything! That means we support the 50 percent who don't pay any taxes, we support and pay for services for more than 10 million illegal aliens. To add further burden, we pay more than $50 billion in foreign aid to the rest of the world.

If one removed those who are not paying taxes, receiving some form of public aid or attending taxpayer-subsidized colleges, there would be very few people left standing in Zuccotti Park.

Blanche Puglisi, Dix Hills
 

After reading the column "Occupy Wall Street's got an image problem" by Kavitha Rajagopalan [Opinion, Oct. 14], I thought the author totally missed the fact that the tea party demonstrators never took over private property for extended periods, and that they formulated a clear message to which many Americans latched on: smaller government and responsible spending, as echoed by several candidates swept into office last year.

David Duchatellier, Elmont
 

The Occupy Wall Street folks have a lot more than an "image problem." In fact, they have much larger tribulations such as a lack of hygiene, a surfeit of ignorance and a paucity of rational thinking -- all of which are far worse than mere image issues!

Furthermore, Kavitha Rajagopalan's opinion on the concept of social justice is equally lacking in rationality. Social justice is just another name for socialism -- and God knows, socialism has never worked whenever and wherever it has been attempted.

Filling our streets, parks and private property with people who either don't understand that fact or don't care is not only unacceptable but expensive -- meaning that once again, the target of this oafish nonsense (the productive in society) have to pick up the tab for the unproductive and the downright stupid.

Valerie Protopapas, Huntington Station
 

Rep. Peter King's (R-Seaford) recently reported comments, characterizing the Wall Street protesters as "anarchists," are shameful ["The debate over movement or mob," News, Oct. 14]. They demonstrate a world view that perceives peaceful protest as anarchy, and the Muslim faith as necessitating congressional hearings on terrorism within the Muslim community. His comments are deeply at odds with his fervent support of the Irish Republican Army at the time of that conflict.

One can only wonder if King were to lose his government salary, health care benefits and pension whether he would not be standing shoulder to shoulder with those very protesters whom he chooses to vilify.

Judith Zinn, Laurel Hollow
 

When I hear someone say they shouldn't have to pay back their student loans, I find it to be absurd and as greedy as the people they are protesting against.

However, when I hear protesters say they are angry at corporation greed, I can sympathize. If someone said they would pay back their loans but can't because corporate America is sending all the jobs overseas, I can empathize. Or that corporate America is cutting the wages of workers and thus making it almost impossible to repay loans and still live a decent life.

If they have any hope of making their movement successful, they need to find a message that a majority of Americans can embrace. Forget the irresponsible stand about not paying back borrowed money.

Robert Melo, Massapequa Park