BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

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Silicon Valley "Fat Cats" - Where's The Outrage?

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Alex Walker

JOHN STEINBECK, author of "The Grapes of Wrath," would have loved the current mess in his beloved Northern California.

April 4th -- The New York Times tells the world volunteers must raise $500,000 or all libraries in Steinbeck's home town, Salinas, California, will close.

April 5th - The next day -- The San Jose Mercury News reports that right up the road from Salinas, Yahoo CEO, Terry Semel, cashed out $231 million in stock options.

Nobody was outraged. There was not so much as a single indignant letter-to-editor.

Then, by golly, it happened again.

April 11th -- Mercury News reports "record profits" for Silicon Valley Companies, including 10 companies hoarding $73 billion in cash.

April 12th - The next day -- Mercury News reports the tech sector laid off another 59,537 workers in the first quarter of 2005. John Chambers, Cisco Systems CEO, has "vowed not to hire until revenue per employee reached $700,000 again." We learned on March 14th that this John "tough guy" Chambers cashed out stock options worth $14.9 million.

Meanwhile, fired HP chief Carly Fiorina walks away with a $21 million "severance."

Where's the outrage?

There was a time in this country when these bums would have been ashamed. Today, they know politicians, professors, and writers of editorials and angry letters-to-the-editor will always parrot the "party line" about greedy bosses "needing" more tax breaks, more
"deregulation," and more money.

Pope John Paul's judgment is debated. John Chambers is still infallible.

I have written a short version of this letter to the editor of the Mercury News. Of course, there is virtually no chance that the Knight-Ridder Corporation censors will print what they will perceive as an over-the-top "Red" diatribe.

Where's the outrage, at least, on the so-called "Left?" (what does "Left" mean anymore? Once upon a time I thought I knew).

I am a progressive working man. I also happen to be an African-American who strongly believes in labor rights, civil rights and women's rights. My political frustration is almost more than I can bear. Many people reading this will probably think I'm lying or at least exaggerating.

If I were not living here I probably wouldn't believe it.

200,000 lost jobs?
$2 trillion in lost wealth?
Short pay?
Unsafe working conditions?
Schools and libraries closing?
Record profits + more layoffs?
People who do have jobs putting in 100 hours a week?

One doofus corporate bureaucrat pockets a quarter billion bucks in one year?

You may ask: Am I writing from somewhere other than the true "Blue" San Francisco Bay area in the great "Blue" state of California? Are people rioting in the streets? Is the world-famous San Francisco-Berkeley-Oakland "Left" preaching revolution?

Nope.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION