Walking The Streets of Binghamton

I love to people watch.  Do you ever wonder where people are going when you see them?  Case and point, I was driving to work this morning and really took the time to notice that there are a large number of people walking on the streets of Main Street, Binghamton.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Greater Binghamton unemployment is 8%.  I know what it's like to lose your job.  I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, if I were to have an enemy.

But yet, there are so many people walking the streets of Binghamton that appear not to be working.  How do they pay for their groceries?  Do they worry about paying their cell phone bill?  Yet, they have the best footwear, they have the latest iphone.  How?

Granted, some of these people may have been injured with a back problem or other ailments.  Again, that's not easy.  Some may be on a January vacation.  But some of the same faces I see day after day, don't look like they have a care in the world.

I listen to some fascinating true stories from my Dad who lived through the Great Depression.  He talks about how scary it was.  He actually supported his mother and his two sisters with four and sometimes five jobs to pay the bills.  Yest, he was happy as long as there was a basketball court around.

My Grandmother came over on a boat from Czechoslovakia, 19 years old, had to learn a new language and in order to support herself, had to take a train to Owego to work in a cigar factory.

We all struggle to survive.  But you must keep working harder to succeed.  I just wonder if we have become a society that has become lazy.  Do we really know what it's like to struggle?  You have to work hard.  Believe in yourself.  Educate yourself.  It's a new year.  Let's get to work.