Knowledge Seeker
  • Home
  • Articles

Let's Tax the Rich (Two Minutes to Read)

8/25/2012

 
Why would Republicans focus on the wealthy like Democrats say they do when they're the smallest voter base in the country? I'm truly shocked that some people fall for this. I wish voters would think through this issue so they could realize what the Democrats are doing. Democrats
want to create the impression they're David taking on Goliath because there are a lot of taxpayers who easily believe this.

Democrats say the "rich" should pay more and this certainly sounds good to those of us who aren't wealthy but is it ethical? The word "rich" is a relative term because everyone up and down the
economic spectrum considers those making a lot more than them to be rich; for instance if you make $50K a year and someone else makes $100K you'd probably think this person was rich. But you'd be rich too according to a retail employee or a waitress's perspective who dreams of making
$50K.

With this in mind how would you feel if the government told you to pay more to give to people making less than you? Would it be fair? Would it be ethical? Would it make you mad? These questions are the same whether you're making $200,000 a year or $50,000 a year. A lot of people
think it doesn't matter because the rich have plenty to spare. But the fact is just because someone can take a punch doesn't mean it's right to punch him. Is it right for us to expect something of other people that we would be mad about if it happened to us? I consider this an ethics issue so where do you stand?

Going after the rich to pay more will only make a dent in our revenue problem. The problem is our politicians who won't do what's right to turn our economy around because they are afraid they'll lose their jobs if they make the spending cuts necessary. I believe that pitting  citizens against one another for political reasons is a form of treason; they are purposefully dividing our country which severely impacts our nation’s survival.

I hope you'll share this information with any Democrats or Independents you know. I admit that I've only changed the opinion of a few Democrats; the last one was a couple of weeks ago. She was
voting for Obama until I shared with her the difference in Obama's and Romney's ideas for turning our economy around. With this election expected to be so close, every vote counts.

The Fighter of Auschwitz (Three Minutes to Read)

8/22/2012

 
There are so many amazing stories of bravery from those who lived and/or survived this terrible death camp; this is one of those stories. 

Salamo Arouch was a Greek-Jew who was taken captive during WWII and sent to Auschwitz. It just so happened the German Commander of the death camp was an Olympic heavy-weight boxer and he recognized Salamo as one of the light-weight boxers from the Greek’s Olympic team.

Salamo had to perform hard-labor during the day but he was ordered to compete in boxing matches every few nights where the boxes were made to fight until the other man couldn’t get up. As long as Salamo won he’d live. It’s estimated he fought and won around 280 fights; this while be
malnourished and ill at times with dysentery. He only weighed 140 pounds and in one match knocked at a fighter almost twice his size in less than 30 seconds. His major incentive for fighting was to get a large loaf of bread after each fight and take it back to his brother and father. 
 
When his family arrived at Auschwitz the men and women were separated. The pretty women which included his brother’s newly wedded wife were taken to serve the German soldiers. If any of these women became pregnant they were killed so some of the captives became capable of
performing abortions; of course not all were successful but the pregnant women would’ve died anyway. Some women wanted to die so they didn’t even worry about having an abortion. 

Anyone who couldn’t serve a purpose because they were too old, sick, or young, were sent to the gas chamber then cremated which included Salamo’s mom. Of course the men didn’t know all this was happening until fellow prisoners began giving them the details.

One day Salamo’s brother was put on a task force to place bodies in the incinerator that were killed in the gas chambers. He and his detail refused to do it and were killed. Salamo’s dad and other older men were taken away one day and were shot and pushed into mass graves because they weren’t productive. Salamo at this point had lost everyone which made him even more
successful in the boxing ring. He no longer fought for bread but instead out of principle to not let the Germans break his spirit. 
 
One day he and several other prisoners were put on the same detail his brother was on. They were waiting for this opportunity because they had put together a plan to destroy the incinerator.
While working, one of the men opened up one of the incinerator doors and threw  an explosive in. They took off running and when the bomb went off it did its job including destroying some of the gas chamber. 
 
Miraculously two men survived and one of them was Salamo. The Germans didn’t kill him and instead kept him captive because of his reputation; plus they didn’t know for sure that he was in on it because he never confessed. Finally one day the jail cell was opened and Salamo was told the war was over and he was free to go.

While searching for family members at the various prison camps, Salamo met a survivor by the name of Marta Yechiel and they immediately fell in love. They moved to Israel and had four children and several grandchildren. It just goes to show that any of us can survive tragic
situations and still come out on top. As usual, it’s just a matter of what we do with what we have.      
 


Human Trafficking (Six Minutes to Read)

8/22/2012

 
I usually like to keep most of my blogs at around three minutes but it wouldn’t give this subject the attention it deserves as it so moving and so evil. Human Trafficking is a terrible business especially the sex trade which is explained towards the end of this document; if it doesn’t move you, nothing will. 

First of all, human trafficking involves a variety of areas like forced labor and sexual exploitation. I’m sure you’ve seen these depicted on TV or in the movies but the mental and physical scars the
victims have can never be captured on film.

Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking in reference to the amount of money involved. It’s estimated to amount for billions of dollars in illegal trade in the U.S. and around 32 billion around the world. There have been reported cases of kidnapping for trafficking in around 120 countries. Because of the complicated nature of this type of illegal network Cartels run most of them. 
 
What’s most upsetting to me is that private organizations make a bigger difference in saving victims being exploited than assigned task forces around the world. In the U.S. we have a Drug Enforcement Agency but not one adequately funded that is focused solely on human trafficking.

Slave laborers work in sweat shops for twelve to fourteen hours a day and get no money for it. They are given the basics to live on but they’re rarely allowed outside because the criminals
involved don’t want to risk a laborer turning them in. 
 
Different than the sex trade, slave laborers sometimes come over from other countries as families. It doesn’t matter what they look like, the traffickers just want to identify people who are healthy. Most of the time the victims think they are escaping from something bad to have a better life. They even give the traffickers money to sneak them into our country. So hear the bad guys are getting peoples’ money on the front end and then exploiting them when they get here. 
 
Once in the U.S. the traffickers use leverage to keep people working and quiet. One method is they threaten to release them on the streets scaring them as to what will happen if the
authorities find them. They also tell them the money they gave to be brought to the U.S. wasn’t enough so they have to work to repay the traffickers. Lastly, they often threaten the slave labor that they’ll hurt or even kill one of their relatives back home. Needless to say they have enough tools at their disposal to keep people in line.

The sex trade is much worse as most of the girls average about 13 years of age. It’s sick but most of the men paying for sex want underage girls. It disgust me that these men know they’d go away for years for statutory rape so they find a way around it by using these slave shops.

I hate to get into gory details but I need your emotional attention. When these young girls are captured they are brought to a location where they’re indoctrinated which means they’re raped and taught what to do. When they are in the system they can average around twelve men a day
and there’s little limitation to what these men can do to them except they can’t physically hurt them so they’ll be able to handle the next client which usually arrives in around ten minutes. Just so you know these cartels can make around three million dollars per brothel with only ten sex slaves. 
 
Sometimes the women from a particular brothel are hired out for parties. When this happens they are accompanied by a lot of body guards who surround the home to make sure no one gets away or that any of the clients get out of hand. You can just imagine how they’re treated by these men who can do anything to them including making them participate in orgies. I’d like for you to imagine something else, what if this was your daughter or sister.

I consider this issue worse than the drug trade that we spend so much money trying to deter. People in the drug trade provide product directly to the customer who knows it’s illegal and it doesn’t involve the exploitation of women. It doesn’t lead to the terrible abuse that women receive both mentally and physically. 
 
A lot of women who were able to be saved from the sex trade mentioned that after awhile they become desensitized to the life they were in. A couple of years in and at the age of fourteen, some of them didn’t focus on escaping anymore because they were afraid of the shame when seen by family members and friends. Plus some of them are actually sold by their parents for the large amount of money the traffickers offer. Where do these young girls think they’ll go if they escape; there’s no place to run to and that just breaks my heart. 

This is exactly where these pimps want them. They know these girls are so messed up psychologically plus they know that since they move the brothels around, their confident the girls will never give them a problem should they finally let them go. Add to it the fear that has been
put into them about family members getting murdered and the cartels are probably right about being safe. 

I don’t know if I could imagine anything else that is as terrible as human trafficking especially sex trafficking. The world should be in an uproar regarding this. The U.S. should allocate resources
directly towards building the expertise to take down these brothels and the cartels that run them. As it is now they aren’t afraid of doing business in the U.S. because they know that no one is really paying attention. They figure if American girls aren’t being sold and raped and instead they’re from other countries that the U.S. won’t spend time and money to help the victims. 
 
Of course I think there are numerous reasons to get involved not only to help these innocent girls but also to arrest men in the U.S. who are committing statutory rape. They know what they’re doing. They aren’t going to prostitutes they’re tapping in to the underground sex trade to rape young girls. These men need to be put away because I don’t trust them with any girls in their lives because they’re twisted. I wonder how many of them are fathers, girls soccer coaches, teachers, etc.? If they’re that sick to spend money to rape young girls then I we shouldn’t want them running around in society. 

I guarantee you that if any Congressman or Senator had their 12 year-old daughter raped 12 times a day, an Anti-Sex Trade Task Force would be created in a heartbeat. It’s the usual story of it’s not a problem until it’s our problem.  

The costs shouldn’t be that high because we wouldn’t need a nationwide task force as the problems are in certain cities like Miami and New York. Homeland Security could be involved as most of the people coming in are arriving on specially built cargo containers. Thermal imaging can
be used on containers that are questionable based on where the shipment came from.

This is too terrible to not do something about it as fast as we can. If it were our daughter or sister we’d not only blame our government for not doing anything but would probably be tempted to go
after the dirt bags ourselves with whatever means we had. I know the only thing that would stop me from killing one of them would be a fear of being sent to prison.

I’d like to have an update as to what our government is doing to address human trafficking in our country. There are so many young children being scarred both physically and mentally. There are so many business owners who have sweatshops and not paying their fair share of taxes. There are so many men breaking the law by participating in prostitution and statutory rape and they’re getting away with it; plus they’re a danger to our society in general. We get involved in so many human rights issues around the world shouldn’t this terrible issue be one of them? I look forward to your response.    


    Author: John Mann

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly