Jay Challa - Minority Enterprise Executive Council

ecycle or voted for a liberal Democrat.Right now cosmic justice is being metedout to those rich folks on Wall Streetwhose carbon footprint is larger thanregular folks. This is why the level ofpassion for the victims of Bernie Madoffhasn’t matched the intense hatred ofthe system or the man himself. MainStreet believes most of the victims arejust greedy rich people who thought theyhad the inside scoop and therefore aregetting theirs...finally. To be sure, thereare many rich folks who believe ordinarypeople on the verge of losing their homesor who have lost their homes deserve asmuch, too. How dare they buy a homewith no money down? How dare theywant to live the American dream and nothave to prove their income?The circle of comeuppance is gettingtighter and tighter and instead ofseven degrees between you and aperson who is getting his or her gutsripped out there is only one or two.Yes, you’re next. The thing is, whenthis bad luck or cosmic justice reachesyour home you may be so conditionedto hate yourself (after all it is likelyyou use some fossil fuel, still haveincandescent light bulbs, eat meat,drink from plastic bottles and engagedin thoughts of making more moneyat some point in your life) that youaccept it not just as fate per se but asoverdue justice. I think it’s despicablethat Hollywood continues to makemovies that make America’s militarylook completely inept (in the film themilitary has to rely on the Internet forpictures of large gaseous orbs aroundthe world). We all get the messagethat maybe we shouldn’t shoot firstand ask questions later; in fact, tryingto tow that political line has resultedin the loss of a lot of great militarypersonnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.We have a right to fight back and weshould. I think we should first fight backagainst those who continue to belittlereligion while promoting scientists asthe only people with opinions worthnoting. Secondly, we should fight backagainst the notion that other peopledeserve to suffer. The overwhelmingmajority of millionaires in America areself-made and helped a lot of otherpeople along the way toward theirown success. People who boughthomes with no money down weren’ttrying to game the system; theywanted desperately to be part of thesystem. One of the best ways to stopapplauding the misfortunes of others isto get back to basics and that meansget back to believing in God. I readwhere anti-Semitism is on the rise inthe aftermath of the Madoff scam, andto me it’s just a convenient excuse forthose that have a natural inclination tofeel that way in the first place.I guess there is a natural inclination topoint to others for our own failures,but soon we are going to be down topointing to that person in the mirror.People should take responsibility, butwe must not feel so down on ourselvesthat we accept any fate as the way theuniverse works. We can and shouldfight back, and our first weapon ofchoice should be faith. Secondly, stopfeeling guilty and don’t let hypocritesbully you into feeling down on yourself.At some point, we’ll drive solar carsand live in a world where wind provideselectricity to the masses. It will be greatwhen it happens. Until then, you’re notevil for loading the family up in the SUVand visiting Grandma for the weekend.More importantly, it’s time to stophating people who wear leather beltsor don’t drive hybrid cars, and it’s timeto stop applauding the misfortunes ofothers because they’re rich or poor.It has been reported that more WallStreet traders are going to Trinity Churchduring the day. That is the best newswe could hope for and might be thekey to our salvation in 2009. We makemistakes and we pay a price but we onlystay down when we feel sorry ourselves.Consider all the wild gyrations that oncesaw triple digit moves for the Dow asthe norm. Now it feels like the stockmarket is standing still. One has tobelieve it’s the proverbial calm beforethe storm. The remake of The Day theEarth Stood Still is unremarkable inevery way (Will Smith and Katy Batesprovide the only credible acting), but themessage shouldn’t be lost. There area lot of folks with a vested interest inwatching America melt down in self pityand self hate, so be cautious not to rootfor the downfall of others.America is going to be challengedin 2009 in ways it hasn’t been ingenerations. Our leadership in theworld has been chipped away, butmake no mistake America is the strawthat stirs the global economic drink.There will be a lot of money sloshingaround in the New Year, and people aregoing to be angry and jealous. Mistakesare bound to be made and it’s goingto be easier than ever to disintegrateinto a cesspool of finger pointing. Bigbusiness will have chances to take abite of the apple but they need lowertaxes and less animosity from the nextWhite House. If the middle class is togrow, it has to come from opportunitiescreated by business which will in turnneed breaks to survive the globalchallenges and domestic economicreality. I think the new President is upto the task, but he is going to have toignore ideologies that have seducedhis curiosities in the past.I hope he sets the example and goesto church as regularly as he playsbasketball and that he stands up tothose on the left and right who wouldtake misfortune and use it as a weaponto bludgeon the faith of a nation.By Charles PayneCEO, Wall Street Strategies28 Minority En t e r p r i s e Adv o c at e • January / February 2009