Now is the time to step to the plate...
(I trust the Bard will permit me to use his forum to put this forth)
Yesterday countless thousands of lives were shattered. Mothers, Fathers, Sons and Daughters were slaughtered in a brief moment of the vilest sort of barbarism. In an instant, lives were forever changed and futures were dimmed. American and foreign families once prosperous were torn asunder as their means of support were instantly and forcefully terminated.
As a new day breaks across a stunned world and we contemplate the economic impact this event has wrought upon the world and prognosticators begin to talk about the markets, what to buy, what to sell, economic chaos and more, there is this micro-economic reality sinking in.
There are now an untold number of families who are unsure how they will pay their mortgages. There are certain to be a great many children whose dreams of college were suddenly snuffed out. There are hundreds and thousands who face losses, expenses and hardships in the days and years to come that are beyond measure.
A great many of these families and individuals are our associates and peers, our friends and our loved ones. Thousands of those affected were themselves members and participants in the markets and financial systems we all devote so much of our time and effort in.
In the same light, there were virtually hundreds of firefighters, police and rescue workers lost. Unlike professional workers, many had limited incomes and limited resources before this tragedy and now their families have even less.
We as a group sit here toying in the markets with money most of us consider to be toilet bowl funds or, at a minimum, discretionary money. Nearly all of us are expecting checks from Uncle Sam for $300 or $600 as the case may be.
Giving donations to the Red Cross and the like is noble. But let us not forget the families with long term personal needs... medical bills they can not afford, widows with mortgages, children's educations and countless other more personal needs than national organzations can or will attend to.
Let us, as a community, come together and contribute of our time and resources in a manner that ensures hope for a future for all those who have been so devastated in the past twenty-four hours.
I don't know how to make such a thing happen. But I do know that we as a group proposed a boycott and managed to find thousands to participate in a few short days. I have no doubt that we as a group can do far more in this cause if we will come together and put forth the effort.
So, I call out to you all... let us, once again, organize our forces, go forth and make something happen. Here we can make a material difference. Here we can take a stand and say to those shameless cowards that perpetrated this attrocity that we will not be defeated and that, as a Nation, were are capable of rising above anything they can conceive of putting before us.
With pain in my heart and a dream...
Scott.
AI
