Anyone Surprised...

 My parents grew up in the depression and then there was WW2. Events like that mark people. When people get marked they tend to mark other people so I guess my folks marked me but I consider it a marking in a good way. The mark I'm talking about is how to handle your money. 

I can remember one of my dad's things was keeping cash on hand. About once a week he knelt at the bed, spread the money out and counted it. I don't know how much he had. It was certainty peanuts considering the salaries made by sports starts and CEOs these days but to his depression mentality this cash seemed like a good idea. 

I don't keep cash on hand but I adopted some of his other ideas such as don't spend more than you make, use cash if at all possible or don't buy, pay for the kid's college, be thrifty and work when you have the opportunity. I was fortunate and retired early. My wife retires at the end of the year. 

There's a guy who writes a newspaper column that's carried in my local paper. Basically some of the same advice but something about Dave Ramsey's way of handling money, or maybe it was the telling other people how to handle money never set quite right with me. I read the columns anyway. That's a thing I do, read the uncomfortable thing that you don't agree with. 

I opened up the news today and sure enough like I suspected Dave is not a nice guy. Seems that a lawsuit has been brought alleging that staffers who wore masks and had Covid 19 concerns were mocked and derided.

 

Help me here. In this country there have been public figures such as Dave is who have mocked women, foreigners and the disabled. I guess this has become ok in some circles. If you have a public platform I would think that it could be used to do good and maybe even provide leadership. 

I looked Dave up and read on him. After some hard financial times in the late 80s he was on the rebound by 1994. Chances are he's been in a gated community since then and has not much hung out with anyone that was not like him in almost 30 years. He's a carnival barker selling you advice that I doubt he gives his children or grandchildren. 

I wear a mask especially in large indoor groups. I'm vaccinated. I have some of the same concerns Dave's employees have. I would not want to catch covid and not be able to babysit my grandkids because I'm sick. I would not want to give my wife, a Eucharistic Minister who brings Communion to the home bound covid so she takes it to one of these older, delicate people. I would not want to pass covid to the health care workers in my family and have them expose patients. It goes on and on with all the reasons which 800,000 dead seem to not matter to people that think like Dave. 

I am getting old. In another month I'll be considered elderly. At this time I can still cut a pretty imposing figure, 6'2", 250 pounds, long hair and all tattooed up I was once a 2nd degree black belt. No one has derided me for wearing a mask and I bet Dave would not either. 

I don't need his kind of advice.