Religion

snommintj
snommintj Member Posts: 601
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Every year our town throws a festival. We call it spring fling and it lasts all weekend. It started out small. Some of us local restaurant and bar owners got together and sold some food and beer on the street. We had local musicians perform and local artists display their works. The first few years were great. Now things have gotten out of hand. The city has been in charge of this things for 10 years now, and every year the price for a permit has gone up. This year the festival is bigger than it has ever been. But the sense of community is gone. There aren't any local restaurants, bars, musicians, or artists anywhere to be seen. They have been priced out of the market they created. My family and I still went. We had $5 lemonades, $4 corndogs, and $3 ears of corn. None of which was local and none of whose revenues are staying in the city when the festival ends. Of course the city is profiting from the permit fees, but I don't see how that benefits our citizens. As I was walking down the streets I was reminded of a cartoon I saw while in college. The cartoon was several hundred years old, from about the time of the american revolution. I was writing a paper on william pitt and was looking through some very old publications when I came across this cartoon.
In the center of the cartoon was a man descending a mountain with a stone tablet. The stone tablet read "God's steps to eternal Happiness" or something to that effect. On an adjacent mountain stood the devil and one of his demons looking at the man whom god had just given the keys to happiness. The demon said "that looks like trouble, what are we going to do now?". The devil responded "this is great, I can't wait to institutionalize it".
That's what has happened to my festival, they've institutionalized it. Same with my cancer treatment. Leave it to humans to have a good thing and mess it up with taxes, rules and stipulation.

Comments

  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    Big Yellow Taxi
    Reminds me of the Joni Mitchell song:

    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot
    With a pink hotel, a boutique
    And a swinging hot spot
    Don't it always seem to go
    That you don't know what you've got
    Till its gone
    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot

    They took all the trees
    Put em in a tree museum
    And they charged the people
    A dollar and a half just to see em
    Don't it always seem to go
    That you don't know what you've got
    Till its gone
    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot


    The town I live in has a cheese festival every year. This has been going on for the past 10 or so years. The town is associated with cheese because it's where Velveeta was invented (or discovered - what the hell is it anyway?). Up until about 2 years ago, you couldn't find a piece of cheese there at all (unless someone cut the cheese), it was more of a Realtors convention. The town has sold out to developers who want to build houses on every little parcel of land that is left. The town is a nice town, it's history goes back a few hundred years and the area was settled in the 1600's. It's horrible that many people are after the almighty dollar and do not care about what Mother Nature or God or whatever your belief in things might be. The end result is the same. Leave it to mankind to screw it up (there's an oxymoron for you: man kind. Man has hardly been kind to others or the planet)
    The kicker is that now there are probably over 100 new $500,000 homes that are just sitting there unoccupied.

    If they took the dollars and energy that has been funneled into Big Oil and weapon systems and applied that to cancer and other diseases, we'd be further ahead in our battle against cancer.
  • Annabelle41415
    Annabelle41415 Member Posts: 6,742 Member
    Sad
    Yes that is so sad when the government (hence city officials) want to start taking over. It never ever will be the same again (I see the USA now headed this way). They just take away every aspect of what was to be a community gathering and made it into a profit greedy enterprise. Too bad you couldn't pick another date and start back up your traditional festival and tell the government they aren't welcome. The tablets do summarize that very well.

    Kim
  • shoppergal
    shoppergal Member Posts: 118
    Greed
    That is why we are in the situation that we are financially. All because of greed, as long as all these CEOs are making big bucks'they don't care about the so called little people.Health care in this country is horrible and getting worse by the minute. I've seen people having to pay for chemo with credit cards because they have no coverage. In this country thats disgusting! They say people in Europeon countries are less stessed then we are because they are all covered medically and don't have to worry. Not only are we dealing with our cancer but we have to argue with insurance companies,and hope that we're covered for things.Right after I was finished with chemo I found out that my insurancve company was being switched and I wasn't too happy not knowing if my dr's we're covered by my new plan,or would I have to look for all new dr's. Once things are institutionalized, it seems like all the joy is gone!!!
  • kmygil
    kmygil Member Posts: 876 Member
    Deep
    You're a deep thinker and a sly dog. You're right--we're behaving just like the government--taking a small, good local thing and blowing it up until you can't recognize it at all! I used to LOVE coming to this board. It saved my sanity, I tell you! Now, not so much, because we can't seem to govern our own prejudices and are asking for a "police action" from the ACS. Man, this is how Korea, Vietnam and Iraq started--with police actions. Please, Everyone!!! Let's keep this a good, safe place to turn. Be tolerant of others--until you walk in their shoes you have no clue.

    Love you all, and yes, I pray for you all!
    Kirsten
  • snommintj
    snommintj Member Posts: 601
    kmygil said:

    Deep
    You're a deep thinker and a sly dog. You're right--we're behaving just like the government--taking a small, good local thing and blowing it up until you can't recognize it at all! I used to LOVE coming to this board. It saved my sanity, I tell you! Now, not so much, because we can't seem to govern our own prejudices and are asking for a "police action" from the ACS. Man, this is how Korea, Vietnam and Iraq started--with police actions. Please, Everyone!!! Let's keep this a good, safe place to turn. Be tolerant of others--until you walk in their shoes you have no clue.

    Love you all, and yes, I pray for you all!
    Kirsten

    caught me!
    I'm glad somebody is paying atention.
  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    snommintj said:

    caught me!
    I'm glad somebody is paying atention.

    ?
    you mean we are not getting corndogs?
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    PhillieG said:

    Big Yellow Taxi
    Reminds me of the Joni Mitchell song:

    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot
    With a pink hotel, a boutique
    And a swinging hot spot
    Don't it always seem to go
    That you don't know what you've got
    Till its gone
    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot

    They took all the trees
    Put em in a tree museum
    And they charged the people
    A dollar and a half just to see em
    Don't it always seem to go
    That you don't know what you've got
    Till its gone
    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot


    The town I live in has a cheese festival every year. This has been going on for the past 10 or so years. The town is associated with cheese because it's where Velveeta was invented (or discovered - what the hell is it anyway?). Up until about 2 years ago, you couldn't find a piece of cheese there at all (unless someone cut the cheese), it was more of a Realtors convention. The town has sold out to developers who want to build houses on every little parcel of land that is left. The town is a nice town, it's history goes back a few hundred years and the area was settled in the 1600's. It's horrible that many people are after the almighty dollar and do not care about what Mother Nature or God or whatever your belief in things might be. The end result is the same. Leave it to mankind to screw it up (there's an oxymoron for you: man kind. Man has hardly been kind to others or the planet)
    The kicker is that now there are probably over 100 new $500,000 homes that are just sitting there unoccupied.

    If they took the dollars and energy that has been funneled into Big Oil and weapon systems and applied that to cancer and other diseases, we'd be further ahead in our battle against cancer.

    JONI ROCKS!
    GIVE ME SPOTS ON MY APPLES
    BUT LEAVE ME THE BIRDS AND THE BEES, PLEASE!!

    She was ahead of her time. I have every single album of hers until Mingus. Then she lost me.

    Great song. Great songwriter.

    Sorry about your festivals. It's always all about the money. Don't think for a skinny minute that the powers that be don't have an idea of how to cure cancers.

    peace, emily who wanted to be a Canyon Lady.
  • snommintj
    snommintj Member Posts: 601
    PhillieG said:

    ?
    you mean we are not getting corndogs?

    corndogs
    Phil,
    If you're ever in SC, you can stay at my house. We'll go canoeing and I'll make you the best corndog you've ever had from scratch. Consider that an open invite.
  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    snommintj said:

    corndogs
    Phil,
    If you're ever in SC, you can stay at my house. We'll go canoeing and I'll make you the best corndog you've ever had from scratch. Consider that an open invite.

    Yum
    Thanks, I will keep that in mind
    -phil