- Rhiannon Fionn
- Bank of America’s headquarters tower in the distance as the Oct. 8 march begins
As promised in an earlier post, CL continues to bring you voices from the occupation of Charlotte — individual participants, in their own words, talking about why they joined the local Occupy movement.
Cole Pettus traveled with his brother to Gaffney, S.C., from Orlando, Fla. for his brother’s National Guard active duty weekend and decided to join Occupy Charlotte’s march on Bank of America. He spent most of the first night of the occupation with Charlotte’s occupiers in an effort to learn more about the movement so he can take what he learned back to Orlando and help the movement there. But he didn’t just observe — he volunteered, taking the minutes for the General Assembly held the evening of Oct. 8.
His story is a sad one. His father had a good job. The family bought a plot of land and a double-wide trailer. Then his father lost his job and both he and his wife took two jobs to pay the bills. But the strain eventually became too much, and the couple divorced. In an effort to “not be a burden” on his parents, Cole dropped out of high school to work.
“My dad has been working at a job in South Carolina for about 12 years — or he had been, and he got laid off. And he was making about $100,000 a year at that job,” he said.
Listen to Cole, in his own words:
Further reading:
24 Hours with Occupy Charlotte
Occupy Charlotte: Working Out the Glitches
CMPD holds Occupy Charlotte press conference
Listen to voices from Wednesday’s #OccupyUNCC
Who are the 99 percent?
Oct. 1: The birth of Occupy Charlotte
This article appears in Oct 11-17, 2011.
as with 99% of these deadbeats, nothing but a string of bad personal choices and no personal accountability.
Nobody to blame but yourselves. Let’s review:
“…both he and his wife took two jobs to pay the bills.”
+ “But the strain eventually became too much, and the couple divorced.” = bad personal choices and inability to honor their commitments. Also even if they were working 2 minimum wage jobs each, 1 FT 1 PT, if they were struggling to make a land/traler payment, they were gravely mismanaging their money.
“In an effort to “not be a burden” on his parents, Cole dropped out of high school to work.”
Really bad personal choice and he parents should be ashamed that they allowed it to happen.
“And he was making about $100,000 a year at that job…”
— Really? 100k? Gonna have to call BS on that one. Goes from whatver job in FL + a side job plus wife’s 2 jobs that didnt pay enough to cover a trailer payment to a 6 figure salary? doubtful. sorry bub.
So… sad story? nah, just a lazy loser who can’t take responsibility for his decisions and actions, just like his parents, who decided to take it out on the bank hoping somehow he’ll get a free ride somewhere. Bum.
Whatdifference, you sound like a real piece of work. Are you Rush Limbaugh under another name? (You’re certainly one of his groupies.) See photo at bottom of: http://aflcionc.org/2011/10/14/occupy-the-world-october-15th/
My wife and I BOTH were laid off…a full year into Obama’s Presidency and 3 years into the Democrats’ control of Congress. We both took jobs making less. She about a third less and me over half. But because we didn’t have a house we could not afford and have always made it a habit never to be paying on more than one vehicle…we have so far ridden the wave of this recession without getting too wet. We don’t take big vacations, keep descretionary and holiday spending way down and have cut back on other things (like cable). Our bills get paid and we still have something for emergencies. Anyone over the age of 40 who wasn’t living with the belief that the economy could turn rancid in a heartbeat and planned accordingly was an fool.
This in-depth coverage takes me back to the days when you guys took the time to get to know Tea Party attendees in such a personal, intimate fashion. Wait, that never happened. New screen graphics, same one-sided take.
BV: We did a story on Charlotte’s Tea Party last year. Check it out:
http://clclt.com/charlotte/getting-to-know…
What a bunch of hard hearts the right wing has.
To the first poster:
I personally know a person who lost a 100K plus job and after two years of very frustrating job searching wound up taking a minimum wage, no benefits job.
You can call BS to your heart’s content but the fact is you are just ignorantly passing on the right wing propaganda. Try turning off AM talk radio and listening to a few REAL news stations.