On The Road

With the majority of the nation's winter parking on top of Colorado for the last 6 weeks, most activities are limited to the great skiing or to the in of doors. The Denver Public Library is hosting the manuscript for Jack Kerouac's On The Road, so I hopped the bus to Denver to check it out.

Kerouac's claim to fame was hand typed on 120 feet of rolled paper, all in a three week frenzy. 60' of "the roll" is on display at a time in two different showings. For the most part the work is still in tact and quite an amazing thing to behold.

I enjoyed reading a couple of different sections chosen at random. There was no one in that wing of the library at the time and there was almost an eerie feeling being so up close and intimate with the original work. The manuscript is complete with small editorial marks and the original names of the characters from his real life experiences. It was almost as if I were reading someone's journal due to the stream of consciousness style and rawness of the work.

here is a shot of the DPL. No photographs were allowed by the scroll.

wage increase

I'm going to get political again. I do try and avoid this, but occasionally I have to speak my mind. The minimum wage increase is a very bad idea at this point. It looks like it is for the contributing citizens of this country to help them keep up with inflation. However, the burden of this increase will be seen directly through the private sector where the disparity will be made up through increase in prices, decrease in job market and ultimately more inflation. This is not to say that the people earning within this range do not deserve to have the money that would help them face today's economic situation.

They do and this is how they should get it. A respectable level of earning should remain untaxable for people within a certain pay scale. For instance, the first $15,ooo earned for someone making less than $25,000/year would not be taxed. The amount that this would bleed the national coffers should be made up for through taxation of the upper 1% of society earning more in a matter of seconds than these people will see all year. My numbers are arbitrary, meant only to illustrate a point.

The saddest part about this whole legislation is that it is designed with one goal and one goal only, to create the illusion that progress is being made to help the American working poor. It will only hurt them and the people who are trying to employ them in the long run. This policy is not good for America, this policy is good for politicians. It is time that politicians served themselves while serving the public at the same time.