For those who would decry the alleged lack of modern day miracles, let us reconsider the tale of the Biblical strongman Samson, who it is written used the jawbone of an ass to slay 1,000 Philistines.
The modern day equivalent is how a variety of asses, with their jawbones still attached to the host creatures, can slay the truth, investors, the economy, justice and world peace while wielding said jawbones to spread asinine information around Johnstown, not to mention Pennsylvania, the United States and the world.
The body count for all these offenses would be measured in millions if not billions, not a mere 1,000. Now, that is miraculous.
Begin with our Johnstown area, a business backwater that hasn’t been roaring economically since the steel mills and coal mines were rendered virtually insignificant by environmental concerns and cheaper producers elsewhere.
Area jawbones, including those of Myopia 2025 members and their surrogates, have a two-pronged answer – tourism and immigrants.
No, the immigrants are not the tourists. There was a recent media attempt to paint the immigrant argument in a positive light by noting successful immigrants here in the health field.
Now, anyone who has gone to Johnstown’s major hospital in the past several decades likely has dealt with immigrant health professionals. It’s as evident as the nose on the face of a pre-rhinoplasty patient that Johnstown long has been dipping into the immigrant pool to fill health-care needs.
The hope of the jawboners is that you will read of these relatively few examples and make the mistake of extrapolating from this that all immigrants to the area will be productive professionals.
It’s a statistical trick on par with things such as average income. Take one millionaire and nine other individuals making $0 per year and the average income for these 10 people is $100,000 a year. Technically correct, but is it a representative number?
Myopia 2025 types just want to get the immigrants here – and presumably living in their Section 8 or other public housing units – and worry about jawboning about positive impact later, sort of like the ongoing Philadelphia invasion.
How many Philly types now living here are doctors or nurses? Just asking.
As far as tourism being our economic salvation in Johnstown, understand that tourism jobs tend to be low-paying, seasonal and/or part-time.
Don’t take my word for it. Perhaps you’ve heard that tourism is a huge industry in Florida, which, according to a 2019 study by Florida State University, has an $86 billion annual impact in the state and supports 1.5 million jobs.
Said study, admittedly a few years old but still relevant, flags tourism (nationally not just in Florida) as the absolute worst paying labor sector.
Around our state, there is an ongoing effort to kill Marcellus Shale as an economic engine, while funneling ever greater amounts of taxpayer money into Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. No doubt they are pitching tourism as a viable job creator, too.
On a national level, daily, it seems, one Federal Reserve jawboner or another is out with scare stories of ever higher interest rates, hammering investors in stocks, bonds and commodities. Talk about equal opportunity.
Recent leaks have revealed that our national intelligence types are spying on friends and foes alike, to the detriment of harmony and peaceful coexistence. Again, talk about equal opportunity.
They now wag their jawbones to note how harmful that this reality has become public, not to apologize for it. How instructive.
Gaslighting, the proven psychological ploy of sowing confusion and self-doubt, is being practiced locally, nationally and internationally. From Johnstown immigration and tourism, to throwing money at a corrupt Ukrainian regime, facts can’t be allowed to get in the way of a good psy-op.
It takes only modest effort to see through the manipulation of the truth. The next step is to use your jawbones to fight back against the asses.
Sam Ross Jr's site 