I was born at the end of the 1960s, and I watched a lot of the evolution of our country that has led up to where we are now.
My Grandmother was a child of the Great Depression, and of World War II, and I worked with my Grandmother from a young age. My Grandmother was a Dog Groomer, and I used to bathe and brush dogs for her, to make her job easier, and to help to make money to feed our family. I was a willing slave. My father died when I was 9, just before my 10th birthday, and so my mother was a widow, and my mother does not believe in accepting welfare, nor foodstamps, nor any other help from the government, and so I often went hungry, it seems like I was always hungry, and I was skinny, and if I worked with my Grandmother and helped to earn money then we could eat, my Grandmother would spend the money that we earned to feed the whole extended family, we were feeding at least 10 people every day. And I learned that if you work then you get to eat, and I learned the value of an honest job and the importance of earning money.
I worked my way up from bathing and brushing dogs to managing the dog kennel for a gentleman who fought in World War II. He learned the kennel business in the Marine Corps during World War II. He managed dog kennels for the Marines, and he also trained dogs, and he was also a dog handler in combat in Japan, in Okinawa.
As long as I worked, then I was able to eat. I did not earn much, but I had a brand new Jeep, and I had food to eat, and I rented a small house when I turned 18.
And, I watched the economy. Back then, in the 1980s, Japan was a big competitor for the USA, and Japan was gaining traction in the automobile industry because of the gasoline crunch in the 1970s, and Japan was also stealing our electronics jobs; televisions, radios, etc, the USA used to make great televisions, etc, I have an old television that was manufactured in Indiana and it still works great. Japan was using their government money to expand in the automobile industry and in the electronics industry, etc,, they flooded our markets with cheap televisions, etc, and they drove our companies out of business, and they bought our companies, etc. And the automobile industry had to totally reinvent itself.
The economy was bad under Carter, then the economy was good during Reagan, and then the economy started to suffer again under George H.W. Bush, and the economy has gotten worse since then.
I quit the kennel, then I did construction at NASA and at China Lake, I had a friend whose father was a general contractor on government jobs. So, I was able to keep working. Then I went to work at a casino in Nevada as a cook. But, I was still poor, and I wanted to make more money, and I want to be able to support a family, etc.
I am smart, and I hate being poor, so I came back to California to study and train to be an actor and filmmaker. First I attended a great community college, AVC, and then I attended acting school at the AADA / West.
Then I moved to Malibu, and I got a job as a limousine driver, and I went to a photographer in Beverly Hills to get some headshots made, and then I tried to get work as an actor.
I had a roommate in Malibu who was a daughter of a general in communist China. Because of her father's high position in China she was allowed to go to college, and after college they put her in charge of a factory manufacturing hammers, but her dream was to live in Malibu. So, as soon as she got a chance she moved to Malibu. We talked a lot about China, and we agreed that it will take very wise people to help China to evolve peacefully, and no one wants a blood-bath. It will take wise people and patience to help China to evolve peacefully.
Then, I got a job working for Suzanne Pleshette in West Hollywood, I was a valet and doorman at a condo highrise, and Suzanne was my boss. That was a cool job, and she was a great boss. It was easy money, and the stars give big tips.
But I still wanted to be an actor and filmmaker. So, I decided to focus full time on trying to make it as an actor and filmmaker.
I did a student film at USC film school, and then I wrote a movie script.
I went to Cannes, France, to try to get financial backing to make my movie. Hugh Hefner was going to put up the money, but we wanted Oliver Stone to direct my movie, and Oliver turned us down, so Hef backed out and I lost my financial backing. I was hoping to find the money in Cannes, but no one was interested, they just wished me luck.
Meanwhile the economy was getting worse and worse, and I was seeing more and more homeless people.
I experienced homelessness myself a couple of times. It could happen to anyone. Life was getting harder and harder for me, and finally the economy got so bad that it was impossible to find a job anywhere, even for minimum wage. And the film and acting jobs have been leaving for Canada, and to other places. I worked at Universal Studios between AVC and acting school and at that time it was owned by the Japanese. Fewer and fewer companies in California are American owned. And eventually I suffered from a nervous breakdown and came out of the hospital homeless. That was when I met people on a whole new path of helping others.
The economy has been getting worse and worse, and after I came out of the hospital homeless I was put into a group home, which was a mansion full of guys who had come out of the hospital homeless just like me, and then I met Lisa, Lisa is a wealthy business woman from the Philippines who has dedicated her life to helping other people. She has been helping the homeless all of her life. And she was friends with Suzanne Pleshette, and I even had Suzanne's telephone number in my wallet, so Lisa loved me right from the beginning. I helped Lisa in every way that I could, and I learned a lot from her. And I met other people through her who were out there helping people.
And the economy continued to get worse and worse, and more and more people are ending up homeless.
So, I met people like my friend Tom, he got together with my Uncle Dennis and they got a team together of people from N/A and they all worked for free to raise money to help to feed hungry people. They had a team of about 50 people who all worked for free selling beer and hot dogs and ice cream and stuff at Angel Stadium and at the Rose Bowl, etc, they all worked for free and they raised over a million dollars to feed the hungry people, they raised the money for the group "Canning Hunger."
So, the economy is getting worse and worse, but people have been working to help the homeless and to feed the hungry, etc. I met a lot of people who spend their lives helping other people. So, yes, it has been getting worse, but at the same time more people are rising up to help other people.
California has lost over 500,000 jobs to China alone, and we have record numbers of homeless people. But, at the same time, we have more and more people who are helping the poor people. And the cities, such as Anaheim, are doing more to help the homeless, etc.
And now we are focused on getting fair trade deals with the world, which I have been wanting forever, we need a fair trade deal with China, and with Japan, etc. We need to fix our trade deals.
We need to fix our trade deals, and we need to help our homeless people, and we need to get the homeless people off of the streets and into housing, and we need to create new jobs here in the USA so that everyone can get a job.
I have been watching our economy for a long time, and right now is the worst I have ever seen it, but at the same time more people are helping the needy, and we are fighting for fair trade, so there is hope. Although I am an optimist, and I always have hope.
(And none of our problems in the USA have been caused by Mexicans or Latinos. the Latinos are our Christian allies who come and work in our fields, etc. California has a great agriculture industry because of the Latino immigrants.)
Salute,
Tony V.
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