The 47% Wants to Work

This is what the 47% looks like

Jen Brockman, @jenbrockchalk

2:25 pm on 11/02/2012

Brooklyn commuters wait in long, snaking line to board a shuttle to midtown Manhattan.

This is how serious New Yorkers are about going to work: the line for the free shuttle to get from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan stretched for blocks Thursday morning.
Without subway service, all of these people were forced to take the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s shuttles.
Some people reported waiting in line for up to three hours. But they also told WNBC-TV reporter Katherine Creag that they wanted to try to get back to their jobs. Most said they craved a sense of normalcy. Others said they just didn’t like being away from the job for more than a couple of days.
We can’t know how many of these people could have taken the day off. Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked all city workers to report for duty, as long as it was safe to do so.
We do know that the majority of the people who stood in the snaking lines around Barclays Center decided they wanted to work today. They decided it was worth the hassle and the wait.
But back in May, Mitt Romney accused 47% of Americans of being “victims” who “believe they’re entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
Could Mitt Romney honestly look at these pictures and call any of these people “entitled” as they wait in line to go to work?

Brooklyn commuters wait to board shuttles at Barclays Center (11/1/12) (rachelinbrooklyn.tumbler)

This line is long and tedious. Crowding into a shuttle bus for a commute that could take hours is daunting, to say the least.
But this isn’t about “victims.” It runs totally counter to the way Mitt Romney thinks 47% of Americans normally behave. And here’s the bottom line: this is how New York gets to work.