Mourning The Loss of A Childhood Idol

Since I was a baby...I have been going to & enjoying a place entitled "The Happiest Place On Earth". I own films by this mega giant & have enjoyed them to the point that I know them word for word, song by song, start to finish. I have gone to the parks & spent countless amounts of my hard earned money supporting the company. I considered myself extremely lucky to be able to perform in the parks & actually sing in the studios. I dreamed of the day that I would be employed by this sweet dream of a company & proudly wore the costume I thought I had earned when I was actually employed by them. I even became one of their most prized employees. I fought word wars in their honor & gave up a huge piece of me to the eternal "happy place".

Now...I am completely broken hearted & in deep mourning over the loss of the dream that used to be so true to me. It's like waking up Christmas morning & finding no special presents under the tree from Santa Claus. It even hurts just as much as walking in & finding that special love of your life bedding someone who is not you. At first, I was in total denial. I blamed myself...I blamed the media...I just simply could not wrap my mind around the thought of something that I held soooo true & dear to my heart ultimately revealing itself to be a company that was just out for itself no matter what.

As one day led to the next, the realization started to settle in. The denial became a reality & now I find myself in complete dismay that something that claims to be such a great thing is absolutely no better then the one that takes candy from a baby just to turn around & throw the candy in the gutter while spitting in the baby's face & walking away laughing. I know that sounds really bad & I'm pretty sure that there are MANY out there that would have harsh words for me in retaliation...hell...I USED to be that person! Not any more. My eyes are very much wide open now & yet I'm STILL being punished by the company even though I'm no longer directly a part of it.

As I sit in this pained place of hurt & dismay...I'm constantly being reminded of how bad this company has gotten. In the past 3 weeks, the company has been in the news in not so flattering a light. They recently lost a law suit where they denied earned benefits to their employees. They are currently fighting against giving benefits like sick time & maternity leave. They are also battling against the FMLA standards. They are sinking their employees financially via over priced medical costs & even having employees pay back health benefits that they earned while working for them. Tonight I even heard on the news about this company being the second largest employer on this planet to be completely under-paying their employees.

Now what I'd like to know is....how can we continue to support a company that purposely has it's employees lie to it's patrons & yet takes total advantage of their employees in the process? They have their "Cast Members" smile & create "magic" all while also snapping the employees' kneecaps in the same breath. Do they not realize that without those employees...there would be NO "magic" in the first place?! The company now has several billion $$ empires but won't put that money into its own employee benefits. There are many employees that have spent their entire working lives there, only to be told that they are not fully vested when the time comes for retirement (yes this IS true as I'm partnered with one).

The "happiest place on Earth" should be relabeled "the worst company to work for on Earth". I want to make sure that you all know that I'm not simply a disgruntled ex-employee who has a bitter taste left in his mouth...but a person who is truly mourning the loss of his childhood idol. I make this plea to Disney: FIX THIS!!! You are ONLY as good as those whom you employ! Keep them happy so that the phrase "happiest place on Earth" also goes for "happiest place to work".