So much has happened since I last wrote. The American Jobs Act got screwed over by the Republican party. Like the sticker says: Republicans: Keeping millions out of work to put one man out of a job.
Qaddafi is dead. Mubarak might be soon. Both those men lived long enough to see their worlds change; their countries and their people change. And thank you Mr. Dylan: Yes, times they are again, a-changin', and not for the better. Amazing what I see in the streets of this country this week. Pay attention people. Your government is showing its true colors and it ain't pretty at all. History is being made.
Following protests in Africa and Europe, there is now a movement in the United States. This has been going on since September in NYC. It is called Occupy Wall Street. It is spreading like wildfire across this country. It is amazing. It is a bunch of people who are frankly quite tired of being the pissing pot for the rich 1% of the United States. OWS is the 99% of the people who are NOT the uber-rich, all powerful, corporate/banking gurus of the 21st century. No, that is the 1%. OWS consists of the everyman and everywoman. The ones who did all the things right: They went to high school and got into college, chose an appropriate career path and graduated from college. They now, like myself, cannot find a job. Most of the time it works like this: If you can find an opening in your field (Mine is Education and our budgets have been slashed to the marrow so you know jobs for teachers are hard to come by.) you are up against a ton of others who are just as good as you and want the job and need the job just as much. When you apply for positions out of your field you are quickly reminded that you are "over qualified" for the job you are applying for. This is HR speak for we are not going to hire you because we know you'll leave as soon as you can be hired in your field. Funny. I have never met anyone over qualified to pay bills or eat - just to work. People are fed up. We are tired of the corporations getting all the tax breaks and still sending viable employment to other (usually Third World) countries with no standards of employment and/or safety, and all the while making record profits for their share holders. We are tired of people saying we should quit complaining and get a job. Really? How brain damaged are you? We are tired of conservatives acting like what we want is for the Wall Street Bankers to open their windows and toss down cash to the masses. That is crap! What I want (and I am pretty sure most of the others involved want) is a job that can support me and allow me to be able to pay my bills. I don't want out of my bills, I just want to be able to pay them.
My bills include a car payment's worth (a nice car, mind you) of student loan payments. I'm no different than anyone - if they want to forgive my debt, I'm there and all for it; I will settle for a teaching job. While they are at it, they can work on credit card debt forgiveness up to, say, $5,000 per household. How about this one: Anyone that is even 1 month behind on their mortgage payments have all delinquent payments tacked on to the end of the loan plus 3 months. This way families might be able to dig themselves out of the financial hole unemployment and recession has hit them with. The banks don't lose the money - it is only deferred for a few months. That is a few months where a family might can actually get caught up on their bills. And sorry, Mr. President: I don't think "incentives" to get businesses to hire is working so how about penalties if they don't. How about amending some trade agreements while you're at it. If you are a United States company/corporation and you want to sell something in the United States you have to either make it here or pay through the a$$ to bring it into this country to be sold. Tax breaks only for companies that support Americans by giving them PERMANENT FULL TIME JOBS WITH USABLE AND AFFORDABLE BENEFITS! And, if the company is a foreign company, they can get a tax break also by having manufacturing inside the United States' borders and hiring U. S. citizens. This is a no-brainer people!
I thank goodness my husband can work, but in a job he has held for over 20 years, he has lost money for the last five years. His earnings have been stable, but our insurance has increased every year in cost and every year it has covered less and less. This upcoming year we have a multi-thousand dollar deductible that has to be met in total before the insurance company covers their 80%. No, this does not include medications. That is separate with its own deductible. This insurance costs us over $400 a month. That means that in one year we will pay $4,800.00 plus our "deductible" of several thousand dollars. It is insane. Kill all the lawyers? Heck no, get rid of the insurance companies first. It will cost us major money in 2012. I have some health issues. I have to see 2 different doctors several times a year to take care of these issues and also have lab work performed on a regular basis. I have a couple of other doctors I see a couple of times a year. I guess I won't be seeing anyone at all unless they won't refill my medication or I am truly sick; and I will go into debt to see them at all. I won't be able to afford to go regularly. Just look at an office visit, a chest x-ray, and some plain labwork. Each visit will cost over $300 that I just don't have. I guess the plan is that if you NEVER go to the doctor, they win (because you are paying them $4,800 a year) and if you die, well they win, too (they don't have to pay anything). The plan stinks. We have no recourse. It is all we have available. I guess if I got a job, we could maybe use my insurance but that doesn't seem likely. My career says I have to have my job for 3 consecutive years before it is stable. I am a teacher. I have to work for 3 consecutive years before I have tenure and a guaranteed job somewhere in this county. I have plenty of friends that worked last year and this year, they are subbing occasionally just like me. It is like this all over the country (Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, St. Louis, Orlando, Houston, etc.). So that means if I get a job and keep it for three years, I still have to wait for that fourth year before switching us to my insurance. Gee, I hope we stay well for a good long time.
Shame on the government flunkies in the United States with corporate and banking fingers holding on to their shoulders and their wallets. Shame on you. Occupy Wall Street has my support. I am one of the 99%. I have no doubts about that. All it takes is a look at my bank account and I know for sure I am not one of the 1% - not even close. Our way of life wasn't broken and you jerks fixed it anyway. You had no right! Now it IS broken and you refuse to lift a finger to help us. Thomas Jefferson said: "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." I refuse to remain silent any longer. I refuse to allow tyranny to prevail. GIVE ME MY COUNTRY BACK. It is my American Dream, too! How dare you steal it from me! I will not forgive. I will not forget. I will actively campaign and vote against you and everyone who makes a conscious choice to vote against legislation that can improve the current crisis in our homeland.
Now, this week, we see city leaders inside this country insisting their police departments rid their streets and parks and parking lots of Occupy members. How dare they! American citizens have rights. This is not a police state and Oakland, no matter how you think you can sugar coat it: The fact is your police showed up in RIOT gear to a peaceful protest. Your police intentionally instigated violence and then your police fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets directly into a crowd of people without concern for citizen safety. Oakland, your police injured citizens who were doing nothing more than exercising their civil rights and they did it intentionally and without remorse. How dare you! Atlanta is insisting people leave and threatening them with violence if they don't. This is happening all over in several cities. Hello!!! You are violating our rights as citizens of the United States of America. How dare you! What is so completely ironic is that those same city leaders do not realize they are the little people too. They are part of the 99% as well. They are part of the 99% simply because they are not part of the 1%. They only do the dirty work of the 1%. When the 1% has no use for them any longer they will toss them aside like a week old newspaper. Wake up. We are the 99%. We love what our country is supposed to be. We will fight for our country against the tyranny of the 1%. You, taught us not to tolerate terrorists and we see the 1% as the biggest terrorist threat to America since England. We now know and we no longer will be kept silent. You made this mess now clean it up.
