(no subject)

[terrorlynn]

Okay, kids, I dont talk politics very much at all because I know that I am friends with a good deal of people all over the political spectrum and I dont feel articulate enough to argue my viewpoints most of the time. Today, however, Im pissed off and willing to argue.

For those of you that read fark, you know how common it is to see a tagline that starts with "Having solved all other problems." That, in fact, is my favorite tagline, and so I will use it here. Having solved all other problems in America, our President decides to request a $2.9 trillion dollar budget, $258 billion of which will be spent in Iraq and Afghanistan in the next two years."

Now, I know that we are one of the richest nations, if not the richest nation in the world. I believe that as a country that has more than others, we are socially obligated to help less fortunate countries when they have some natural disaster. I believe that we should work with the U.N. to strive for fair labor practices and a living wage that allows people to work a reasonable number of hours a week, put food on the table, a roof over their head, and clothes on their back. Other than that, I think that our damn money should be spent at home. We have kids in our country that arent getting an education that will even allow them to perform basic math and reading skills. We have a large percentage of our population living without health insurance, some with serious chronic illnesses. We have parents that work hard, but have to make the choice to feed their kids or feed themselves. Choose between the gas to drive to work or keeping your heat on in the bitter February cold.

Now maybe this sounds a little Pollyanna of me, but damn it, I'd be a lot happier to spend money to improve the country in which I live before my government goes shoving its nose places it doesnt belong, fighting in wars that arent any of our damn business. Im sick to death of hearing the death reports every day on the news, American and Iraqi and Afghani. Im sick of a lot of things in this country...and while I know money doesnt fix everything, it sure is a damn good place to start.

/rant.

PS - Im driving to Roseville to see a doctor today. Arent you all proud?

Comments

[farawaypoints.livejournal.com]

You know, I completely agree with you. I think it's interesting that we give so much foreign aid and yet do so little to help our own children. If a child grows up in a disadvantaged family here in America, chances are good that they will go on to have their own disadvantaged family down the line.

Poverty is a cycle, not a choice, and yet so many people in this country treat the poor as "idiots who made a lot of stupid choices". Poor people are lazy - if they wanted more money, wouldn't they work harder? They want insurance - shouldn't they get a better job that provides it for them? They want a better quality of education for their kids - can't they just move to a district with better schools? They want to afford for their kids to go to college - hey, they should have saved up their money for that.

Everyone knows that the cost of the average college education has skyrocketed while the average earnings of a family of four have stagnated. So people are being put into more debt. The catch-22 is that everyone knows that it's nearly impossible to get a good job - any good job - without a college education. Hell, that's why I'm going this fall. I can't wipe someone's ass for a living without a B.A. in buttwiping.

I don't know where I'm going with this angry ranting, but I could go on like this for a while. Bottom line, I agree with you.

[terrorlynn.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the point of angry ranting is just to angrilly rant.

I agree with you a whole lot, and about a year and a half ago, I could have slapped my rich little white girl self in the face. Travis's mother and grandparents were selling their old house to move to a newer one that had more elderly people and was a safer community for Paude, who has Alzheimers. Travis was telling me about how his mom had to take out a very sizeable loan in order to pay for her share of the house, and I looked at him in honest confusion and said, "Couldn't she have taken that out of her savings account?"

He stared at me in astonishment for a second and in that very moment it dawned on me that a single mother of three boys wouldnt really have money to save. That when every penny is going towards clothing the kids, feeding the kids, making sure they can do everything they want to do, to the point that sometimes you dont eat...well...savings is pretty low on the list of priorities.

I could have shot myself in embarassment.

Sadly, I think that a lot of people from the area I grew up would have had the same reaction I did...maybe even without the added realization of how stupid they sounded at the end of it all.

Sometimes, poor people are lazy. Sometimes, rich people are lazy. SOMETIMES, people are just freaking lazy, regardless of their social or economic status. No matter who you are, if you dont even make the effort to better yourself and your station in life, then I dont have any empathy for you. I dont think people that are lower on the economic scale need pity. I think they need more ways to move up the freaking scale.

[farawaypoints.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's kind of hard to have economic mobility when you start out disadvantaged. It's not impossible to better your station in life but it sure isn't easy and most people can't.

Want to get a better job to provide for your family? Ooooh...you're going to need a college education which will leave you in thousands of dollars worth of debt. Want to take out a loan to move your family out of the ghetto? Oooh, so sorry. You don't make enough money and you have bad credit besides. And so on.

And sometimes, people are just unfortunate, and laziness and stupidity have nothing to do with it. One of the biggest reasons for bankruptcy filings? Unpaid medical bills. People and/or their children who have chronic illnesses that render them unable to work for periods of time, who need expensive surgeries, who get into car accidents...etc. It's sad. One of the biggest changes this country needs is affordable health care. Whether that means a universal health-care system or stronger regulations on drug companies, or something else, it needs to happen.

It terrifies me to know, as one of the millions of Americans without health insurance, that one serious illness or injury could financially devastate me completely and impoverish me for years. My existence is already tenuous enough without figuring out how I'm going to afford chemo or physical therapy.

I can sum this up in a tiny sentence:

[autumnsfire.livejournal.com]

Bush is a fucking idiot.

I cant.

[terrorlynn.livejournal.com]

See, this is where I might slightly, occasionally, now and again disagree with you. I think our government at large is populated with extremely intelligent people that have no wisdom at all. In D&D terms, politicians have +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, and a +10 class bonus to Bluff, Appraise, and either Diplomacy or Intimidate. (The nerdery ends here).

Bush has capitalized on the good ole boy act that originally appealed to most of middle America. He talked about the "old fashioned American values" that people claim to want. He was smart enough that at least 51% of Americans wanted him in charge for 4 years at a time. Thats why I dont like him. I think he's made a lot of bad decisions in office, but I think he is far from being a complete idiot. I worry more about the intellect of the Americans that elected him.

Re: I cant.

[autumnsfire.livejournal.com]

I honestly think Bush is pushed more by people such as Cheney and Rove. I can't give the guy credit on his own for a lot of those bad decisions. I think he *thinks* he's doing the right thing.

51% included a lot of very right winged Christian evangelists that usually never bother to vote. He played on their fears of terrorism, gay marriage (for whatever reason that's a fucking hotbutton) and other things.

And then toss out the fact the Democrats elected KERRY (?!!?!?!) to get the nod over anyone else out there and Kerry can't speak his way out of a debate with a snoozing lobotomy patient. So..that didn't help much.

And you are more than allowed to disagree with me darlin. I love debates and discussions - so feel free to keep doing it :)

Much love.

[anam-chara.livejournal.com]

Im driving to Roseville to see a doctor today. Arent you all proud?

Yes.

[mrks-redflame.livejournal.com]

Yep - I'm proud too. Good luck with it and I hope it all goes ok. Or if you're reading this after seeing the doc, I hope it went ok.

*hugs*

xx

[kaytilake.livejournal.com]

what Amity said!

it like lieing

[spirit-of-zen.livejournal.com]

you know how when you tell one lie, you have to lie again to make up for the first lie, then you have to lie to cover the cover up lie and so on and so on..... well politics sort of runs in a similar fashion, lets review the tape.

despite the majority vote, the electoral college put Bush in office.... thats mistake number 1

mistake 2 - we failed to catch Osama, so now we see mistakes number 1 and 2 lead to many many more

mistake 3 - we went to Ira

auugh i hate it when that happens

[spirit-of-zen.livejournal.com]

i cut myself off... damn you keyboard of doom!

so mistake 3 - went to Iraq, blew it up

so the mistakes of today and the overbudgeting of funds to rebuild those nations we invaded and dismantled are simply the latest in a long line of mistakes and are likely not the end of the chain. I am quite sure two or three Presidents into the future, we will still be trying to correct the mistakes of this President.

only time will tell.