I'll Pray For You

If you have EVER told a sick friend, “I will pray for you,” but don’t consider the Affordable Care Act* miraculous, what were you praying for?

It is affordable insurance that cover 48mm people who don’t have access to GOOD medical care. Yet the people most opposed are middle class, white Americans WITH insurance. The people who need it least want to continue the trend where those who have the least get nothing.

But, don’t forget, they’ll “Pray for you.” 

If God really was going to answer our prayers for the sick, short of spontaneous recovery of all the sick, everywhere, what should it look like? Smoke and mirrors? Thunder and lightning? Rivers running red? Oh wait, that’s supposed to be the ‘end of times guy’.

Maybe, instead, it is cheaper prescriptions for the elderly (and everyone else, by the way). Free wellness checks and flu shots (you’re not sick, let’s keep you that way). Birth control coverage (because Joe & Judy wanting to show they love each other, affectionately (yes that means SEX), does NOT imply that they HATE God, just because they still want to be able to make the housing payment instead of raising six kids.

Then, God would get really serious. Pre-existing conditions, damn right God would cover them. How do I KNOW this?  Jesus did NOT heal the healthy, he healed the SICK!

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

http://www.songandpraise.org/jesus-loves-the-little-children-hymn-lyrics.htm

Yes, as a parent, himself, God understands our children still need our help at 19, 21, 24. It takes time to get established in this world and still need their parents help. Something as simple as staying of parent’s insurance plans is a no brainer for GOD. TOO bad so many compassionate, praying Christians don’t get it.

God also says, a cap on your insurance coverage is a lot like a cap on your sin limit. “Sorry Bob, that was ONE sin too many. I am cutting you off from redemption. Sincerely, GOD” To cut someone off, just when they need you most is just WRONG. 

So, the next time you tell someone, “I’ll pray for you,” ask yourself this, what are you really praying to happen? The person to get better or die quickly? The person to get the best quality healthcare available or just move on quickly so you don’t have to deal with their depressing life, anymore. 

And, most importantly, do you really just say it so you sound like you’re going to do this really wonderful thing, when really you not going to anything that improves their situation…at all.  

From a distance we all have enough, And no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease, No hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments Marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace. They're the songs of every man.
God is watching us. God is watching us. God is watching us from a distance.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bette+midler/from+a+distance_20016990.html

* The Affordable Care Act puts consumers back in charge of their health care. Under the law, a new “Patient’s Bill of Rights” gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health. http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/index.html

Survival Mode

 I saw a video today where the speaker talked about 'survival mode'. This was a new phrase to me, but the concept, I realized, was not.

Survival Mode.

I think I have been in survival mode for years. This is why I NEVER post my true thoughts on Facebook, the only place I use my real name. There I am bland. I voice no opinions...on anything.

"When you're in 'Survival Mode', your focus is getting through the day in one piece...If there was really someone out there watching and listening and caring, I would have been rescued."

While it is true that the video pertains to lgbtq youth, it could and does easily transfer to abusive relationships, as well.  This is, of course, because as a whole, the entire lgbtq community has been treated as an American punching bag forever.

Lately, the emotion veil has been joined by both physical and financial issues, as well. The critical voice, that has long been shut off, echoes louder.

"You're a failure," turns into "I'm a failure," and 'Survival Mode' becomes a lonely place, indeed.

Our SNAP Challenge

The SNAP Challenge encourages participants to experience what life is like for millions of low-income Americans living on the average daily allowance of only $4! 
The SNAP Challenge

 Taking the SNAP Challenge:

Eat on $4/day for a week, a month or longer if you so choose.  Check out our sample menus to help you get started...

Experience hunger for yourself. Learn about the daily struggles faced by our hungry neighbors!

Engage others by sharing your experience. Create a blog, post to Facebook, & encourage friends to participate.

Not that long ago, our family 'participated' in the SNAP challenge. Not as willing volunteers, but rather, out of financial necessity.  As the job search stretched from weeks to months, and the dollars dropped from comfortable toward nonexistent, food became a priority.

Long full shelves emptied. Canned foods, that had sat unopened for years, were cooked up. Rice became an evening mainstay...the real, long grain, slow cooking rice. Not the delightful minute rice I had used forever. 

Our daughter, who lived near, by over bags of groceries, as did our our son at home. The younger girls just ate what was there without complaint. A surprise box of powered milk created a day of kitchen fun as we created several different homemade hot cocoas from odds and ends in the baking supplies. 

But, it can be dreary and depressing, spending day after day after day in a home waiting for some GOOD news. So we would occasionally eat out. I know! Completely shocking, appalling and unacceptable. Ask any of the so called Christians who want the poor to bury their heads in the sand, or be flogged in public. 

Being poor is a worse crime in this country than murder...just ask George Zimmerman. Or is it being black is the worse crime? I get confused.

Anyway, we learned that a family of four could eat at ARBIES, off of their Dollar Menu for $6 plus tax. Everyone would get our own sandwich. Again, with the frivolous. We would share a package of fries and a drink. Thank goodness for free refills!

Best of all, we we out in the real world, at least pretending that everything was alright. 

So, I have thought about doing the SNAP Challenge in the past couple of months, but I am not ready to go back there...yet. I didn't need to do it before, during or after our own personal challenge. Being a decent person is always the right thing to do.

And, why don't we drug test people before we allow them do donate money to uber crazy political groups that are screwing with our planet, our health, our bodies and our civil liberties?

Irresponsible and LAZY

It's hard to do it because you gotta look people in the eye and tell 'em they're irresponsible and LAZY. And who's gonna wanna do that? Because that's what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen. In this country, you can succeed if you get educated and work hard. Period. PERIOD.
Bill O'Reilly

People want black and white.

Good and bad.

“You get what you deserve.”

Because if that isn’t the case, bad things can happen to anyone, and who wants to believe that?

We were home owners for over twenty years in two different homes. Then, my husband lost his job of a quarter century, when a 110 year old business closed its doors. Our nest egg, retirement plan disappeared in a ‘short sale’ after our home lost over half of its value.

We were lucky enough to sell…no, wait. ALL of the programs to help people are for those who lose their home to foreclosure.

The first advice we were given was to stop paying our bills, but we were responsible people. So, we paid all of our bills through months of unemployment…until the money ran out. It didn’t take as long as it should have, because even with a severance package, the government took half in taxes. YES… half of our severance.

We THOUGHT we would get the money back at the end of the year.

No, years earlier, when life was great, and NOTHING could go wrong, we co-signed our children’s student loans~three children. That is what good parents do. One has graduated with a good job and is paying her loans back. One has graduated and can’t find a job that earns enough to pay those loans back.

And, saddest of all, the last had to drop out of school, after three years, when my husband lost his job. The loans still come due on minimum, part time work.

The tax return we were planning on to pay our bills, was taken by the government to pay past due student loan bills. The worst part is, thousands were taken and it didn’t even count as a payment. So, they were still counted as behind on their payments.

The system is set up to screw everyone.

We have a new job on the other side of the country. After having lost everything, we have yet to find our own footing. Helping our children out, isn’t even a possibility. We, however, get threats, as well, because, of course, good parents co-sign student loans. We can’t afford money taken for our paychecks with three additional adults and a teenager still living under our roof.

As we balance on maybe enough to survive, I still do guilt spending money on groceries. We can’t think about retirement, when we don’t have enough money to pay next month’s rent and it’s the 31^st.

Young adults are not the only ones caught up in the Student Loan mess.

Just don’t forget, it’s all because we are LAZY.