We Care So Much, Don't We?

Okay.

I never promised to make friends with this blog... and this would be why.

I believe in getting people to think ~ although I never promise to be nice about it.  I try to not make promises I can't keep.

So, here it goes, in a very non-politically correct way~

What the #%!&$%! is up with this Haiti thing???

Look, I'm not totally an idiot ~ I get it that there is extreme suffering, homes and lives are ruined, and the ability to save someone ~ anyone ~ alive grows lesser by the day.  That would be the last thing I would wish on anyone ~ and I hope and pray that Haiti and her people come out of this disaster as soon as possible.  But COME ON...

When was the last time three presidents called on all of us to reach deep, the Marines were deployed and the Red Cross ponied up millions of bucks for the hundreds of thousands of people living in their own private third-world hell right here in this country???  If anyone has any doubts, just go to the nearest reservation to you.  Or go on a road trip to the Appalachias.  Visit the Four Corners area in the Southwest.  Or go visit some of the really small towns in the deep South.   Have we really become that unphased by the suffering around us that we have to go to another country to find it??  Really??

I'm sure if we all thought hard enough, we would realize we all know those places in our towns and cities where no-one looks each other in the eye, and people tend to look as though they've bought their clothes from the nearest thrift store ~ or dragged it out of the trash.  We would remember seeing those people on the fringe of our vision ~ when we looked up long enough from our Blackberrys and iPhones ~ reaching into the nearest garbage can to pull out the soda and beer cans for the extra change and maybe a little bit of food someone else threw out so the hunger was just sightly less intense.  Those figures that walk down the edge of the road, bags full of their lives carried on their shoulders and often their loyal dog walking beside them.

I'm not saying that we should rush out and pour our well-earned cash into the nearest panhandler's hands.  I rarely give money to the beggars with their signs standing on the side of the road.  I'm more likely to give them a burger for lunch, or if they tell me they need gas, get them a can.  I don't like giving a handout ~ I much prefer giving a hand up.

Nor am I saying we shouldn't give whatever we want to whomever we please.  I just ask that you remember that suffering doesn't just happen in times of great tragedy.  Or in some other place.  Really look around you and you can see that tragedy has degrees, and there are many living in that state around us all the time.


That's it for now,                                                                                                                           
Susan

Stressme Street... or, it's ten o'clock - do you know where your money is?

Well, well, well...or maybe not so much.  Brought to you by the letters F*** off, or maybe even F*** up, or possibly F***me, and by the numbers Doingit2u and Doingit2u1moretime.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, in Mr. Banker's Neighborhood...you are all mine, really all mine, (okay, so I'm mixing my kiddie programs - don't like it, write your own).

I wonder, since I don't watch these at all any more - my babies are grown and living their own lives - do they ever go into the real life situations that most kids - or parents, for that matter - deal with?  Say kids, today we're going to talk about foreclosures.  Can you say foreclosures?  Do you know what those are?  Can you say a** deep in debt?  What about I-have-no-idea-how-I'm-going-to-pay-the-bills-and-we-may-be-living-on-the-street-soon?  Do you know what that means, boys and girls?

But of course you do, we all do.  It's the waking up every day wondering how you're going to make the bills today, tomorrow, next week. next month.  Because you have exhausted the orifices that you can pull money out of.  Realizing you've paid your bills and have nothing left for little things like, oh, I don't know, food.  Knowing a holiday, a birthday, an anniversary, (pick one of the above or add your own), is coming and all you can afford is a card, (one of the cheap ones).  That is, if you save up.

When I look at my own situation, I get whiny, but then I really look and I get thankful.  Thankful that I still have a good job; I still have to decide what bills get paid and what bills will have to wait, but at least we're not on the streets, thank the gods.  I have to put up with the embarrassing phone calls to the people I'm supposed to pay and let them know I'll be late with their money, but it's a late payment and not a no payment.  Dinner out means McDonald's not Olive Garden, but it's something.

And I have to remember, I wasn't as responsible about my spending when it came to credit cards, either.  As I'm sure most of you can understand and identify with, I saw and I bought without thinking a lot more often than I should have, then, as the money got shorter and shorter, I made the fatal error of using credit cards to pay other bills, (finally, other credit card bills - ack!).  As a result, I've removed credit cards from my life.  Just can't have them, or I'll use them.

So, if I can take personal responsibility for my actions and take steps to correct them, why can't others?  Like our friends, the bankers for instance; what would happen if I was not only drowning in debt but I went and asked my friends the Feds for money, they gave it to me, and I spent all their money on retreats and bonuses for myself?  Then I went back to my friends and asked for MORE money?  How is that financially responsible at all?  Then to cap it all off, the banks then have the nerve to charge their customers even worse rates, all in the name of the mighty god, Business.  My thought would be: if you want to be solvent, get responsible, dammit!!  Stop giving big bonuses to your management when you are a** deep in debt!!  Stop doing idiotic things like charging the little guy, (that's me), $35 dollars for a 77 cent overdraft!!  Yes, you heard me right - all in the name of their god, Money.  It was my mistake, yes, but $35 effing dollars for 77 cents?!  Come on, haven't they ever heard of the term can't squeeze blood from a stone?  What the...is up with that?!  #%@&#!

Almost makes me want to go live way away from people and start storing my money in my mattress and burying it in the backyard.  No dividend, (all 23 cents a year), but no overdraft either.

Hmmm...could be something to that.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood
A kick in the pants will do you good...

That's it for now.

Susan

Well, here goes nothing ... I'm in!!!

Finally!!

This whole setting-up-the-blog thing has been verrry interesting.  The first three times I attempted to make a blog, I couldn't even get into the system!  I'd get to the page for naming the blog and the html, blah-blah, and I had no friendly sign, no arrow, no nothing to allow me to actually create the damn thing.  I finally was able to get in tonight through a series of complicated steps that I will never be able to recreate again in this lifetime.

*Sigh*

It's times like these when I really would like to ...

Hmmm, I wonder if computers hear you when you curse - and laugh their computer butts off ... damn technology.


That's it for now,
Sue