Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings

I started this blog to vent my feelings, and guess what? Today I am venting!!!!

I can't believe the health care debate right now. I won't claim the plans put forward are that great but some of the things being discussed have no relevance in my opinion. All I want is a mature discussion on what this country is going to do about health care. It is a viable question. Costs are going up, a lot of employers are no longer offering it as a benefit, and a lot of us are to young and/or healthy for medicare/medicaid.
So what do I hear? Don't have kids if you can't afford them. Get a better education ergo better job. If we have government run health care, people will die from lack of care. The USA has the best health care in the world so why mess with it?
Who is having this discussion? Crack smokers? Okay, maybe that is a little unfair to label EVERYONE a crack smoker but honestly, who's healthcare are they talking about? Numerous studies show that the USA does not have the top healthcare in the world. Not one plan put forward includes death squads. But the real clincher for me is the "don't have kids/find a better employer argument.
Let me tell you a story.
When I was in high school, we were told that a good job was one that offered benefits. Hence don't work fast-food/be a gas-jockey/work retail. Go to college, get an education, and get a good job-and a good job was one that had benefits.
So, my husband and I went to college. We got good jobs. His was with the family business, but it had the benefits so it fit the criteria. My job asked us to pay for part of our health care. Okay, so not so good but economy sank and we were lucky to have jobs so it still seemed good.
I got fired.
I got a part-time job. Okay, those never come with benefits, but it was great for raising a family so I took it. Plus, my husband had benefits-I married a man with a "good" job. And after 9 months of looking, I was happy to have a job again.
1 part-time job, 1 full-time job with health benefits.
We had a kid.
We lost employer paid health care.
So now, we are paying for the family, but Nick is covered. Okay, we can absorb that. It isn't pretty but by cutting back on extras, we managed. Besides, no one promised a free ride and we knew that this was being a grown-up.
We go for kid number 2.
We lose all employer based health care.
So where in the argument should we have done something different? I guess we did choose to have kids AND we choose not to consult our crystal ball to see into the future but now we have 2 kids and no employer based health care. I guess we both could have chosen different careers, degrees, etc. but we followed through with dogma we were fed in high school-we got degrees and we got good jobs. The good jobs turned bad while we were there though so now what? With 2 kids and a mortgage, who just walks out and assumes they can find a good job?
It could be worse-I am not complaining about "how bad we have it" and I know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the same boat as us.
I get pissed, because after all is said and done, some asshole says that people like me feel we are entitled to health care. As I keep hearing, health care isn't a right, it is earned.
Know what I want to say to that? F*** You. (Okay, even in my blog I have a hard time with using the F*** word! Girl Scout runs strong in me!)
F*** You F*** You F*** YOU!!!!!
And then when we talk about medicare/medicaid, we don't dare touch those because THOSE people need it. So I guess what that means is that some of us are entitled but some of us aren't?
And you want to know the truth? After all the brou-ha-ha from the conservatives about the sancitity of life and how precious it is, yeah, I feel entitled. I feel like if I get sick, I should be able to go to the doctor without worrying about how much it will cost me. I want to go to the doctor's without worrying if this will cause my insurance to cancel me for being "sickly". I want to be able to get the preventative care the health community says I should have so I can live a long life and be there for my children-hopefuly my grandchildren. And dammit, I want the health care I was promised if I worked hard and got a good job. Or at least chose a partner who had a good job so we could work together and not be a drain on society.
Billy Joel sang a song called "Allentown" in the 1980's. It was about the mining industry in Pennsylvania, but it rings true today as well. We were promised a good job if we did the right thing; we did the right thing and we got screwed. It sucks that over 2 decades later, we are singing the same damn tune.

What Did I Miss?

The latest thing making the rounds on the internet and the op-ed pages of the newspaper is that we should all be scared. Apparently Obama is leading us down the path of socialism and we will not only end up losing our rights, AND have to pay through the nose for it. We should all be scared. Really scared.
Hmmmm.....
Under the last administration we attacked countries that possibly have nuclear power, and hate the USA to boot. That scared me.
Under the last administration, the deficiet grew to astronomical numbers, and no benefit to anyone as far as I can tell. That scared me.
The current president hasn't been there a year and yet the problems of health care, unemployment, and the melt down of the banking business/mortgage industry go back prior last January.
Don't worry, I am scared but not because of the direction we are headed too. I got scared by the direction we were led 8 years ago.

Focusing...

Just to clarify my last post, I know this is a huge topic that could encompass more. And I know that everyone has a different story. All I am focusing on is the people who won't seek help when it is available. Don't even get me started on the health care system in this country. That is an important dynamic of the issue of mental health, but all I am talking about is the one issue of the attitude of people who "don't want drugs" even if they could help.

An immortal soul

An immortal soul: "I rant and rave about the negative side of science and lo' and behold, I found a good side this weekend.
I found out from a friend, who shall remain nameless, that they suffer from Depression. They didn't call it that, but it is. When you say you have a big hole inside of you and if it didn't hurt those around you, you would welcome death, I call that Depression.
So I ask 'Bernard', how come they don't do something about it?
Bernard responds, 'I don' want to take drugs.'
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
I don't understand that, I honestly don't. That is such an old-fashioned response, but so common and it drives me nuts. And if you think I haven't been there, ask me about my post-partum again, when I sat there and cried because I couldn't decide what to eat for dinner.
Why are people so willing to pop pills for headaches and colds (including Bernard), but when it comes to mental health, everyone goes up in arms against 'drugs'?
How many chemicals are there in the human body? How much do we need of EACH chemical to be a functioning adult? How many chemical changes do we go through in our lives? Exposure to pollutants, having babies, going through menopause, just getting older-all these things change the make-up of our bodies.
I may be on anti-depressants the rest of my life. I may stop after this year. I don't know yet. But I sure as hell don't see why I should have to live in misery because I don't want...happiness? I am afraid of the stigma?
It kills me because I am the one making Science such a bad guy and it finally does something good and people don't want to touch it. Experiments on rats have given us epidurals (God's gift to pregnant women), AND that there are medicines to take so we don't have to suffer with certai"

Catch The Tunes

Hey, if you follow my Facebook, you may have caught that I made a playlist. Guess what? Here it is!!! This is so awesome and I feel like I got caught up with technology!!! Although by the time I wake up tommorrow, it will have passed me by again. Oh well. If you don't like the music, just turn the volume down. Otherwise, rock on!!!!!
It is kind of cool too, because now you can learn what kind of music I like.