Give me Health Care or Give me....uh, well, nevermind

OK, I never thought my blog would get political, but then again, I never thought politics would get so "bloggy." "Bloggy" in this context means stupid, in case you were wondering. I don't even care who I offend, so as for my "friend" who told me that one time I was bitter, let me put out this disclaimer saying yes, I'm bitter. If bitterness offends you stop reading now.

OK, for us on a personal note, nothing has really changed. It reminds me of a time when I was a little girl. My mom had back problems and my dad would crack her back to relieve tension. I told her I wanted him I wanted him to crack my back. My mom asked if I had back pain and I said that my back had always felt that way. Maybe I had pain, but had just gotten used to living with it, so to answer her question, I didn't really know if I was experiencing pain.

It seems remotely painful what we're going through, but I've gotten so used to it, I'm not sure if it's painful, or if it's just life. I'm starting to be convinced that it's just life, which frankly, scares me. Last we heard, Mim and Cat still want to tour our building.

Let me say this, when we first took over the business, after paying way more than it was worth, we had to take Mim and Cat along to an industry convention to Phoenix. On that trip, which they convinced us they HAD to attend, we paid for all of their expenses. See, Mim told us they were doing us a favor by introducing us to all the industry "gurus." "Gurus," that's what Mim called all of these ancient, crackly old cronies.

So, in 110 degree Arizona heat, we unfolded to find Mim and Cat poolside, never looking more lively. In fact, it was as though Ponce de Leon entirely missed his search for the fountain of youth, and it was found by Mim and Cat in the form of a free trip with all the food and beverages you could consume, or shove into a white, polyurethane, leatherette purse.

Cat even seemed giddy at times, and at the hoe-down, she was cracking jokes and rubbing elbows with all the guru wives until Mim slapped his hand over her mouth, telling her to shut up. It was disturbing, and she almost cried. However, she was well on the road to recovery the next day when, leaving us behind to flounder by ourselves, they took a Jeep ride with some cronies across the desert landscape. Aside from being overheated, I was already simmering, since Rick and I paid for that Jeep ride. In fact, as they toured, rode, ate, wined, dined, took pony rides, had their pictures taken on Santa's lap, and relaxed, we paid for it all: They spared no expense to us at this proverbial fountain of youth.

While Rick and I stayed pretty close to the convention, waiting to garner the ever elusive key to our success, Mim and Cat partied like it was 1999. Cat started accounting for her energized, rejuvenated spirit, by saying that Arizona's arid climate made her feel alive and she wanted to move there. In my estimation, I think the devil is simply at home in the heat. Rick was pretty sure that the free stuff brought both Mim and Cat to life. All I know is that no one was sick, creaky, or had any lingering ailment that had previously been ever-present in California. Like an old lady wrought with rheumatoid arthritis who is suddenly healed by the sight of a jingling slot machine, oozing with hundreds of shiny silver coins, Cat was healed with bilking us at this desert oasis.

Well, today as I readied myself for my unemployment interview, my heart began to pound. I have never filed for unemployment before. I was nervous. Getting money for being unemployed bothers me, though Rick and I actually stopped taking salaries last October - that would be October 2008. We were trying to get this business out of a rough spot. You know, land it on drier ground. We were trying to weather the storm, which, with stupid optimism, we felt would pass any day.

So, when the lady called, because they will call you, you cannot call them, my heart was in my throat. She sounded friendly. I was encouraged. Then, I asked a question. "Mrs. Smith! Mrs. Smith! Mrs. Smith, I am talking," she said. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I could ask questions," I said. The way she yelled at me, you would have thought I had incited a riot, but I'd only asked if they'd gotten some paperwork I'd sent over a month ago. "I am talking right now, so no you cannot ask a question. I am conducting an interview. Do you understand that?"

Again, I apologized, because clearly we both knew who was in control of my situation, and it was not me. "I'm sorry, I thought this was a fluid conversation." "It is not. It is an interview. Do you understand what an interview is?" I nodded and said yes. She let me know that this interview and her approval or disapproval would determine whether or not I got unemployment benefits. She asked no more than four questions, and I could have sworn I heard a gavel and a "denied" stamp hit my paperwork on her side of the phone. I would know within ten days of our telephone interview, but I would need to e-mail any disputes, rather than call, because they are overloaded with telephone calls and the phones ring constantly busy.

Afterwards, I felt lame. Chloe asked what that call was about. I told her that the government takes our money to pay into unemployment. It is money they are supposed to set aside in case you become unemployed and need money until you find employment, like a government run temporary savings account until you can find a job and get paid again. It's a pretty simple system really, unless your government bilks you, bankrupting what you've paid to insure your unemployed times, or denying you for some unknown reason.

Seriously, I've applied, sent resumes and according to the County of Santa Clara, pursued a job they never even posted. I've never even gotten a call back, except for the Santa Clara County thing, which seemed more like a baffled, head-scratching inquiry than a callback. I will assume that a mom whose taken time off to raise her children is not the optimal employee, since you have as much as said in words unspoken, that your family comes first.

To clarify, I am teaching at the kids' school, but that's an unpaid position. God has allowed and disallowed certain things, and I know it's for a reason. I'm OK with that; however, I'm never good with getting bilked. I'm never good at being lied to. Unemployment is something we've paid into. It's something that is supposed to be there, because essentially it's our money. For whatever reason, our government convinced us that they could handle our money better than we could, should we ever have a rainy day, and stupidly, we believed them.

Now, they want to take care of our health care system, because our cutting edge health care isn't working for them...er, I mean for us. Health care is one third of our nation's economy and greedy government wants some of that. I love that they keep pointing to Europe, because whoever said we wanted to be like Europe? I didn't. I love our country and my health care, for which we pay plenty. I also love that this country was founded on Christian principles, though its been eliminated through historical revisionism.

The least "religious" of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, insisted that they open in prayer every morning during the composition of the Constitution, lest they get distracted by God's plans for our country, but you never hear that. In fact, he told those at the Constitutional Convention, "In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard; and they were graciously answered." He then went on to say, "I have lived, sir, a long time; and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men."

Benjamin Franklin was 81 when he gave that speech to the likes of George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Patrick Henry. Not one of the fifty five men at the convention dismissed Franklin's speech as the delusional ramblings of an old man, because they knew too that adherence to God had gotten them far.

Last week an elderly man openly opposed health care reform in a town hall meeting with Pete Stark. The elderly man quoted Judge Judy when he said,"Don't pee on my leg and then tell me it's raining." Pete Stark retorted: "I wouldn't dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn't be worth wasting the urine."

Before that, Sheila Jackson responded to a cancer survivor's questions and opposition to health care reform in Houston: Representative Sheila Jackson got on her cell phone while the woman asked questions that would directly complicate care for her and her daughter, should their rare type of cancer reoccur.

See, the problem I have with this is the way they responded to the people they represent. These public servants - Stark and Jackson - were discrediting the very people they are supposed to represent. Different than Representative Joe Wilson's "You lie," outburst directed at the president, these public servants were censoring through public humiliation the people. They wanted to make clear that opposition will be dealt with accordingly.

Can you even imagine our forefathers acting out this way? Can you imagine? A government founded by irreverent, vulgar, disrespectful rouges? Frankly, when I heard that Joe Wilson yelled out, "You lie," I immediately thought of Patrick Henry. "Give me liberty or give me death." I suppose Joe Wilson kept his outburst to a simple two-liner, because insisting on death might easily be taken care of, given the fact that some czars believe in Sharia Law. I mean, someone could take care of that emphatic death plea, right?

All I know is that our country is completely out of whack. The government is making huge sweeps to take what is not theirs. They have taken what's yours and mine, and lied about what they're doing with it. The same way Mim and Cat deceived us, the government has done the same. They have told us that if we paid them in the form of taxes, unemployment insurance, ecetera, that they would take care of us. Now, they want to "help" us with our health. Can you even imagine?

With the money I've paid into unemployment I can't even get a live person on the telephone. I am chastised like a toddler pulling the hair out of the family cat when I ask questions, and it's up to the discernment of a rude woman who couldn't care less about me, as to whether I get unemployment pay or not. Seriously, if Benjamin Franklin were alive today, he'd have already been given the "Your Life - Your Choices" handbook, because let's be serious...81 is old.