What Has Happened To Us????

I cannot believe the differences from when I grew up to how my children grew up and how theirs will grow up when they have them! Things have changed too much and I think we need to go back in some ways intead of forward!
I went to school in the 70′s ad 80′s and we spent our summers hanging out with our friends outside and all over the place! Our parents knew who we were with and even though they did not know exactly where we were they did no worry. Atari came out when I was a child and not alot of people had them. If you were able to have one the you had alot of friends at your house to play it but not every day and not for hours on end! In school we said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and we went to church every sunday (whether we wanted to or not! We respected adults and authority because that was what we were taught by our parents! Computers started to come out but were not the norm so typewriters and word processors were the thing and cell phones were not around! We talked to our friends on the phone and in person, actually had whole conversations with each other! In high school mostly farm kids always had a rifle or shotgun in the back window of their truck all the time and during hunting season you were hard pressed to find a vehicle around the school without a gun yet we did not worry about it! We did not worry about someone bringing it into the school and opening fire for no reason! Bullying happened but compared to todays bullying it was nothing! Our parents did not hand us everything or buy us everything we wanted! If we wanted something, we earned the money to buy it ourselves! We did not drive brand new cars that mommy and daddy bought for us! We did chores around the house and did not get paid for it!
What happened to us? There are too many people that think they are owed something! The ME ME ME generation is absolutely ridiculous! Technology has made things worse not better! The bullying doesn’t stop at the moment it happens it continues on FB, Twitter, My Space, emails, etc. and even through youtube when someone videos the bullying and then uploads it thinking it was funny! It i forever out there and the bullied cannot get away from it, usually they end up with more harassment from people they do not know!
People do not talk to each other anymore they email, FB, tweet, and text!There is no conversation and that is an art that will be lost if the trend keeps up! I watch teens sitting at a restaurant texting each other NOT TALKING but actually texting the ones they are sitting with! Another table had a family of 4 who were all on either a phone or a tablet while eating! Mind you the children were about 5yrs and 9-10 yrs old! Families sitting down to a meal but not talking to each other drives me NUTS! My kids had to earn the money for extras including use of a USED vehicle for anything other than school or church functions! They had to pay for their on insurance and gas and when the old family car finally died they either took the bus or they had to buy a vehicle themselves! They did not have a bunch of video games, in fact there was one xbox that they had to share that they got for christmas when they were teens and they had limited time they were allowed on it! They had chores too and trust me they were not happy about it but I told them, that’s life! The first (and last) time my oldest said “my friends don’t have chores and their parents bought them a car and a new cellphone and their parents don’t ask them where they are going and they get an allowance every week! You are just MEAN!” I had to set them all down and explain that obviously they have some very lazy friends and I question whether they are telling you the truth! I love you kids and I want to make sure you can handle life but I also need to know where you are and with who because I want to make sure you are safe because I love you!
Granted they did not believe me until they got a little older! They are now 24, 23 and 21 and they all have jobs and their own places and vehicles and can cook their own meals and do their own laundry! They pay their bills and do not ask for money because they did not budget! Many of their friends who got the free ride and college paid by mom and dad are now living at home using one of mom and dads cars and working a minimum wage job because they didn’t finish or do well at college or have gotten into trouble with the law!
I look back and realize that we did not worry about gun violence and now the government wants to vote on what type of gun laws we should have!I know that here in ND there are not really any difference in the number of guns now in the state than when I was growing up and probably pretty true in many more states so what has changed so much that the gun violence has increased? We have become so politically correct and we want everyone to get a trophy in anything whether they deserve it or not, we have allowed the technology to take over our lives so much that we do not talk to each other anymore, we do not discipline our children hold them accountable for their actions! Instant gratification is all anyone seems to want and be damned anything or anyone else!
Nobody has conversations anymore they don’t really argue points the slam the other side instead and there is no compromising at all! Our Congress is the prfect example of that!
I miss those days before the total deluge of technology that has made us a very indifferent people!

ENTITLED CONGRESS!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/congress-retirement-package-compares-yours-185406482.html

The above article brings up the point I was making with my last posting! I have always believed that no senator or representative should be allowed more than 2 terms in office just like the President! There was never the intent for any elected official to stay in office long term! They are making sure that their “entitlements” are always available for them yet the money we pay into SS and Medicare every single paycheck they have “borrowed” to the point that all that is left is a bunch of IOU’s instead of the monies that should be there earning to be able to pay out when we retire! They call the money we pay in and expect back later an entitlement yet why isn’t the money that WE pay in taxes that pays THEIR salary AND their retirement funds (think about it, the match is our tax dollars as well as what they put in because WE pay them) considered and entitlement? Because they think they are above the rest of us! They put themselves onto a pillar and look down on us even though they are acting like children fighting over a toy!
This whole sequester crap is because they cannot play nice with each other! I would love to see the WHOLE tax code thrown OUT! Start over with a straight flat tax and NO loopholes! Then everyone will be paying the same percentage all the time! I hate seeing the regular guy down the street who just squeaks by paying he bills and always pays in the full taxes he should yet the wealthy jerk who really doesn’t know what it is like to put in a hard days work and still worry where the money is going to come from to pay the bills pays in almost nothing or nothing because of all the loopholes!
There are many areas that the government could cut costs without cutting SS, Medicare, Military programs, etc.,etc.. Why don’t they begin with themselves and then REALLY look at the amount of redundant garbage they have all over the government! It seems a little strange that the more things are automated and online that the workforce within the government offices keeps getting bigger! Why is that? They forced those that were getting SS to go to direct deposit so they could “save” money yet there are more people added to these offices even though the hours have been shortened for the public to go into the offices! Hell, here the office used to be open until 5pm, then it was 4:45pm, then it was 4:30 and now it is 4pm and one or two afternoons are actually closed by NOON! Trust me when I say that it is not so they can “catch up” because the employee parking lot empties very quickly! The worst is when you call to ask a question or stop in to ask and you are told to call the toll free number for that info or to order a new ss card! What are they actually doing in that office anymore!?!?!?
Almost every government office could cut its staffing in half and some more and even some could be closed because they actually have no actual purpose other than wasting money! When the government cleans up its own “backyard” then and only then can they begin to look at actually straightening out budgets!
There are a couple of other things that do bug me and one is the amount of money we keep sending to other countries to “help” them when we cannot afford to do so! I would love to be able to send money to ALL the charities that I feel are important but I could not afford to do that and neither can our government! The Congressmen from each state sit and try to figure out how much money they can get for their state so they can say “see what I was able to get just for my constituents! How great am I!” even if it is for some museum that isn’t needed or some weird grants for studying something really out there like the digestive route of a grasshopper in that particular region and if it might be different than other areas of the country or not! (WHO CARES!??!?) I know that it is called “pork” but I call it all a bunch of crap! Wasting money and not really doing anything real for their constituents at all in the end except putting this country further into debt which of course is (I guess) doing something!

Troubled Or Forgotten

I am writing this time to wonder why everyone seems to get all worked up about mass shootings but doesn’t seem to get as worked up with all the other violence that kills children everyday. I not saying that these things are not a terrible tradgedy but where is all this outrage for the ones that die daily from the ones on the street, ones that die from child abuse and those that take their own lives! Recently my 21 year old son lost 3 friends to suicide in just a month and a half period of time. One hung himself, one shot himself and one from an overdose. All three were tradgedies and two were married, another had a child and one of them had a child due this Feb. yet they took their own lives. Why did it happen? My son has taken this very hard but we talk about them and honestly when you really look at it you see where there were problems. One was bullied from grade school all the way through college and even at Job Corp (where he met my son). My son is having such a hard time because they always seemed upbeat and having fun but obviously they were hiding a lot of pain. I have said over and over that parents need to talk with their kids openly and honestly and at the same time keep them on the right track. Now I know these boys were young men and 21 to 23 years old and definitely not at home but their problems started a long time before. One lived in a home with both parents and ended up on drugs for a long time before he cleaned up and started over, got married last July and had a baby on the way but something was still troubling him. Another came from a home where his parents were divorced and it was not amicable so the fighting before and after were definitely a problem along with the fact he was bullied for being different. His difference was that he had dyslexia and did not get help for it until he went to Job Corp. He did feel better after he got that help but there were problems with a former girlfriend and her child and whether it was his or not. The last was from a home where one parent had died and the other had to work two jobs to make ends meet just to put food on the table so he spent a lot of time dealing with everything by himself and he had married in the last year or so and had a child yet there still was something wrong.

I am not saying it is all because of parents or because of bullying or anything like that but these young men needed help and did not know where to turn. I cannot imagine the helplessness they must have felt to have taken their own lives, how they believed there was no other way to deal with whatever they were feeling. The tradgedy of these lives lost so early just shows how much our culture is changing and not for the better. Most of their communication was on social media and through texting and email so you can fake how you are through there very easily yet when you actually talk with people you hear the emotion and can tell how someone is really doing!

Ironic that as I write this on a blog that will be viewed online but I do believe one of the biggest problems anymore is the technology that does little to bring people together to just talk! You cannot show emotion through a typed word, ever. The more we push this type of technology the more loners and people who need help are not gonna be seen or heard. Those that are committing crimes against others and those caught in the middle are just as much a tradgedy than those involved in the mass shootings but they seem to get the attention more than those lone tradgedies that happen everyday. We need to look at the real causes and help all those out there that need it before something else happens!

Has To Be A Better Way!

I know that there are a lot of differences out there about gun control but there has to be a better way to deal with this than some of the things I have heard. Just banning guns is not a solution! Just adding more complicated gun laws for those that are actually law abiding gun owners is not a solution! Just banning large capacity magazines is not a solution! Arming teachers everywhere or adding armed security in schools is not a solution!

The crimes that are taking place are by criminals not law abiding gun owners! Why is the justice system not doing their job? Why is the ATF not doing their job? Why isn’t law enforcement doing their job? Why are the current gun laws not being enforced already? How are they going to be able to background check someone for a mental illness, unless they have been found criminally insane in court, with the HIPPA law? Why add more laws on the books when the current ones are not followed? So many criminals get away with things because of the convoluted laws already on the books that they often find loopholes everywhere! If they add more laws it just gets more confusing and the more loopholes are found! (Look at the precious tax code)

The ATF know who the ones are that are trafficking the weapons illegally yet it can take them years to arrest and even longer to go to court, why? Why not pick up the street sellers and convict and just keep doing so until the top ones either give up because they have nobody to do the dirty work or they bust them too? Everytime one of them gets off on some stupid technicality or loophole the criminal gets more power and any of us who know of these things is just as responsible to turn it in to get this riffraff off the streets!

I know a lot of gun owners and I can honestly say they are responsible law abiding citizens who respect a gun teach their younger family members how to respect any firearm! The way some people are talking is that all firearm owners are irresponsible and that is just not true! I think that each side needs to do a little more listening to all the people and not just big business and lobbyists and definitely not while emotions are high!

I do not have a problem with background checks but they already do them and obviously the databases are not set up very well or accurately so that needs to change. Yes they could add in the gun shows but I doubt that would change much but I am not against it. The large capacity magazines are really not necessary but what one person considers high capacity is not always the same as anothers so where is the cut off number? I also do not have a problem with getting rid of banana clips or jungle strap/clips but other than that who knows what is the right number? I also believe that the sale of or instructions for refitting a semi auto to an auto should be gone but it is easily available online so how does that get stopped? If someone wants to purchase an assault type weapon maybe they should have to go through a class and be required to secure it properly and also maybe go through a psychological testing every so often to keep it but that could get expensive and complicated with having to keep track of those doing the testing and who pays for it?!?

I have always been a believer that guns, knives, clubs, etc. do not kill people but people kill people! So we have to look at the ones committing the crimes because we know that the weapon they use does not get put in jail or get executed the person that used the weapon does. The fact is that most of the mass shootings have been done by those with a mental illness so why did nobody do something before it got to that point? The Virginia Tech shooting is an example of falling through the cracks when afterwards you hear so many people knew this person had issues. The Aurora theater suspects mother (and probably other family) knew he had problems yet did nothing to get him help, had they done so it could have saved a lot of lives!

I do not want to turn on the tv and see another mass shooting any more than anyone else but we need to look at the core problem and not just what the outcome was with each of these. Too many days people do not pay attention to what is going on in their own homes and their own families! They ignore the problems and/or throw money at it in buying the kids anything and everything they want! With the technology out there now more and more people do not talk to each other, they text, they use social media(which seems like a joke calling it that) and of course email to talk to each other and sometimes in the same room instead of actually having a conversation with each other. Parents need to actually talk with their kids and know what they are up to but I hear all the time that they are too busy working and paying bills to do this yet I do not believe this at all! I am not saying that we just round up all those that are mentally ill and put them away but those with a mental illness need help not having it hid under the rug! I wish that our mental health system was better and I wish that families would not try to hide problems because that makes it seem that the one suffering is a problem and/or embarrassment and not talking about it makes that person become even more withdrawn. Schools need to do more about bullying in the school system, don’t get me wrong the parents are responsible for teaching their children that it is wrong to bully but when it happens in the schools the administration needs to be responsible to get the help for the one being bullied and punish the ones doing the bullying! There are too many times when this bullying can and does cause violence and/or suicide! I want our children to be safe but it is not just safe from another mass shooting but from the day to day problems that many have to deal with getting picked on or made to feel ashamed about something they are or do differently than others. We need to make sure the children are safe but there are many things that need to be changed to make the violence go away, all violence not just guns!

ENTITLEMENTS! WHO REALLY GETS THEM!?!

Politicians keep saying that they need to do something to fix the deficit. The most popular seems to be what they consider entitlements, but what are these? To them Social Security and Medicare seem to be the most popular yet these are NOT what I would consider entitlements in a way. The social security trust fund is paid into by us and is a totally seperate entity that is not part of the deficit. Medicare is a tax we pay in also, so why do they believe that they should cut something that has nothing to do with the deficit? Because government has notoriously dipped into the social security trust for decades and used it to pay other programs instead of what it was meant for. Social Security and Medicare should not be used as bargaining chips between Congress because they were the ones to put all the “IOU’S” in the trust!

To me the “entitlements” seems to be what Congress makes both while in and out of their seats. Lifetime pensions, for what? The pay they receive and the raises THEY vote themselves seem t be entitlements. The “pork” they add to any and every bill they can is what I believe is and “entitlement”. The nonproductive offices they create are what I would consider “entitlements”. There is also the amount of money that we send over to other countries to “help” them instead of our own is what I would consider a definite “entitlement”! There are many areas of government waste and that should be the first thing looked at and cuts made there.

One other area that I believe would help the middle and lower class is putting a stop to the constant and astronomically rising costs of living. Especially for our elderly with the rising costs of medical care. Too many “non profit” hospitals with too many paper pushers that are paid way too much that do nothing productive. The so called non profits do not pay taxes but make a lot of profit and extend more and more in every city. We have two main hospitals here that are exactly two blocks apart in the downtown area and one was recently bought by the largest rural hospita system in the country just a few months ago the other is a Catholic hospital. Both non profit and both have expanded 10 fold plus. The hospitals have expanded so much you almost cannot tell where one begins and one ends except for the signs. They have expanded several blocks north, south, east and west of their initial spots. They have expanded to the very north and very south of town and many othe the surrounding small towns. This is a lot of property that these non profits now own and even more money they make yet they do not pay property taxes on any of it. They do not have to pay in like the rest of us yet they continue to hike up the costs of everything. When my son was small and hospitalized a tylenol would cost around $.50 each and the last time he was in a few months ago the cost of a tylenol had gone up to $12.00 each. That is one hell of a jump in costs and that is just for a tylenol. Compare that to every single thing they use in a hospital and every test they perform and look at the raise in all of those things. This has gotten ridiculous yet they claim they cannot afford to hire the staff they need to actually care for the patients who pay their salaries. To me it is a lot like government in that they get paid well but they forget that they actually work for us. They both are out to hurt the elderly and those that are on the lower end of the pay scale to save those that make the most money, including themselves.
I believe that Congress needs to look elsewhere for the cuts they need to do and that maybe if they went ahead with fixing our infrastructure (will add jobs) and up the minimum wage (which those making it will put right back into the economy) and assess what pay should really be in government (to make it more inline with what middle americans earn) then and only then will they begin to make some sort of sense in changing our deficit. Yes we need cuts but what they consider “entitlements” seems to be way different than what an average taxpayer would consider them.

My only hope is that common sense kicks in with the 113th Congress but I really doubt it with all the infighting and the refusing to budge on anything whether it is right for this country or not! Social Security Trust should have approximately 2.6 trillion dollars in it but unfortunately it is only paper which doesn’t mean much when the IOU’s come from government. Sadly I believe that this whole situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

TO THE 113th CONGRESS, DO YOUR JOB!

The 112th had the worst record ever recorded mostly because of acting like children! I hope for the taxpayers (their boss) that the 113th will do a better job, but I am not so sure with the attitudes of the House! Speaker Boehner did not win the re-election to speaker by much (220-218) and that shows te amount of discord with House republicans. As I have said repeatedly I am neither a democrat nor a republican although I live in a very republican state. I will always vote on who I believe will do the best for the country and not their wallets and ego! I can see alot of stupid fighting in Congress unfortunately and not for the better of our country! The back and forth of the republicans for and against each other is ridiculous! For instance one congressmans comments when Boehner did not bring the disaster relief bill up for a vote he was very negative yet the very next day he says he understands why and the reasons behind it. This is one problem with politicians, the total wishy-washy attitude about just about everything. The other is holding on to something so tight they are unwilling to compromise or look at the whole picture and understand the actual problem!
Why is it that the first cuts republicans want to make are to programs that help our elderly, like social security and medicare? Take away from those that are struggling, yeah that is always the solution. Maybe we should take away their pay until they learn to act like adults. Let’s cut their pay equal to what social security recipients receive and give them (or not) the so called cost of living increase (which this year was about $12) and make sure they need to use medicare(and pay in like the rest of us) and see how easy it is to live off this amount! They call it a handout yet we pay into these programs all our working lives and should not be made to feel as if they are just giving us a handout!
We could cut quite a bit of spending by cutting off all lifetime pensions, cutting the pay and making congress pay into social security and medicare like the rest of us. We also need to look at term limits to end these “career” politicians for good! These were supposed to be public service positions not a way to make money for life after even only one term! I get tired of politicians whining that they have it so hard yet they have no clue on how hard the middle to lower class have it at all. Even in our state te whining about not getting enough money allotted for housing while they are in session every other year! Are you kidding me? If you do not like it get the heck out of office! All politicians seem to want to do is take, take, take and give nothing back! They give themselves raises they say aare needed because of the cost of living increase yet at the same time they did not give SS recipients a COL raise for two years because they claimed the COL was the same! Really?!?!?
The so called “Tea Party” republicans seem to be the worst out of them all and in not willing to compromise all they do is get absolutely nothing done so this is why I say that if they accomplish nothing they get nothing. Hold their pay until they do!
If they think they deserve a raise then they should ask the taxpayers to vote on it and I would be willing to bet they would be more willing to work together since their raise would be a direct response on their job performance.
I love this country and I love the state I live in but there are problems and these need to be taken care of long before we continue to keep helping other countries! We need to solve the problems before handing out nonsensical pork to different states for stupid reasons like studies for some unknown plant, creature or process that is so obscure nobody but a handful of people have heard of it just so a politician can say look at the money I got for my state! That politician did nothing but take money for more needed programs to make a handful of people happy to sit on their butts and do pretty much nothing until the millions run out, including the politician himself! Before museums, parks, statues, etc. we need to upgrade our infrastructure which will create more jobs and we need to make sure our children do not go hungry and have a safe warm place to sleep. We worry about the hungry and homeless in other countries but it seems to have lapsed for right here in our own country. Mental health issues cause alot of problems also but yet we do very little to help those that need it. Instead of hiding this issues or sweeping them under the proverbial rug we need to take care of these things first and foremost. The billions of dollars wasted by our government is ridiculous and has gone on for too many decades! The republicans seem to have the stance that everyone should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and those that are not working are just lazy, which is soo far from the truth it is ridiculous. I am not saying there are those out there that are actually lazy but in my opinion by percentages they are those that are in elected positions and have money then there are those that are lower income.
I was on assistance when I was a kid and it was not easy and I swore that I would never go on it again because we did not know if the bills could get paid or if groceries could be bought and it was hard! Unfortunately, when I came home with my youngest son who had many medical problems I could not work for awhile. I was even told by my social worker to not even bother because I could not find a daycare to take my son. I asked if there was a program that would allow me to work from home through social services that way I would not feel like I was not getting a handout. There was nothing, so after a year I was able to get a family member to take my son during class hours so I could go back to schooland while in school I was on the Presidents honor roll and the Deans list and had a 4.2 grade point average(I did every extra credit I could). Again a setback when I had to take my son out of state for surgery and instead of the week to week and a half we thought we would be gone it ended up for 3 1/2 weeks. I had turned in two weeks worth of schoolwork before I left and called and found out what I needed to do and handed it all in the day we returned. I was told that I would have to repeat the semester because did not have enough lecture time even though my GPA was still the same and I had come in and did all the tests in one evening two days after getting back. How is that fair? I quit and found a job that granted did not pay well but I was working. I have always worked until now when I ended up in the wheelchair and I would still love to work but nobody will hire me because of the heavy meds I am on. This is just a brief description and the fact is that I was not alone in the feeling of wanting to work or do something while on assistance. I take no pride that I had to be on assistance but I do take great offence to how I was treated while one it. People would find out one way or another especially when on food stamps(or whatever they call it now) and the clerks at the store would look at you funny and others would notice when they would say loudly “this cannot be purchased on food stamps, you should know that” in which I would reply “yes I know and I have the cash for that because I need laundry soap to wash my sons clothes”
and when you constantly get berated in these types of ways people become depressed and give up. No I never did but I have seen many who have and it is terrible. I NEVER thought of my son’s medicaide or food stamps or housing was an entitlement, ever, I thought it was just a hand up so that I could make it. I have not been on assitance in years and years but I have seen others not being able to move forward after all the negative attitudes toward them over time they just give up. Romney and his wealthy snob friends who have never had to ever worry about money can make a claim that 47% are lazy but they are VERY WRONG in that aspect and maybe should spend a little time living like the rest of us to see how life really works. The republican party have tried to back away from Romney but unfortunately they obviously agreed with his attitude or they would not have supported him while he was trying to get elected. Get out of that fancy office or home, take the time to really look around republicans because I will tell you this, your life could change in an instant and you could be the one needing the same type of help that you are trying to cut and then where will you be when that help is no longer there?
The 113th Congress has the chance to actually work together to push through some very non-partisan style bills if they will only work together. I am hoping for the best but unfortunately thinking it will turn out the worst, which would be so bad for our country! Good Luck 113th, YOU ARE GOING TO NEED IT!

A Special Gift!

My boys always surprise me by the compassionate things they do for others in the little ways and I should not be surprised knowing them and how they were raised! This came out again the Sunday before Christmas with the youngest(he is 21 and the others 23 and 24) when he got burned at work and needed to go to the ER. He is fine and had to pick up some meds which he went to the hospital pharmacy for. Now to understand this you need to know that he was born with more than one congenital defect from his heart to his chest wall and other medical issues and we were told by doctors at Duke that he would not see his first birthday and at Mayo that he would not see his 5th birthday and again at Minneapolis Childrens that he would not see his 10th birthday. Obviously they all were wrong and we are very happy about this! He works as a banquet chef and lives on his own just fine and has gotten through a long hard road from medical equipment and meds to over 50 surgical procedures and now no meds and doctors once a year for follow up appts..
Now back to last Sunday, he was waiting for his meds and noticed a woman and her son sitting waiting also. The woman had been crying and the boy was hooked up to some type of medical device, whether a monitor or pump of some kind and very pale and ill looking. He heard the pharmacist call the woman up and tell her that her sons medical was denied and she would have to pay for the meds. Needless to say this woman became even more upset and went to try and make some calls. My son went up to the pharmacist to ask how much the cost of the meds were and when the pharmacist told him, he handed his debit card to her and paid for this boys needed meds. He asked the pharmacist not to say anything but when she called the woman back up and gave her the meds the pharmacist nodded towards my son. This woman and her son came over and thanked him and asked his name so she could repay him. He told her his first name only and told her she need not repay him except to have a Merry Christmas!
My son does not make a lot of money but he saw a need and without questioning he did this wonderful good deed. He told the woman that he was her son not that long ago and understood how hard it is to go through this type of thing and that he just wanted them to have a good Christmas. Now he is always been a compassionate child and always wants to help out others and has to the best of his ability but this was the first I know of that he did something of this magnitude for a stranger. If only more people would treat others like this instead of looking through those that are in need!
This was a very special gift both for this woman and her son but for me to see that my children learned the lessons I tried to teach them. They were listening! The other two boys are also very helpful and respectful to others and have done many things also but this particular day also happened to be my husband and my anniversary and I could not have asked for a better gift!
Now if more people would do something like this on an ongoing basis and help those that need it so that later that one that needed the help would help someone else until the attitudes of everyone would be more compassionate and willing to be there for each other. I challenge everyone out there to do one good deed for someone else, not only will it make them feel better but it will make you feel good also! The only thing that I wish I knew was if that woman and her son did have the good Christmas my son hoped for them!

Holiday Changes!

It seems that the holidays are getting more and more complicated as the years pass! Things used to be simple when I was younger. Too may people worry whether they purchased enough for the family and friends and whether they spent enough but unfortunately they end up further in debt and usually too exhausted to enjoy the holidays anyway! Even with all the tradgedies this year people still keep stressing more and more. Even if you do not celebrate a certain holiday this time brings on so much stress that it makes it more like work than celebrating! We had decided a long time ago not to overdue the holiday and keep it less stressful for ourselves. If we really want something during the year we go ahead and get it within reason as well as the boys when they were home and even now. If one of the boys needs something important we are there for them any time. We do not wait until Christmas to surprise them we do it all year. We help out other family all year as the need arises and it is appreciated. When the holidays come up I bake and make candy, because I have the time when others in our family do not and we give them enough to take to the parties, work, other gatherings, etc. Doing something you can for someone else that is easy for you and hard for them is worth more than any monetary gift you can give. Being there for others is more important and givng of yourself is more in line with the season. Being with family and friends and celebrating just being together is most important at this time!
I wish more than ever that things will be better in the New Year. From our government working together to all of us understanding each other better and helping those in need so that they have a better understanding of how much each and every life is important. None of us are failures and should never be made to feel this way. In doing this we make a better world for all of us.
Hoping for many, many better years to come for all! Happy Holidays to all!

Mass Shootings, Gun Control and Mental Health!

The awful mass shooting in Newtown CT at Sandy Hook Elementary School is horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to all the families and friends affected by this! It is hard to understand why someone would ever do something like this to anyone yet it does keep happening!
Although I believe in the 2nd amendment I also believe that the loopholes that allow Gun and Trade shows to buy and sell without a background check should be closed, permanently! Yes there are guns in our home, locked up and our boys took hunter safety and were always taught safety vigilance! I also believe that more gun control alone will never stop the violence. Many of the people who have committed these type of acts were depressed more than anything, and the weapons were purchased legally by the shooter or someone they know. I believe that the mental health of people is a far more important step in curbing these types of tragedies! Dealing with depression in families has always seemed like something done behind closed doors and nobody wants to talk about it outside the immediate family.
http://www.alternet.org/61-30-years-timeline-mass-shootings-america?paging=off This article is just one I found with most of the same info about the many shootings in the last 30 years. Most of these people who committed these either killed themselves also or were killed, a few have been or will be to trial. There are several missing on here including 2 recent shootings in ND. One was Oct 12 of this year when a freshman apologized in front of his class and pulled out a handgun and shot himself. He was taken to the hospital and according to many there were no obvious problems at home or school. Even though he did not shoot at anyone else the trauma in front of his classmates and in a small town of about 380 this took a toll. The other was in New Town, ND where a grandmother and 3 of her grandchildren were shot and killed and the shooter later sliced his own neck in front of police a while later. http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/15643/group/News/ This just happened on Nov 18, 2012, less than a month before the shootings in Newtown, CT. The shooting in New Town, ND was done with a hunting rifle.
The number of people killed daily by guns is way too many but a lot of these are done with illegally purchased guns so how do we control these? If a criminal wants a gun for any reason they can find them and it is not through any type of legal purchase or even gun shows. If someone wants to hurt someone there are many ways they can do this so people who follow the laws are given more laws to follow yet those who do not care about the laws will never have a problem getting what they want.
I truly believe that we need more mental health awareness and the ability to help those who are in need of these services and those that are close to them to be more careful about access to any type of weapons. No I do not believe that the high powered assault type weapons are necessary for any civilian but how does the government plan on getting them out of the hands of the criminals? I worry more about the illegally purchased weapons that all over this country and used everyday and I would love to see these disappear but how can this happen? The mass shootings are a major mental health issue more than anything so how do we change that? Questions upon questions and really no answers yet.
The shootings in Newtown, CT are terrible as are all those that have happened before this and one thing does bother me about the differences people put on this one more than the others, that because these were younger innocent victims it is more important than the others, it is not because all the other mass shootings were of innocent victims as well as those random drive by shootings daily that kill way too many innocent victims. Many of these are children playing in their yards or even inside their homes playing or sleeping when a bullet rips through the walls. They are all important and tragic! How can we as a country end the unnecessary violence? How do we change our country for the better without taking away law abiding citizens rights as well? These are questions I would love the answers to but so far I do not see how. We could make guns illegal and delete the 2nd Amendment but that will not get rid of the guns! The training and preparedness of the staff at this school helped save a lot of people and this will be needed no matter the type of gun control so this needs to continue, unfortunately.
Please keep those that have ever had to deal with these type of tragedies in your thoughts and prayers and let us as a whole nation try to strive for a better tomorrow!

Fiscal Cliff Or Curve Or Hill Or Slope??!?!?

I am so tired of the back and forth of what is really happening whether it is a cliff or slope!?! I believe that congress should quit acting like kids on the playground fighting over the best toy!
I wholeheartedly agree that the top percentage should pay more and not have all te loopholes that are out there. Just because they say they pay in what they are required to and not a penny less (or more). This may be true but why should they have all the loop holes that lower-income taxpayers do not have? In the end they pay less than middle-lower-income by percentage! I look at the 1% that certain people claim are job creators which really do not make the bulk of their money through actually creating jobs!
The same old rhetoric about entitlements cuts! Why don’t they start with Congress and basically they get no pay and cannot take their break until they settle this? Why not cut Congress and upper government pay instead of taking the social security from the ones who need it most! If we start by ending all lifetime pensions for all of congress and then require them to pay into social security like the rest of us. Take away their ability to stay in office indefinitely. I heard that one congressman’s term is up in 2014 and he has not decided whether he should run again, he will be 90 years old in 2014! Really? He has been in office a very long time! Part of the problem is us, so many keep voting in the same persons over and over and over just because they spend more on elections and they know the name instead of what they are really doing in office! Term limits are a necessity as well as a set COL increase in pay after dropping the base pay on all of them! I know people on SS and SSD I whose checks are around 580-800 a month and that is all the income they have! They cannot afford to not have medicare but that takes anywhere from 100-225 a month out of their check and if they have taxes taken out monthly instead of waiting until tax time that decreases the amount per month for all necessities by a lot! Some have only 350-550 a month to pay all living expenses, food, meds, utilities, housing, etc.. Why don’t we see how far our “elite” Congress could live off of these amounts for a while. This years COL increase for one person I know is very small. The current check is 637 a month and starting Jan. they will get 649, big WHOOP!
Social Security is NOT a handout, every person that receives it paid into it along with Medicare and too many times these were used as a “general” fund that the government used as their piggy bank an is now filled more with IOU’s than actual funds and this was wrong all along! Why is it the Republican party demands cuts in these areas instead of looking at what they themselves make and the lousy decisions of what they have pushed money at instead! With all the “special interests” funding they sneak into bills all the time for worthless, innocuous statues or museums and ridiculous research for their own states instead of using the money wisely and reducing what they spend to help themselves and those high income friends! We the taxpayers are their boss, we should be the ones to vote whether they get a raise or not, whether they have the pay they do and the retirement they do and that they should get no more than 2 terms in office EVER!
We need to make these changes and force them into the job they were elected to do, not their personal special interests!
I know I have written many of these things before but I will repeat myself until I see changes being made! Congress is a PUBLIC service position, NOT a personal moneymaking goal! I hope for the majority these things change! I definitely hope that congress quits trying to take away from those that need the most!