I spend too much of my monthly disability check on my car. Besides the regular payments and insurance, I got new brakes and rotors so far this year. Then there is the maintenance that gets done on occasion. I recently was automatically added to Medicare for health insurance, because I have been on Social Security Disability for two years. I also spent time applying to get help in making my health insurance payments. I spent many hours preparing to apply for food stamps last month. I was given $14 a month for food stamps….keep in mind this is for two people, me and a growing teenage son. Yippee, if I shopped carefully we could eat pasta for a few days and maybe have enough left over for a half gallon of milk or a dozen eggs. What about the other 25 days if the month? Who cares, not the fucking republicans. They let a law expire that provided more money for food stamps. At least that was what I was informed as I called the number on the back of my card to see if I received anything this month (I did not, yet). Before you get your hackles in a dander, as some of my own family even does when I try to talk about it, think really hard about who you want to see starve. Yes even LAZY bums deserve to eat. LAZY people that work most of their life and get laid off, or never get a raise or too little a raise to keep up with inflation. Parents that became disabled way too young, or do not receive child support or a combination of all these problems. Most US children do not look like the children of Africa yet with their bony faces and protruding bellies. But, did you know that by the time they look that way they are long past caring about learning in school. They are too sick to work and hold a job, and they have less opportunity to look for manufacturing jobs in this country. I realize if I give away my car that I bought before I had a stroke, I would double my spending money. I would also have no way to transport me, my son or dog to the doctor. The local store that was a few blocks away closed because the building owner raised their rent too high. Now the nearest grocery store is about 7 miles away. I should start growing more of my own food, but as I found out several plants in my house have only produced part of a meal so far this year. Well after rambling this long I forgot what I was talking about. What I think I would like to convey is that besides increasing food stamps to keep in line with inflation Americans should get to know their other fellow Americans that receive food stamps. Learn how not everyone is the stereotypical welfare queen that does drugs and eats like a king. The small percentage that are receiving them wrongly because of drug abuse or lying on the application are the ones that should be punished. Not children and the other 90% that actually need them. The government could make food production jobs, like the forestry jobs that were created during the last depression. Yes, it should not be the government providing all the jobs, it should be the capitalists that are destroying all the jobs creating honest work instead of greedy gains. My son was just complaining tonight how the common core is ruining his life. I might have to home school him soon, but I don’t think he would like that either. I would love to teach him, I would take him on weekly nature field trips and monthly art trips. He likes History, me not so much, but I would let him learn all he wanted to know. They should teach everyone how to grow their own food in school. I could have benefitted from economic survival skills growing up. I only learned from my republican parents how to work hard and you will make a living. They never taught me how to save for the future, or plan long term. I never taught my kids that either. Somehow they learned or are learning on their own the hard way. I am still learning how to survive economically too, but the rules change drastically when you can not jump back into the rat race.
In Sync With The Universe 