Soapbox
Here lies the past...
What I stand for..
This is an ever changing page. As new ideas and activities catch my attention and I find myself driven to express my feelings, I will be updating my personal soapbox views. Because I approach things with an open mind my views may change as I learn more.
If you agree or disagree with me, that is your prerogative. I am only sharing my views and the causes I follow and support.
No Time to be Depressed
I've been unemployed since March 1, 2010. Since the moment I got the call giving me the bad news, I have been in full scramble mode. I am a single parent with an amazing two and a half year old daughter who deserves the very best from me and the world. Her father is not involved because he chooses not to be. It is just me. I must provide a home, food, clothes, warmth, safety, love and a real chance at a happy future. Just me. The understanding that it is my sole responsibility to provide and protect her has sent me into a whirlwind of activity.
My first task was to apply for Unemployment. However after spending a week trying to get in on the phone to the unemployment office for verification, I was informed I am not eligible for unemployment in Colorado until April. Why? Because I have not been employed in the state long enough to have an income in the current block of time they are using for reference. NICE! Another wonderful blow to my fiscal health.
But I did not waiver. I have submitted 14 applications at retail and restaurant establishments, 13 resumes for Customer Service, clerical and general office positions and 11 resumes for technical positions that would be my normal career path. I have also registered for work with Aerotek, Adecco, Ciber, Geologics, Kelly and Volt. In the process, I have racked my brain and morphed and scrubbed my resume providing me, at present, nine different versions.
In the 11 days since I have been unemployed, I have had six interviews for non-technical positions. Unfortunately the interviewers did not seem so pleased to hear about my past technical history no matter how much I tried to "sanitize" it. In one incident the interviewer told me flat out that although she found me "wonderfully pleasant" and a possible "great addition to the team," she would not consider hiring me because she could not believe I'd still be employed with her six months later. OUCH!
Another thing that has truly hurt me in the retail and restaurant fields is my availability. Because I'm a single parent I need to provide daycare for daughter. This means I am not available to work nights and weekends. It's a fact. I do not have people I can just "drop" my daughter off with every night and weekend. It's just me. I need to work days. I can't negotiate that.
One more hurdle for me in the job search is the fact that I need to keep my daughter in school during the day so I can focus on finding a job. This has proved to be problematic because of my sudden financial crippling. Thankfully, I've had a friend offer to help me out with this a little, so I've been able to literally buy another week of school for her. My daughter is happy and still is not sure exactly what has changed. She is a very adept girl, so I know she is aware that there has been a change though. My intent is to find a job as soon as possible so that she never really knows.
I have a lot going on and a lot of hurdles to soar over. For the most part I've stayed pretty positive and focused. I won't lie though. I had a moment where the magnitude of what I have to overcome to protect myself and my daughter overcame me and I just sat down and cried. I am human and I am annoyingly sensitive. My emotions are still all over the spectrum from the drama that has been my life for the last two and a half years. But, I can't sit down and be depressed. I just don't have the time. I am just too busy.
My daughter is my driving force. My touch stone. She is the reason I continue going and staying positive. I am unemployed. But I am not going down. The economy sucks. But I don't have time to wallow. I don't have the luxury of standing still. I'm moving forward, and I will excel.
My Half Cent on the Health Care Debacle
I am for health care and health insurance reform BUT I'm for freedom of choice. I hate being uninsured. I can't afford to go see a doctor, dentist or fill a prescription.
My view of the problem with insurance is that people need to remember WHY it was created. The reality is it wasn't really created to be used by everyone. Insurance is designed to pay for that which one is unable to pay for themselves. Life insurance pays for expenses that are left behind after an estate has been monetized. This is why the very wealthy do not and can not get life insurance. They are too wealthy to be insured.
GOOD auto insurance pays for expenses after a deductible up to and including final expenses. Insurance is required on all cars that are not paid in full because if one could afford to pay for damages in the event something happened, it's likely the total amount would be paid up front instead of wasting money on financing. However, liability is required because the value of damages to others in the event of negligence can not be predicted.
Health insurance should be required for anyone making under a certain monetary value and it should be AFFORDABLE. (I.E. income sensitive.) Why should it be required? For the same reason auto insurance is required for vehicles used on public roads. When a person has a medical expense they can not afford to pay for they either become sicker thereby raising the cost of care when they are no longer able to ignore it. Or, they receive care, go into debt and create a fiscal void in the system as medical providers try to cover their losses. This is done by increasing the cost of health care for others who are able to pay or have insurance to cover the cost. This leads again to the rise in premiums for insurance as insurance companies try to balance their books.
One way to make insurance affordable is to have it only kick in for expenses beyond that which one could not handle themselves. Responsible people making at least $150,000 a year in a family of less than four, should hopefully be able to handle the cost of general exams and average priced medications without going into debt and therefore not be eligible for $5-$20 co-pays. It might lower costs if they were given a deductible.
Now, I know that this is probably a very simplistic view and in all likelihood is not going to happen. I've heard all the arguments about how the "well off" don't feel they should be penalized, blah blah, blah. Although I do find it interesting no one is screaming about senior citizen discounts or student discounts being offensive to other classes of people. I don't claim to have intimate knowledge of any insurance company policies nor do I claim to have more than a college understanding of economics or legislation. I do know the only way I'm going to obtain affordable health insurance AT THIS TIME is through an employer. I have found individual health plans that are more appealing than many employer plans and I will likely switch to one when I stabilize because I don't want my health plan to be contingent upon an employer's whim.
I do believe the "understanding" of insurance and health care does need to be overhauled. I do not know for a fact that the health care bill will "fix" the issue or make it worse. But I do believe a RE-EVALUATION of what health insurance and health care truly are needs to take place. Until we, as a country, understand what both concepts are and what their intents are, we won't be able to "fix" the problem. We'll just continue to yell at each other across a line drawn in the sand until the tide comes in and chases us all to the same side.
Some Will Just Never Understand
I stumbled across this blog post in the wake of Senator Reid's, in my humble opinion, ignorantly racist comments. I was shocked and yet not when I heard what he said in regards to President Obama and his chances of being elected based on his skin tone and vocal intonations. I honestly don't know whether he meant to be mean spirited or if he simply was unaware that his comments could be hurtful. Like President Obama, I choose to believe they were spoken by someone who was simply sheltered in his beliefs and unaware of the world outside his circle. He has been educated, maybe he learned, maybe he's too old to learn.
Sometimes the truth really is, some will just never understand. President Obama did all he could do. He accepted the offered apology and moved on. It's what many of us do everyday but without the apology. Senator Reids remarks were unintelligent and underscore the fact that there is still racism, even if it's not as in your face as it used to be. The simple fact that someone validates another's worth by how ethnic they look and/or sound, and that people agree it is a valid point to be discussed is enough testimony to prove it still exists.
But enough of my words. I really wanted to share the writing of Allison Samuels as posted on the Newsweek Blog.
The Ugly Roots of the Light Skin/Dark Skin Divide - January 11, 2010
