The evening of November 17th 2012 I started feeling like I was catching the flue or something, so Sunday I just took it easy and stayed home and rested, I was feeling worse by Monday but had to work. Short week I figured I could make it three days then have four days off for good bed rest and kick this thing.
After work on Wednesday I started with the vomiting, Thanksgiving Thursday was in bed all day with very little to eat, certainly NO turkey!, Friday morning I had problems with my eyes so I went to the Dr. and got something for that. Came back home. Then on Saturday morning I had a rash on the palms of my hands, I called the VA, informed them of my concern and also that I already had an appointment for Monday morning at the hospital. They said as long as I could hold down liquids that I should be fine until then. Sunday morning the rash had spread, I was not holding down liquids, and got a friend to take me to the VA hospital's ER. Eight days later I finally got released from the Hospital, still not feeling great, but certainly better. The discomforting thing is that the Dr. is still not certain about what put me in the hospital in the first place! This leaves me with a couple reflections that I want to share. The first is the need for comprehensive and universal health care for ALL. This came totally out of the blue, the Dr.s don't understand it. Fortunately, thanks to my service to the country I am covered by the VA. But what if I wasn't? Eight days in the hospital would financially destroy millions of un-and under-insured in this country. Obama Care is an important first step, but I hope it is only a first step toward real single payer universal health care in this country, so that if people are facing a health disaster they are not also faced with a financial one at the same time. Secondly, while I sincerely thank all those who have been praying for me and I know you are sincere in your good intentions, one of my reflections is that I felt no divine healing or hand of God. Again this came totally out of the blue, the Dr.s don't understand it. What I felt is that if there is no God that makes some sense, it fits, it's just one of those things in life that happens and that you (hopefully) get past. (personally though, I'd rather win the lottery!) BUT if there is a loving, caring, compassionate god, something like this makes no sense at all. It's an experience that re-enforces for me the reasons I stopped believing, things like this and the doctrine of Hell simply do not fit or make any sense with the concept of a loving, compassionate God. Things like this just make more sense without the supernatural. In real life stuff just happens sometimes, and sometimes there is just no explaining WHY. The important thing is what we do with the stuff that happens. Hopefully we use it to help make life better. What I did very clearly sense though and am very thankful for was the hard work and dedication of Doctors, Nurses, and other support staff at the Bay Pines VA hospital working to restore me back to health. I'm not there yet, but certainly much better. I am very thankful to ALL of them.
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This last Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012, we as a nation voted. And I can say that even with some of the sensational fall out from the far right that I am feeling better about the direction of this nation now than I have in at least twelve years. Why? Was it because Obama won? NO, while I am very relieved that Romney did NOT win, and while Obama has done some good things over the last four years, there are also very valid reasons to be concerned about him. Neither Presidential candidate was a GREAT choice, not by a long shot! The way our politics is influenced by big money we likely won't have good choices until that is fixed. So why am I so happy?
For these and other reasons I feel like America is starting to move away from the strangle hold of neo-conservatives, and the far religious right. That perhaps we are starting to inch forward with more progressive values promoting liberty and freedom again. Yes, we are still very much a divided nation. In many ways we always have been and likely always will be, that's part of freedom, to be able to have and express different views. We have far to go, it is essential that we get big money out of the elections and corporate influence out politics so that our elected officials will be more likely to represent us “We the People” and our best interests rather the interests of corporations. That is why I support things like Wolf Pac and the occupy movement. It is also essential that those who promote more progressive values for freedom and liberty continue to stand up, organize and fight for those values as the radical religious right, who oppose those values, has done over the last few decades. This election has shown that we can do that, that we can take a stand for freedom and take our country back, and I am very proud to be an American! It's time for America to move forward again! .It is very unfortunate that we are so far from the Great Depression in this election time, that very few vividly remember it. It lasted over 12 years, that's three not one presidential terms. It wasn't a quick fix. My father, if alive would be 99 now, he lived it, as did my mom as a child. Her parents, who lived across the lawn from me as a child lived through it as parents responsible for their daughter. Through them I got a good education on it, this recession we have is a mere inconvenience for most people compared to the harsh reality of the Great Depression. So what caused the Great Depression?
I see some business people complaining that government regulations make it to tough to do business, that Obama is not friendly to business, waa, waa, waa, bull shit. Reasonable government regulations level the playing field, they protect communities, consumers, employees, the environment, AND they protect your business! Want to experience a great depression personally? If so vote for Romney, that will greatly increase your odds of doing so. But I and other American’s don't. The fact is even with complete resistance from Republicans including killing jobs acts for veterans, that we are now on a slow road of recovery from the recession brought to us by Republican trickle down economics. If you want to stay on the path of recovery I don't care how much you might hate Obama you had better vote for him rather than Romney. I'd rather not vote for Obama again myself, I am concerned about some things he has done, and not done. But I am far less concerned about Obama than I am Romney and Ryan! Face it, the economic policies that put us in a Great Depression, will not take us out of a recession, they will most likely put us in another Great Depression, one that a world war would even be unlikely to bring us out of this time. |
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