Please (pleadings from the nearly overwhelmed)

A meteor came within 7,500 miles of the Atlantic Ocean today. It takes way more frequent flier miles than that to get anywhere for free. I think I felt the whoosh mess up my hair.

But I know!. . . . Let's close down the space shuttle program.  A damn waste of money if you ask me.  I mean, we could be buying lots and and lots of bombs for the cost of one space mission.  And Lord knows it's more fun to blow up our neighbors than to save the Earth from a cosmic collision that could easily reduce all of us to the equivalent of dinosaur bones in some future-world museum.

Seriously, I'm pulling out my hair here!  Bump, my grandbaby, is about to make his grand entrance and I'm afraid he may be getting here late.  We need his brilliance to help us out of this mess, but give the boy a break.  He isn't even 0 years old  yet!

A big tree from my front yard gave it's life falling in exactly the only space it possibly could have landed in order to do the least amount of damage.  It clipped the corner of our garage.  Some damage there.  But it also landed on my husband's new car.  However, when he moved his car the tree held the limb up so that the car was only actually hit by leaves.  No damage.  A very kind tree's dieing gestured.  I loved that tree.

(By the way, those commercials where the insurance adjuster is there holding your hand while the storm is still blowing . . . . yeah, well in our case that was a whole lot of blowing!  We finally got a voice mail saying, "Your agent will be in the office on Monday morning."  Yeah, well the tree fell Friday afternoon.  Thanks.  I don't feel your good hands at all.  But that's another blog.)

So evidently the insurance God says we can hire someone to cut up the tree, but that person can only schlepp the tree to the dump.  He can't sell it to people who need it to heat their homes this winter.  And the tree cutter guy as  sure as heck fire isn't going to give it away. This is immoral.  Why do the insurance companies care?  Can you convince me that they are making so little money that they have to control things like that?  If I could split wood, I'd do it myself and give it away.

The problem with this culture is that it's totally insane.  We've been so conditioned to believe that politicians doing business by making deals is the way it must be done. The common citizen is just too stupid to understand politics.  We've been led to believe that making money makes the world go round.  That there is NOTHING that money can't solve.

Well excuse me and kiss my plump white derriere, it's time to wake up and smell the coffee picked by peasants in some far-off country you don't have to think about.  Just try to remember what you learned in Sunday school.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

It's not all that complicated.  When it comes to greed, just stop.  Let all of us who have some glimmer of morality left in us, all stop at once.  I'll have the tree-cutting guy cut up the grand tree and leave  it here.  I'll find something to do with it, even if it is to let it become homes for the little beings in the back yard.

Let's all go out on the limb (pardon that obvious pun) together.  Let's just have some increasingly uncommon common sense.  Let's don't waste.  Let's don't buy plastic bottles of water when we could just filter water and save a gazillion plastic bottles.  Let's all grow as much of our own food as possible.  Why should the average American meal travel 1,500 miles to get to our table when much of the world would love to have just our leftovers? 

Until we can switch to non-fossil fueled cars, let's all fill our tires to the pressure they are supposed to be filled and avoid jack rabbit starts.  Maybe car pool or take the bus or the train. 

Let's turn that thermostat to 76 or higher in the summer and 70 or lower in the winter.  Let's insulate.  Let's all water our gardens, if not flush our toilets, with water from rainbarrels.  Let's just stop acting crazy.

Please. I'm sincerely asking you, please.

Politics As Usual - Ain't It a Shame

I hate, hate, hate political ads and to tell you the truth, I'm not crazy about politicians, either.

Why do these yasswipe incumbents only tell us what they've done when they want our vote again? Let me answer my own question - because they want to keep their jobs. Politicians' jobs are to get their jobs and get them again.

I like the idea of representatives of the people. I don't like the idea of professional politicians. And I can't figure out why anyone would vote for someone who prefers to badmouth the opposition rather than say what is good about himself.

And for crying in a bucket, when did it become a cool thing to call the President of the United States bad names? That makes me sick. I find it nauseating that politicians are advertising how they refuse to work as a team member. When did that become something to brag about? I think it stinks that we have to choose from contestants whose only chance of looking good is to make others look bad.

I really don't want to vote for anyone who actually wants to be a politician. I would be in favor of filling Congress with people who are smart enough to go into it kicking and screaming.

What sane person would choose to put herself and her family through a campaign? Who, other than someone who hasn't had a life, has not a single skeleton - not one dry bone - in his closet? And just whom would someone like that represent? I'm afraid it's become either a government of the perfect, by the perfect, for the perfect; or of the liars, for the liars, by the liars who have enough money to cover their stories.

Groucho Marx said he wouldn't want to join an organization that would have him as a member. I don't want to vote for a politician who wants to run for office. And ain't that a shame.

Mr. Politician, Shove Your Budget Cuts

I'm tired from too many colleagues jumping the South Carolina Department of Mental Health ship before it sinks completely. I'm tired from really, really caring about my clients but having too many to keep up with.

But I think equally tiring is hearing commercials for politicians promising to cut taxes because too many people are getting things they don't deserve. Too many people are on the government payout wagon. "Vote for me! I'm going to empower the individual, not government. . . blah blahdee blah."

You've saved us some bucks by cutting mental health services. But did you know that your constituents include some really undesirable folk? Some of them even have (cough) mental illness.


Now sure, in your world I understand these people do not exist. They are disposable. And people with mental illnesses don't vote, do they? They don't count. Those people with serious mental illness should buck up, get a job with benefits and off the government dole. I understand the way you think. You're just looking out for your job. After all, I'm used to dealing with people who make less than perfect sense.

But don't you dare tell me that cutting the mental health budget is a good way to save government money. You, Mr. Politician, are the one being supported by the government. I don't know one single person with schizophrenia who wouldn't trade benefit packages with you. Why don't you cut your staff?

Hey, I'm working hard in the mental health "system" trying to make bricks with no straw. Just keep cutting, Mr. Politician. Do you realize that people in need of involuntary hospitalization (those are the ones, Sir, who are a danger to themselves or others due to mental illness) have to wait in an emergency room until there is a bed available in a psychiatric hospital. They have to do that, Sir, because you and your buds have closed wards in the hospitals. Yes, yes you have.

Now, if I worked in an emergency room I'd be pretty pissed at you. But those people probably just don't understand your job the way I do. Of course, if you slip and break your toe, Sir, you might have to wait in an ER waiting room for a while in moderate discomfort because the ER staff are all trying to pretend to be a psychiatric ward.

But hey, I must say, your idea about letting the really mentally ill people hang out in local jails is a great idea. Sure, they don't get the help they need, but they are out of sight. And after all, you don't personally know any of them.

I'll bet you're tired, too, Mr. Politician. All that juggling and posturing and politicking. And the commercials! Whew! It sounds simply exhausting. But in all due respect, Mr. Politician, kiss this!

You are supposed to be a representative of the people. You know. . . . the people. All of them. Not just the nice, clean, middle class conservative chums of yours. But be careful, Mr. Politician. All people (except, evidently those who are professional politicians) are affected by mental illness. Not just those with the diagnoses.

I'm really, really tired of you.