Folks, I am losing faith in America. Help me out here.

[The Straight Story]

I know I have been ranting here off and on for a few days, just been one of them weeks ya know?

Tomorrow my wife goes to see a new neurologist for her parkinson's, because the last guy sucked ass (forgive the cussing, just in that mood tonight).

Hopefully she will get some new meds, maybe even a new diagnosis. One can always hope.

At any rate, I started to thinking. She is nervous and scared about all this. I can grep that.

But if I did not have my job, with somewhat decent insurance, she would be shit out of luck. There would be no dr to go see in the afternoon tomorrow. There would be no meds to help with the symptoms.

In a country that can drum up enough money to invade two countries while making and investing in new weapons to kill people on a large scale, we can't find a few bucks to alleviate the sufferings of the very people you suck tax dollars from to build your new war toys?

Has it come to this - that we are dependent on corporations and big insurance companies to get the most basic of all human needs? Has our litigation went so nuts that some dr's cannot afford their insurance just to practice?

Let's take a look at something:
1. You work your job and pay taxes.
2. You buy something (gas, etc), you pay taxes.
3. You get some property to live on, you pay taxes (or your landlord does and passes them on to you).
4. You pay insurance premium, and they pay taxes (the insurance company)
5. Your doctor pays taxes
6. it goes on and on.

In the end, you pay a ton of money to the government and what you get is that money going to fund a war thousands of miles away against a country who has not attacked us.

It goes to bail out the insurance companies, transportation companies, enrons, whoever.

It goes to war on drugs, prisons, death penalty, weapons, foreign nations, pork projects, travel by congress people to exotic places, shady contractors, and the list goes on.

Somewhere out there, someone is sitting in their little shack without enough to feed their kids, some of whom are sick. Hell, one of the parents or kids might even be dying of something. One of the people might have parkinsons and not able to afford their meds and are shaking right now, their muscles getting atrophyed, while their spouse is trying to feed them - all because they cannot afford to see a dr, and even if they could they cannot get the meds to control it.

I don't have any missles to offer the government. I can't give them money for campaigns, for wars, etc and so on. But they will get it out of me somehow. They will take what they need for what they see as important - oil companies, weapons, pork, etc. They see those things as needing my money - but turn their noses up at others who need it and tell them to go make it on their own.

If it is the land of oppurtunity, how come so many need my money for their oppurtinities? How come so many corporations get away with the crap they do but a guy steals a loaf of bread for his family and he is put into prison?

Why do we make the tax code so complex that only the wealthy and corporations can afford the attorneys needed to avoid paying their share?

Is this the America we want? Is this the America that some dems in power have helped maintain? Why?

We have a long way to go. Sadly, I am not sure I have the faith that the America I hoped for will ever be the America we ever have.

[Olney Blue]

1. You are not alone. I'm sorry about you and your wife's struggles.

[pooja]

2. Its bleak at times. But with hope and love and patience we will

bring America back. Or we will move to Canada.

[BensMom]

3. Hugs your way

Please know you have a right to feel like you do right now.
You are allowed to feel that way.

But you are an incredible care giver.
That may be your number one job right now.
You care about your wife so much, you are going through your list of "what ifs.."
Today you have done the best you can. Never lose sight of that.

Progress is very slow - sometimes we can not even see it.


My biggest job is to keep things around me - kids and DH safe.
Without that - there is no point in anything else.

[leftofthedial]

4. I have no job and buy (dearly) individual medical insurance

(it is my third highest monthly expense, after child support and mortgage.)

Now that I've exhausted my life's savings (what little was left after the divorce), what do I stop paying?

I worked my ass off for 30 years, paid taxes, was a faithful, devoted father and husband. I followed by the rules. I believed that hard work paid. I believed that treating others well and doing the right thing paid you back in the long run. Boy was I an idiot.

Now, I know more people without insurance than with, families that have lost everything, families that have been destroyed, lives interrupted, families devastated by suicide, career loss, sickness . . . I know still more who think they are "okay" because they have a job, but they have no security, are mortaged to way beyond the hilt, have little or no savings and are one lost paycheck away from disaster.

This country is becoming a hell.

[CJCRANE]

5. America's ok

there's plenty of far worse places.

Let the weight of the world off your shoulders for a few days. You can work for a better America another day.

[The Straight Story]

6. Oh I know there are worse places

And if I lived in one of them I would be bitching at them as well.

Silence improves nothing. We need to fight, and be vocal.

I have always said we need to take a page from the playbook of christians and get out there and evangelize our beliefs - pamphlets in bathrooms, door to door, weekly meetings, etc.

We can, and should improve.

[PA Democrat]

7. The "richest" nation in the world and the only developed industrialized

country in the world where access to heath care is not a right for all citizens. It's a disgrace.

I read that an estimated 18,000 people DIE very year because of they have no health insurance. That's like SIX 9/11's occurring every year. God knows how much money Bush has wasted in the name of "fighting terror" in Iraq, but I'll bet that money could have saved a lot of lives if it had been spent on health care.

Best wishes to your wife.

[nashville_brook]

14. 18,000 people DIE each year for lack of insurance

i'm a few months away from losing mine and it'll be just another bullshit thing that i endure alone.

you get the government you deserve. if the country/world were run by people like straight story... or humans, generally... then maybe there would be tears shed for the dead.

i've been an optimist all my life and phew! what a fucking idiot, bc when you get right down to it, no one gives a shit.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. America's run her course. We are dead.

[CJCRANE]

9. That's cheerful!

I hope not!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

10. I hope I am wrong as well.... But I fear not.

[nashville_brook]

15. i'm with you

we've lost our humanity

[Selatius]

17. In the life cycle of nations, all nations and empires eventually die

They are born. They grow. They mature. They decay, and they finally die and disintegrate.

Guess which stage it looks like we're in.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bluzmann57]

11. Your story is why health care is the #1 priority in America

at least domestically. There is no reason whatsoever that each and every citizen in this land should not have health insurance. If people don't agree, look at it this way; I pay $20.00 a week for health insurance through my employer and it's fairly good insurance. But that $20.00 would look good in my pocket as well and my employer would be happy to not have to provide insurance for his employees. Heck, he may even sink that money into a raise, or at least improved working conditions. So there is a reason to have Government run health care. I hope things work out for your wife and please know that my good thoughts are with her.

[Pobeka]

18. Insurance is *not* the answer.

You pay now, or you pay later. The real issue is lowering the *total cost* of health care, regardless of who pays, not laundering tax dollars into the hands of pharmaceuticals and HMO's.

[The Straight Story]

19. I pay a little over $500/mo for insurance

Dental, vision, and medical.

At my company, the more you make the more expensive it is.

I make close to 80k a year. Minus taxes, insurance, 401k, ss, I bring home 45k a year. Pretty damn sad (though the 401k is my doing and is pre-tax).

[Keseys Ghost]

12. This IS NOT the America we want

We must change her.

Onward.

[Selatius]

13. This is the biggest reason many people turn to crime to survive

It just doesn't make sense for some people to do what you do when they can go sell guns or crack on the street and make more money and not have to pay taxes than if they flew straight and narrow.

[niyad]

16. I know that you and your wife are going through an incredibly difficult an

stressful time right now, and I truly hope this new neurologist has something positive to offer. And, as was pointed out in another post, you have every right to feel the way you are feeling.

It's very easy, given everything that is going on, to feel that faith in this country is pretty much beside the point. That would be a rational response to the insanity currently infecting this country, having wandered so far from its promise and ideals.

However, I, for one, am a truly stubborn individual, and I absolutely refuse to cede this country to the warmongers, the haters of love and life and goodness, the ones who seem to hate the very planet on which we live. Is it a hopeless quest? an impossible dream? perhaps, but then, I always rather admired don quixote.

in the meantime, know that we are here for you, and that much positive energy and thoughts are coming your way.

[flyarm]

20. I JUST READ YOUR POST AND AM SITTING HERE CRYING..

and i feel shame of my country and many of her people..

i feel like i am in a crisis as well..i feel like i am drowning..and i see people all around me who do not give a damn!

i don't know anymore..i just don't..

i used to think..what is it going to take..

i just can't imagine how far we have to fall..before we know that answer.

fly

[The Straight Story]

21. Well, keep in mind - us folks here are here for you

Together we can make a stand.

We have to identify the issues first, then let others know about them, and finally get them to vote for candidates who can pass laws to fix them.

We here do give a damn :) and if you need someone to rant to, I am here...

[LWolf]

22. I can't help you,

but I can empathize, and I do.

I think the America that has been so glorified has always been an ideal; one that we have never come close to. In the last decades, we have moved forward on civil rights issues, at least until the 2000 debacle.

We have moved backwards on labor issues. A worker's time is worth less and less in the real market. What a single full-time job used to provide now requires two full-time jobs. And there still is not enough for health care if it doesn't come with the job.

[The Straight Story]

23. Depressing but true

The haves see the have nots as not working hard enough.

My dad raised us kids on a paltry sum by today's standards. But we always had a roof over our heads and food on the table.

Today sadly, a man working to support his family is lucky to have even the roof.

[OnionPatch]

25. And the freeper types are sitting around wondering

Why their taxes have to go to "those poor people." :banghead:

Now, who are the sane and moral ones here?

[marions ghost]

26. Right exactly

"Les Miserables" -- They don't get it.

I had a friend who worked in academia and drew unemployment between low-level teaching jobs. Not only did his sister (married to a wealthy banker) NOT offer a hand in any way, she sharply criticised him for wasting HER tax dollars. This is the way these people think. My friend did not have health insurance until he was 40 when he finally got a permanent teaching position. Needless to say, he hasn't spoken to the sister for 10 years.

They don't get it.

[mad-mommy]

27. I'm sorry...

I'm sorry about your situation. I'm sorry you, and many others, have to spend their life worrying they will make it through. I posted a while back about struggling due to gas prices. This is supposed to be a land of oppurtunity. The way you feel, well many feel the same. Best of luck to you with the new doctor.

[NC_Nurse]

28. I'm so sorry about your wife's illness...

I hope they can get her on the right meds or find the right diagnosis. Yes, health insurance is a big problem. So is the fundie bullshit opposition to stem cell research that could help millions of people like your wife and my mom (vascular dementia) and my friends with diabetes....just to name a few. Keep up the fight against these corporate shills and ignorant fools! I'm with you! :hi:

[Rosemary2205]

29. Getting corporations out of the equation is really all it takes

Pharms and Blue Cross should not be setting health policy. IMHO if we went to health savings accounts for routine care that lets individuals, families and doctors decide the best way to spend the money and a gov't sponsored catastrophic care and pharms (because of the purchasing power) that would solve most of our problems. Letting consumers be consumers again will force down prices -- and gov't assuring middle income and poor consumers have the dollars available to spend on health care takes care of the problem of no insurance.

My only thing is that all coverage has to be national, and not state based. There's no excuse for someone with a rare or complicated disease not being covered for treatment in another state.

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. The Democrats store those taxes wisely and have it to spend for

the kinds of programs that most people would approve of, i.e. universal health insurance. But the Republicans keep stealing the elections and siphoning off all that saved money, pissing it away on the military-industrial complex and petrol business.

Don't get mad about paying taxes. Get mad about how the government has been spending it lately.