While we weren't looking...

There is a tactic in this country and finally my fellow Americans, you are catching on. I have known the political machine for a long time. Here's how it works.... get people very passionate about something and then pass a law that we don't want or need. The most recent example of this was passage of the new Health Care Reform Bill. No one wanted this. We "the American people" passed this message on loud and clear to our representatives in the Congress and Senate who clearly didn't listen. They did what they wanted to feed their own special self-interest.

So for those of you who weren't paying close attention, this is how they fed us what we didn't want. Look back to the time immediately before passage of the Health Care Reform Bill and the country was up in arms at the threat to reduce the number of allowable mammograms for women of certain ages, specifically if there was no breast cancer history. The media and all of us were so focused on that hot topic we were fighting in the streets for ourselves, for our families and for all of the people we have known that have either had breast cancer and survived it because there was early detection or those that didn't win their battle.

While we weren't looking, the parties involved were feverishly working on the bill they really wanted to sneak through... the Health Care Reform Bill. This is just wrong on so many levels and I get so irate about the fact that it got through, because we weren't looking. It was only when there we deals made behind closed doors that this bill passed.

The time before that was when they touted the Credit Card Reform Bill as a consumer protection endeavor. Yea, finally something for the consumer! After all they had bailed out all of those banks, this surely was something to help bail us out, right? So wrong. Anyone that had his or her pulse on this bill knew what I knew. The part they didn't tell you. From the time that bill was drafted until the day it was passed they put no protection for the consumer against the credit card company raising your rate to any interest rate they wanted before the bill became effective. The sky was the limit. I had 3 credit cards that in spite of my great credit history and owning my house for 7 years, my interest skyrocketed to 29.99%. At that point I realized that I would have been better off borrowing from a loan shark. Credit Card companies were my loan sharks and this "sharking" is sanctioned by the federal government.

Every state has laws on what is considered usurius interest rates but not the feds. There is no state that wouldn't consider 29.99% usurius so why can the credit card companies get away with it? We weren't looking. Our federal government has done nothing to bail out the American people. Do we not see this? I know for a fact that Lady Justice wears a blind-fold but do we have to?

Wake-up!!!! Wake-up!!!! Wake-up!!!! If you don't, we will be exactly where we now (or even further behind) for the next several years. If we continue with this "regime" and yes, I relate it to a dictatorship because that's where we're headed with our current government. To borrow a quote, "America is about we the people, not me the President."

Make believe for one second that a vendor has ripped you off. Would you just stand there and let them or would you fight back? If the scanner at the supermarket gives us the wrong price on a scan we fight with them to correct the error. Why aren't we willing to fight as hard for a leader in our country? We need to fight back now before the next election and make it clear that if our next leader isn't willing to "bail-out" the people then he/she is not an appropriate leader. Making the banks better has done nothing to help you and me. In fact, it has made our life harder than ever before. Republicans give us a candidate that can win! Tea Party, Independent Party, anyone willing to step up to the plate? Giving us candidates that can't win the electoral votes that truly represent the people is the same as no choice at all.

So I say again, Wake-up!!!! Wake-up!!!! Wake-up!!!! If you don't then what will they do next while you're not looking? Are you willing to take the chance that the next thing they take away will be something that you and your family really need? That's what Health Care Reform does. You get services when they decide you get services, regardless of whether or not you've got the money to pay.

Picture the supermarket scanner and it is charging you 10 cents an item more on every item scanned. Would you be mad? Yet, most people are looking the other way right now and while you're not looking our government will be passing through the 10 cents on a dollar federal tax. I don't know about you but I think we have played "blind" for too long. FIGHT back!!! Call (or email) Congressman and Senator offices. Do it once a day. Document it. You can do this by creating one email draft and sending it every single day. Program their number on your cell phone and call while we sitting on packed roads not being developed with state stimulus money. If there's no answer leave a voice mail. The next time something happens while we're not looking at least we'll have evidence of our representatives ignorance.

Don't close your eyes. Look! Always keep in mind one of the first lessons you learned as a child... STOP, LOOK, LISTEN...and I will add the ending... ACT!

~D

How do you hit a moving target?

I have to admit that today was one of those days I dread. You know that feeling you get when you know you have to go to a DOCTOR (dunt, dunt, duh!). We go along day-to-day thinking we're fine but when that doctor appointment comes along we leap to all of these random and irrational thoughts. What if I have cancer? What if I have MS? What if I'm dying of some rare and strange tropical rain forest fever? Silly, right? But if you're anything like me, we can't shut our brains off to the "bad" behavior of last week, last month... the last several years.

Silly, you just have high cholesterol, high blood pressure and now that the standard of what is "normal" keeps changing over time, you're diabetic, or pre-diabetic (the newest major illness in America). Yep. My doctor declares it's so, so therefore it is. I feel like I'm in some strange version of the "Ten Commandments" movie.. "So it is written, so it shall be done!" Really people, come on! It was a very long time ago after a near close call at age 26 (heart attack, but alas story for another blog) I learned that doctor's don't know everything and most times they know little more than nothing. We know our own bodies better than anyone and I have to have a doctor that believes that too.

I interviewed many doctor's when I moved to Texas before selecting my doctor. Call a doctors office sometime and tell them that you just want an appointment to talk to them before you actually have an exam (yeah, sure that'll work). I want to assure you that it is nearly an impossible feat, so I'll save you the time. Getting back to the subject. Yeah, the moving targets. Two years ago my doctor, not usually an alarmist, did blood work that gave the result of a test called HC1A. You might have thought I had cancer they called within hours with the results "you must come in right away!"

I spend another $25 copay to learn that this is now the test used to make the diagnosis of diabetes. Oh, which by the way, was only a 1/10 of a point above the normal range and not yet in the high range. This test "determines diabetes, no matter what your sugar level is and it can magically tell your food behavior over the past several months." What the heck is that? If I wanted something to look at my "food behavior" over the last several months all I have to do is look in the mirror or get on the scale.

That brings me back to the present. Today, yes, today. In discussion with my doctor about my "food behavior" over the last several months we once again discussed the dreaded HC1A test (dunt, dunt, duh!). She kindly informed me that they moved the target again. When I first started having these tests, which "magically" became so effective over the last several years (kind of like "magically" delicious frosted Lucky Charms, which is what got me here in the first place) the desired "normal" result was 5.5 - 6.5 and if you go over 7.0 you're "magically" diabetic. Today I was informed the new "normal" is up to 5.5. When I first learned about blood sugar a really long time ago 90 - 120 readings were "normal" and I was/am "normal" (ask a diabetic they'll tell you they'd kill for a reading in that range). The new "normal" is 70 - 100. What? Cholesterol, too. When I started this journey they wanted me under 225 so I got there. Then they wanted it under 200, so I got there. Now the "normal" is 175 or under. What? I talked about this with someone very close to me who stated it best, "to meet the criteria for the perceived normal you best be only barely breathing". I couldn't have said that better myself.

So here's where I am. I read a sign once in someone's office that read "Normal is a cycle on a washing machine." I 100% agree with that sentiment and apply it frequently in my day-to-day existence. You should too!

In answer to the question, how do you hit a moving target? The answer is ...you don't. I'm not saying you shouldn't try but you need not dread it or obsess about it. There's always that "magical" pill the medical community is more than willing to give you (and get their kickback) to help cure what ails you. Remember, it's about how YOU feel not how someone else convinces you to feel.

~D

I'm not actually on an even keel today, not even close. Overall, I am even keeled but I'm not so sure why most people aren't. I listen and read and strive to understand people but the more I do, the more I find that they are fickle. We are just happy to ride on someone's coattail, waiting for the next big "thing" to come along. Tell me my friends, when did we (the U.S.) become so judgmental, yet at the same time so complacent and gullible. We judge the book by its cover in almost every case. We obsess about what other people think and do. Then because it's not enough to dream of getting the "things" others have, we watch their every move trying to emulate them. We often overextend our resources and jeopardize our underlying moral values only to find out that those we mimic have little or no substance but lots of meaningless "things". At the end of all our observant "want", all we're left with is "things". They weren't "things" WE wanted and now we have to pay for them! What a betrayal!

We set our goals at mostly unattainable heights. Have you talked to a kid lately? They all have stars in their eyes. I'm not saying that as children we didn't want those things too, but I feel that we were at least realistic. We weren't encouraged to pursue drama, the arts or anything that you probably wouldn't be able to make a buck at. Yet most kids I know are taking acting lessons, dance lessons or drama classes. We hold out hope against hope. While all along our society continues to pass along the right to succeed with a family name. If you're a child of a someone famous it's pretty much in the cards that you'll be successful even if you don't try. I'm not bashing anyone, this has been the American way since the beginning of America. We've bartered, sold and changed our names for generations in an effort to be one of the "lucky" ones who has the best "things". While we haven't sold our souls outright yet, we're getting there very fast.

I remember reading once that "the man that dies with the most toys wins." I think we've taken this to a level that didn't exist when that quote was written. I think we need to turn a corner here America and change that quote to "the man that dies with the most integrity wins." I believe it would eliminate a lot of competition. It's much easier to get "things" than integrity. You can't pay for integrity.

And get ready to pay because for every"thing" else there's...Mastercard!

~D