At my Age, Why Am I Still Dissappointed and Surprised by People

You would think that at the age of 36 that I wouldn't be surprised by people. By surprised, I don't mean the good kind. I mean the bad kind. The kind that leaves you dissappointed, frustrated and just feeling, well stupid . In otherwords, feeling like that nieve teenager I once was. Problem is, I'm not a teenager. I have been screwed over quite a few times by people and I'm sure I will be in the future. But, it shouldn't surprise me.

Last year around this time I embarked on what was such a liberating and wonderful project. It was something that helped me find something that I had lost within myself over the last few years and that is confidence in my abilities. During it all I met what I thought were two extrodinary women. Together, we were bringing something fresh, new and exciting to Jim Thorpe. Never mind that all three of us had not a pot to piss in, that didn't matter. We were going to create something from nothing. We knew the idea was a fabulous one and if we put ourselves into it, worked hard, we could create a successful event and one that we could do year after year and build momentum. Sure, the first time around we were going to do it all for nothing so that we could build a foundation and from there create something that could make us some money, promote our community and have a great time in the process. In that, we succeeded. It was a hit, we had pulled it off and the entire town knew it! We were proud and felt accomplished. I, for one, couldn't wait to take on the next projects knowing that next time around all our hard work would and cuold pay off in some much needed little income.

At the same time I grew close to both woman and when going through a rough time, I confided in them because they were there, they were my friends (or so I thought) and I felt the comraderie of it all. We started working on our next show/event and planning for the larger event the following year (yes, this is referring to the Burlesque Festival). Everything seemed right on track. I was excited brimming with ideas as were they. Things seemed to be going well. Through the entire first show there was never any fighting, nothing that went on that I would classify as a problem. Then at a production meeting called at my house, one of the two girls took it upon herself to "fire me" from the production. I was shocked. First, how can you fire me when I don't work for you? How can you fire me from my own creation (correction.. our SHARED creation?) What gave this person the right to take it as her own? How could someone that called herself my friend and knew how much that show meant to me, turn around and basically steal it out from underneath me.

I soon found out that she had been talking behind my back for weeks to someone else to replace me. Not only that, but she went into the websites that I not only paid for, but created and maintained (along with the Facebook and Myspace Page) and changed the passwords ( I was the one that taught her how to use the sites, after all it was a collaborative effort and she had every right to access to it as much as I did). The other girl just sat there and said nothing.

I was appalled, hurt, angry and well yes surprised! I'm not one to really hold on to anger for very long but I find myself still very angry about this. I find myself still shocked at how abhorent their behavior is and continues to be. I say they because the other girl sat back and said nothing, which to me shows just as much as if she had done it herself. I, for one, know that had she been the one that the self declared "queen" of the festival would have done that to I would have said that that was not right ; that if it wasn't with all three of us like originally started then it wasn't right. But, she said nothing which makes her just as guilty.

To think, I used to babysit her daughter for her and I used to respect her and her opinions.

They have ignored all my emails to them about how angry I am and how wrong their treatment of me has been. So yes, I have been telling everyone exactly what they did to me ; done to me with no real good explaination why. Apparently they have nothing to say for themselves. How can you defend something that is so wrong.

There are other dissappointments as well and perhaps I will never understand how or why people do or don't do what they do, what they should do and what is right? I think that bugs me the most? What were they or any of those people that hurt me in my past, what where they thinking?

I thought about suing them ; after all they are about to make money of which some should go to me, being that I was instrumental in laying down the foundation that will now make THEM money and they cut me out. I did take down the website I built, I paid for and I maintained and so they had to start all over again at least. Instead, I decided to focus my attentions elsewhere and put my energies toward positive things, of which I have a lot of them. But occassionaly something flashes across my Facebook page about the festival, or I'll meet someone that asks me about it or compliments me on it and I get so angry all over again. And yes, you bet I tell everyone that will listen exactly how I was treated and wronged! No, I will not use some bullshit story she wanted to create as to why I was not involved with the show anymore. Why? To save her face? Hell no. You are, were and will forever be a bitch for what you did.

Have I learned my lesson yet? Or will I once again be trusting and honest with people only to be blindsided, backstabbed and surprised by it all. I guess I'll find out the next time something happens... or perhaps if nothing happens I would have finally learned how to protect myself.

Despite The Awesome Speech.. Some Would Still Prefer to Believe the Lies

Despite last nights very direct speech, some people with whom I communicate with via Facebook still insist on believing the lies and some still have no clue what they are talking about.

For example. Today, I , a self employed entrepreneur, was told by someone that "those people that are uninsured should just go get a job and work for it like my husband does". Uggh.. comments like that just make me want to throw my hands up in the air and bang my head against a wall. I wish there was a clue store, because this person really really needs to buy one. She obviously doesn't know that the vast majority of the uninsured are working families, either in jobs that do not provide coverage or in a small business that can not afford the high premiums. Those who are then what she was trying to imply were "lazy" or non employed (by choice, not by default) and who aren't making an income are NOT uninsured. They get their insurance FREE through medicaid. Self employed are NOT unemployed. Perhaps she needs to learn the difference in the two.

I would love for her to stand in front of a person that lost their job in this crappy economy and who has been pounding the pavement, in some cases for over a year now, and say that to their face. This person, by the way, is a stay at home mom (nothing wrong with that) with three kids. Husband is employed with benefits.

She needs to think and think long and hard about this scenario. What if the company that her husband works for lays him off tomorrow? Does she even have a clue what the cost of covering her family would be under cobra? Well given that the average cost is $12K for a family of 4, and she is a family of 5, I'm sure she'd be quite shocked at the bill that comes in the mail for the cobra coverage.

Is this person not aware that there are plenty of people, like myself, that are ready, willing and able to pay for insurance but then are refused coverage for a pre-existing condition. It would be important to note, by the way, that this person that I was debating today could very well be "disqualified" for health insurance or charged at a much higher premium because of their weight. That's not a knock to her for being on the heavy side, but it's just the reality of it.

But I should have known I wasn't going to get a good and meaningful debate out of this person when the question she posed on her Facebook wall was "What do you think of Obama's Death Panels?"

I guess some people on this issue are going to be just completely hopeless to reach or reason with.

Then there is the crowd that debated more intelligently but who's stance is that they simply do not trust the government and truly believe that this reform Obama is proposing is a complete takeover of the health care industry. I get that these people are afraid of the government. But.. WHAT about the government makes you so "afraid"?

See, it's complex. I don't fully trust the government or politicians either but I don't trust them because I feel that most, if not all, of their decisions are based on who paid them the most to vote they way they voted. In other words, our government has been bought and paid for by the highest bidder. Most of the ones who most strongly oppose this health care reform INCLUDING the "blue dog" democrats are politicians who take the MOST money from insurance lobbyists.

The entire thing is quite genius on the part of big corporations and special interest. On the one hand they decry that the government can't be trusted but on the other side they are the ones that are corrupting the government. All of this happened while we were all too busy with our "pop culture" to pay attention to our own political and government system. As we became complacent it became easier and easier for special interests to overtake the government.
Let me ask you this. If we were debating a reform that would actually LINE the pockets of insurance companies and increase their profits, do you really honestly think that this debate would be so heated and so polarized? No! It wouldn't! We probably would not hear hide nor hair of the reform if that were the case. But,be it as it may, this debate IS so heated because when, for the first time, our government is actually working in the interest of the INDIVIDUAL citizens and NOT in the interest of big profits, those with the money to throw around (and hence the weight) throw it around and do everything in it's power to defeat it because they DO not want this reform to work because it is NOT in the best interest of their profits.. even though it is in the best interest of this countries citizens. They , those that are in the pockets of the corporate interests in this matter, go on TV, radio and what have you , and outright LIE to the American public creating false rumors about death panels, free medical care and coverage to illegal immigrants and so on and so forth. They play into the public's most paranoid fears with propaganda. They demonize the President, they demonize the government. And the sad part is the public buys it and eats it right up. Some have been so far gone that no matter WHAT the President says, they are not going to believe him.

See, the concept of government is NOT an evil one, not in a democracy. However, the lust for money and anything motivated by money is what is the "evil". Governments quest is simply to govern and to protect the public from being taken advantage of by policing actions and creating laws that allows our society to live in harmony as a civilized

Perhaps its more fun and exciting to demonize the President of the United States and call him Hitler than to actually listen to reason.

Uggh.. The entire thing is just infuriating. That even after that speech, where he talks about HOW it's gong to be paid for and how it's NOT going to be paid for, it still wasn't enough for some people. I mean what did you want him to do .. throw out ALL the numbers line by line in the budget? WE would have been there for not hours, but days. He said it people..loud and clear and here it is again;

a) the public option, for one, will NOT be funded by public tax dollars
b) Cleaning up and clearing waste in medicaid/medicare (which is outlined in several ways in the bill, including electronic medical records to make the administrative costs less, more streamlined and efficient and eliminate paperwork . All of which will be beneficial to the private markets as well.)
c.) BUDGET CUTS in other areas of spending if need be.

How much more specific beyond going into it line by line can you get?

Listen. Our taxes are going to go up, but NOT because of health care but because of a war in Iraq and Afghanistan and because of the billions of dollars used by the government to bail out Wall Street (again..those big corporations... who weren't screaming and crying about government spending then huh? No talks of Hitler or fear mongering from the corporations then was there? )Funny how when now some of our tax dollars will actually be spent on helping us CITIZENS each individually with a much needed reform is all this dirty back and forth going on.

Needless to say, another FB friend is gone from my list. It's not because she has a different opinion. It's more that her opinion is based on ignorance, incomplete facts and figures and once again, when I illustrated a point supported by actual facts, she had no real intelligent comeback beyond the empty "all those uninsured should go get a job". Is that all you got?

The Objection to President Speech is Completely Absurd! Get a Grip on Yourselves Already

I don't know if it's just my PMS'g hormones this week, but man .. the attitudes of so many Americans is just really, well pissing me off is the only way that I can put it.

I can not believe that people seriously were objecting to the President of the United States, the highest office held in the most powerful country in the world, to speaking to their children about staying in school and working to achieve better in their lives. Especially coming from a man of his background (under privileged) and his wife's background.

Yeah.. I know the "objection" was to the "assignments" proposed by the administration and the Board of Ed , particularly the "How Can I Help Obama" question. But , since when is teaching your children to GET INVOLVED with politics and the issues in this country a BAD thing. I heard one person on the news object to their child becoming a "community organizer". When did being a community organizer , or one who works within the community in a positive and productive manner, or volunteer in the community become such a dirty word? I mean really?

For crying out loud people, I wish my generation, myself included, would have been more involved, paid more attention, knew more about the issues and voiced opinions about them. Then perhaps this country wouldn't have been bought and paid for right under our nose to the highest bidder while we were all too busy.. well NOT paying attention!

That's it you neo-cons.. teach your children to just sit back and do nothing but whine. Apparently it's all the right knows how to do these days. Everything that President does they twist, turn and make into some sick conspiracy theory. It's really quite sickening. You don't have to agree with everything he does or says. You don't have to agree on all of his policies, but why demonize him? What is the point? What does it achieve? Really, all it does is make you all look like a bunch of lunatics.

What the hell happened to actually RESPECTING the office of the President?

Bush sure as hell wasn't my President (well at least the first time around and half way through the second time I realized I'd made a huge error in judgement when I cast my vote for him!). But you know what, he was still my President and irregardless I had respect for that.

Now Obama is our President. Let the man get something done! The only ones sinking this country further down the rabbit hole are those that want to demonize everything the President does!

Any school, any parent that objected and didn't let their kids listen to his speech missed an amazing opportunity. Even if they do not agree with the Presidents politics (of which wasn't even in the darned thing anyway) they missed a great opportunity to open the lines of communication with their children to talk about the issues and to teach their children about U.S Politics . Wow, imagine that. Parents sitting around having a conversation with their own children and talking to them about their personal political views on any and all issues facing this country today. Imagine the children sitting and writing a letter, for themselves, on ways they could "help" the President.. perhaps by making suggestions on such issues (and that includes ALL points.. like objecting to his health plan). The younger children probably would have said something cute about "helping" the President with his dog or something (because obviously a younger child will not grasp the concepts) and teenagers could have taken the opportunity to figure out how they feel about certain issues. The letters suggested weren't even ever going to be sent to the President anyway. It was just an exercise.

Even if his speech was completely lined with political rhetoric and wasn't bi-partisan, it still would have been an excellent opportunity for parents on the other side of the issues to discuss the issues. But you know what, there is no need to even address the 'what if'. It was not anything even remotely resembling anything of the sort.

Here is a link to the SUGGESTED lesson plan for Prek-6
Here is the link to the SUGGESTED lesson plan for 7 - 12

I particularly think the last 2 questions at the end are THE most important.

• What do you believe are the challenges of your generation?
• How can you be a part of addressing those challenges?

But then again, this is the same group of people who seem to think that not discussing sex with their children means that their children will not be having sex.. (insert smack head emotion con here).

And, then again, perhaps they are doing us a favor (those neo-cons that didn't allow their kids to hear the president thereby opening up discussions at home about the "issues") because , after all, the only thing they would have done is poison their children's minds about their crazy rhetoric and lies ; ie: the government wants to kill granny. Yeah.. that's all we need. The younger generation buying into that crap.

Wow.. It Doesn't Get Any Loonier Than This.

True and funny story.

My husband was at our local post office and while on line he met a gentleman that seemed nice enough. He started a conversation with my husband that quickly turned political. My hubby, not being very much the political type nor not really caring anything about it, quickly deferred to me (well I wasn't there, but he told him about me). He obviously knows how political I am and tend to be. The gentleman handed him the literature, then asked for my phone number. Husband gave it to him.

When he came home he handed me the literature and told him that he had given him my information. I didn't really look at it and put it aside. A few days later I as outside doing my gardening and my cell phone rang. It was a volunteer from this political group. She told me that they were an offshoot of the democratic party. She then started talking about health care... and then she mentioned Obama and Hitler...

Okay.. she lost me there a little. I brushed it off and really didn't have time to talk. I told them I'd read there stuff..

Mind you.. this was BEFORE all this crap on the news. Had they called me this week.. boy they would have gotten an ear full.

So , about a week or two later I had some free time and so I figured I'd pick up the literature and read it. I couldn't believe what I was reading.

According to this political group, the British rule the world and the Queen of England is their evil ruler pulling the strings of the world. I kid you not. I made it to the second paragraph or so and realized that these people were completely and utterly insane.

By the way. I'm also on their email list. According to an email I received today, the British , for opportunistic reasons, may assassinate the president (insert roll eye emotioncon here).

Wow..these people are lunatics. And, on their website they have a picture of Obama with a Hitler beard on his face.

Oh my ... LOL. I just had to share. I can't believe that there are people out there this crazy!! I conjure up images of people sitting in their house with foil over there heads because the government might be reading their minds.

God help America if people buy the crap they are selling.

LaRouchPac is the name of this crazy group!!