Struggling during this ebb and flow, Ohio winter sunny one day than grey another. My spike in my typical depression symptoms that I manage is still flaring. This feeling of overwhelm is where this post is coming from as I maintain a surface watch of the media’s presentation of our changing political landscape and how we have gone from words of hatred of the outgoing leadership and the great and glorious saving of the incoming administration. I struggle with the many euphoric expectations of the media. The incoming will fix the problems when this has been ongoing many presidential changes, continuing to worsen for the lower to the middle class.
As in the previous post, my childish perspective on life is why life and the world cannot be fair. The reality of life fairness does not exist unless it’s on an individual basis. I cannot expect the world to be honest. Still, corporate entities’ goal is to make a profit no matter the cost, politicians are out to present themselves in only a positive light, and all other large entities. Many are out to explain; they are doing a fantastic job even if they are not. I am one of the uneducated, low humans on the list of priorities and the ability to make changes to the larger picture. Still striving to live life well or give the image of reaching for the corporate lifestyle, but most of us don’t succeed. There is nothing wrong with not advancing goals in life are personal goals in life. Plans based on decisions made and the situation impact your success emotionally, personally, or physically. This thought came when I caught the brief news about the attack on Washington last week. Media, corporate, and political structure kept stressing this point the week before last and blamed only one individual for inciting the situation. What happened to make the people who choose to act responsibly for their actions. They made a conscious choice to be there; they consciously decided to work in an irresponsible, impractical manner. As an individual, you are responsible for seeing the right or wrong of the actions. As a country, we have shown better, more peaceful ways. Yes, they may come violently due to our society’s segment that sees this as the only solution. Words and actions are the responsibility of the individual. Don’t we all say words that we should process and then think over the repercussions before proceeding forward? The efforts of many contributed to the harmful and inappropriate method of communication two weeks ago. But as with the race riots in May, should we not be looking at the underlying trigger of the reason for the large portion of discontent. I AM NOT saying what happened was right, but in May, I told people were in pain, and that made it okay; my question whether right or wrong, why is last week not the same, just on a more extensive or consequential action? It is just a thought to ponder how our information is presented to us that we must strive to see and research the big picture and how we can, if at all, help.
I see from one of the bottom rungs that people are tired of being ignored, and they choose a brutal way of showing that. Our politicians’ and corporations’ actions make large paychecks with a little benefit offered to those supposed to direct guidance. We have a large portion of our society that feels undervalued, and their way of life attacked. There are rules in place of stagnating creativity. There are rules in place that harm our disabled, and I still am terrified for Medicaid for all. Unless government and corporations rebuild the system, the CEOs and lobbyists step back from the design and implementation restructuring process. Both CEOs and Lobbyists make millions of dollars from the medical and insurance industry. Democrats and Republicans are just as accountable. I am unsure where specifically I was going with this, but as I watch briefly, Trump’s decisions to leave before the presidential election change and the fiscal waste of pushing to impeach again. Biden’s and Harris’s marketing presentations about past actions on the government floor as they are when neither of their actions speaks to what they’re promoting right now through the media, they are perfect. Trump was an uncouth braggart. Yes, he had no filter and created a hostile work environment, but many of us have to work in a hostile work environment and succeed. Why can’t our politicians have done the same? They make more money than the rest of us and have more vacation time to unwind and destress. That is in the past, and those of us impacted the most by future decisions made will need to step back to view how decisions are made and learn to live with the consequences of high power decisions that sound great, but implementation is lacking.
Sometimes I wish somebody that had paralysis or a family with a child with developmental disabilities would speak and be allowed to present the current limitations and red tape a large portion of our society has to live with the Medicaid system. The Medicaid system is not there physically to truly help those in need. On paper, it looks great that managers advocate for their clients, which is so far from the truth as what I see from working in the industry as a Home Health Aide and previously in the Nursing Home Industry.
Additionally, the other factor that nobody presents an accurate working plan for is a wage for the essential works that are not nurses and doctors that have stayed working since March at great danger of getting COVID. I came across the below article on the local news about hourly workers in the retail, restaurants, factory, housekeeping, and more; the low man on the totem pole has kept the country going.
Yes, I know the medical industry is keeping us safe, but you buy your food from someone that’s paid eight dollars an hour, they want to pay us 15. That’s all well and good, except for I have worked through the change from 525 an hour to eight dollars an hour minimum wage. I have watched customer service nosedive due to a decrease in the number of staff members allowed scheduled. I have watched being able to get a full-time job in retail and restaurants down to only get part-time with no insurance or insurance worth most of my paycheck. I have watched as a manager not being able to offer training hours to incoming staff. I have seen having 4 to 5 people on the team in one shift down to two, so what is the purpose of going from eight dollars an hour to 15? Do you want one person running a register unless something happens on how the whole pay scale is set up? I see no point in increasing pay from $8 an hour to $15 an hour unless there is planning for making drastic changes in the CEO salary. That is where the money is going; it sure as heck isn’t going for PPE and safety protocol except on paper. It is not going for the hours I’m sure we could have benefits that we could afford because your company can say they offer help. Still, when you genuinely look at what’s being provided how much we’re expected to pay, we’re losing our paycheck to pay for insurance. Words mean nothing unless there is an extensive plan. That is my pondering questions, but what’s the point since this has been going on since the eighties. I know part of my cynical outlook is personally my seasonal depression impacting. Some of it, though, I don’t see the point of words. I would appreciate action on the part of our lawmakers in our CEOs the people who paid the least are the ones expected to do the physical labor. Many of them have three to four jobs their families impacted because they’ve got to make ends meet. There’s got to be a decision: do I raise my family or do I pay the bills too? Do I work to pay the bills? So yeah, excellent $15 an hour, but what does that accomplish? I will be working with fewer people to cover that because it is not taken toward the CEOs. I mean, if they can afford to have multiple vacation homes and a fantastic yacht and I can’t go on vacation for 15 years if at all I can barely pay the mortgage, so what’s the point of working.
Sorry, this is not a rah get out, and we can succeed, which it should be. We can keep fighting the system and help or find help for others or get out and help someone. Just on my retail job, all I see is a fractured opinion of us nevermind I almost got hit by two cars last week while getting carts. In my Home Health work, I help an individual with quadriplegic, which has a Hoyer that broke for the last month and is still not fixed. The individual has a ten-year-old wheelchair that causes severe pain and pressure sores that Medicaid denied the claim. Even though the back is broken, several aspects of it do not work. Individuals cannot get it repaired because Medicaid will not allow them to get a new one for another one year to five. So I am at a level of apathy that what is the point the government and corporate entities do not care about those in genuine need. I am sure of many more examples, which makes me scared for the proposed Medicaid for all. I also leave you with an example of a YouTuber that I respect and due to having surgery and shows the absolute mess our Medical system is.
The Outdoor Gear Review – The Upcoming Surgery – Random Lunch and Chat 1/19/2021
This piece does not mean I am throwing in the towel. I am just one small voice in a sea of many that feel the government is not heard or seen right now. I hold hope and pray that our world will change for the better. That our government truly means what they are saying. In the meantime, as individuals, we keep helping our fellow man personally when we can impact our government and corporate entities in voting.
I leave you with several links.
One is the Poem by Amanda Gorman’s twenty-twenty-one inauguration poem, which fits the fight as the individual.
CNN Politics – Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s inaugural Poem
I also perceive the dog and pony show of our Cabinet member Question and Answer and approval process by many of the upper echelons. Speaking as if they truly understand how this will be implemented on the ground floor, not the ivory tower they live in, or the reports received that did not question the worker but the CEO.
I will also leave you with the beauty of what individuals can do when they change their life direction.
CBS Sunday Morning – “Humans”: Connecting with the world one photo at a time. 12/13/2020
Let me leave you with a big picture of what I strive for daily, even with my negativity for the last two to three weeks, where I got stuck in thinking I could change the big picture. It is a presentation of the repaired Penn Station.
CBS This Morning – Inside NYC’s ornate new Penn Station train hall = 1/2/2021
Many of us still feel overwhelmed by either our health, situation, work, school, family, and anything else. As individuals, we have a responsibility to keep moving forward, change and improve what you can, and support those that are stuck and are still struggling to receive what they need to live well. Reach out if you need help or be there if someone needs help or just a friendly ear to vent to as they struggle to move forward. As individuals, we can succeed and thrive. It just looks different because we are all individuals, not machines. This time of change is like seasons. There is beauty, but there is also the muck and the mire. Keep moving forward. You’ve got this.
Random Observations 