Whose Government

Chances are few Americans remember the bread lines of the Depression. Since WWII we’ve had a prosperous middle class and unions enabled workers a decent wage and benefits, so we’ve had a good life.

Slowly the rich organized behind the scene in government; first came lobby money. Back then we knew it was a bribe to give money for a vote; lavish trips were given to legislators so they could see what big money wanted, all perfectly legal. Swag bags ensured that legislators looked favorably; who doesn’t like a nice gift?

Election campaigns became more expensive because deep pockets usually win. Integrity doesn’t win elections; money does. Both sides made concessions to the same master. Integrity is always a scarce commodity, but they’re having a sale.

Laws changed to allow PACTS so umpteen dollars could be donated to a cause. Zealots of all makes celebrated, but it’s like Monopoly, sooner or later the biggest pot wins. I heard that one of the Koch bros said that.  

Statesmen, a largely honorable class, have been replaced by people like the carpetbaggers of the time after the Civil War, people who see government service as a career path to riches.

With money legally shifting votes from the benefit of we, the people, to the rich and powerful few, we don’t stand a chance.

The loyal opposition, Dems hold out their hand to tell us they will fight for health care, hold the line on Social Security, support the EPA, and nutritious meals in schools, just send them some money so they can fight big money, whose funds are in their pockets, after all, they can’t win without it.

Does anyone see a problem with this system? What’s the goal?

Yes, we health care, Social Security, and all of that, but until we reverse this system, we will be mired in a swamp of big money, pulled under by the weight of heavy dough.

Unless we get PACT, lobby money out of government and change our election laws so our representatives may not be influenced by big money without facing jail, we will lose. 

What Do We Want?

The world I want runs on compassion, respect, and love; it’s all here. When we behave in harmony with the lessons of Christ, which is my frame of reference growing up in the Catholic Church, life holds some sweet days. I believe in karma and that we’re growing into spiritual beings.

Admittedly, my understanding of the yin and yang concept needs fine tuning, but the Ouroboros symbol of the snake chewing its butt appalls me; can’t we do better than that?

Why does the snake eat its tail? Why is Congress consistently doing things that hurt the people? I can be blind to the obvious sometimes; why do I assume that people want to do good?

A friend of mine, a mafioso type from Chicago once said,

“As smart as you are, how come you’re no further along than you are?”

“I’m honest and do things legit.”

“Oh,”

I could hear disappointment and more in the one word.

This reminded me that many big businesses were funded by criminal endeavors; what does it take for me to get it that all the goodness and love in the world won’t change the greedy willing to do anything for money and power?

A career in government has become the latest path to riches and grand lifestyle with big business buying votes on both sides of the aisle.

Remember marching in the 60’s and the 70’s?

“What do we want?”

“When do we want it?”

Mitch McConnell is right Congress will never against big business influencing elections; why would they?

We, the people, need to be clear about what we want, one human, one vote. We don’t contribute all our working lives to have Social Security taxed or robbed by the rich.

As I recall from my studies a long time ago, we have the right of referendum to put something on a national ballot. Getting lobby perks, pact money, and free trips out of government will have to come from us or it won’t happen.

And then we’ll be heading in a direction where respect and compassion might thrive. 

New Days, Old Ways

Game of Thrones, The Last Kingdom, and The Tudors are some of my favorite shows. Perhaps it’s my overactive imagination, but sometimes I picture the cast of our Congress in medieval attire and our president with a crown banishing and tweeting with abandon waiting for the beheading to begin or maybe it has and I just don’t know it.

In the age of political correctness, we held our tongues and made a stab at considering the other guy’s feelings. Some people took that rather hard.

Given our history, we should understand by now that accepting others isn’t easy and figure out how to get over ourselves, but no, we’re the snake eating its own behind.

In the beginning of the age of political correctness, we learned about how win-win negotiation might actually be better for everybody than the historic win-lose warriors adore.

Paying lip service to respect for your opponent, giving value to the other guy’s wants couldn’t have been all that difficult; could it? What’s the worse that might happen; we gain empathy? Or heaven forbid we appreciate the other guy’s point of view.

Humans considering the wants and needs of others would be so utopia, so Renaissance. We strive for an age of enlightenment; what the hell happened?

Elected official freed to tackle citizen to the floor, power broker sends witch who laughed at him to the stockade, and a first son declares, 

“Democrats aren’t even human.”

Lords and ladies in charge of public programs figuring out how to keep the lower classes barefoot, dumb, and pregnant. If they wore their regal garb, we’d see them for the offspring of aliens they are.

A return to the Dark Ages doesn’t benefit people. If the one percent, the lords have no respect for the needs of the serfs, what are citizens going to do about it?

If we, the people are going to have any power of negotiation, perhaps we ought to do it before robots replace us in the workforce.

Whose Utopia would it be if the 1% outsourced the rest of the human race?

Stay Focused

Is beat up on Bill Maher time over? Who else wants to get the last lick in before we call it enough?

We, the ninety-nine percent need to keep our eyes on the prize, to borrow a phrase. Don’t waste time fighting with friends because rich people want to hurt us.

Bill, a rich white liberal, who actually appears to like black people f---’ed up; he’s not a closet enemy. People who turn on friends ready to pick some bones end up friendless.

He referred to himself as a house nigger, so after the whipping, you’re going to school Bill that the word nigger originally a pejorative for Negro used by whites has been taken back and may now only be used by black people. Holy smokes, I didn’t know there was a memo.  

To me, the saddest thing in the world is to hear one black call another a nigger because that’s the worst thing he can think to call him. You know it happens. That word belongs to the devil, no good comes from its utterance.

Black comedians eased the sting and black people overcame the word, but continued use desensitized your white friends to the horror that word is.

That’s our word you can’t use it; when has that ever worked? Oh, please, he didn’t seriously say that.

I can tell you that the day after a Wanda Sykes performance the word nigger crossed my mind three times about no particular thing; it’s that kind of word, just like when I first learned fuck.

Good for us but not for you is a double standard that goes nowhere good. Oh, and just as a clarification point, do Latinos get to say, nigger? What are the rules on that?

We need to get all of the funds, pacts, and soft money out of government; stay focused like we’re all fighting the aliens.

As a comrade, if not a friend, and friend I hope, may I suggest the bitch slapping be done; remember a humbled friend is seldom a better friend for it.

People in the media will need our support to push for a national referendum to get graft (my opinion) out of government.

PEOPLE FOCUS

It Is a Big Deal

Sometime in my early sixties thoughts switched to retirement. As part of that process, one takes the look over the shoulder to see the accomplishments of a lifetime.  For me, it was the moment of looking myself in the eye to know that I had earned my respect.

So many things in life aren’t as big a deal as we make them out to be, but liking who you are at the end of your career is important. It’s not a number thing like he who dies with the most toys wins; they’re just toys. I’d rather have integrity than more money, but no mistake I wanted to earn a comfortable living and worked hard.

Over the years there’s always bad times, but I plucked along relentlessly. Earning a big salary may be its own reward, but spending years doing something I didn’t like never made me happy, so I followed the rule of love what you do.

Dogs have perfected the art of presence; in silence, they look at us and perhaps wag their tail with no obvious judgment. Since childhood, I have loved dogs; thank you, God.

After jobs and businesses I enjoyed, the last thirty years of my career I worked with dogs; what could be better? I played with dogs for a living until I ran a dog business that played with dogs, which is almost as much fun but paid better.

Nobody wants to leave a thriving business, but age ain’t easy, so you contemplate and consider before rebelliously declaring,

“I have another good ten years in me, maybe more.”

But the property and the business appraised at a tidy sum, so best think about it; it made so much sense to quit in time to enjoy life. My husband suffered from chronic pain, so he voted to go; we put it on the market and buyers came, but nobody could get a loan.

Bankers lead the news each evening, they called it, the “Great Recession.” Too big to fail, that was the slogan, followed by bailout and lay off.

My modest dog business didn’t count for shit when regular clients can’t afford daycare for the kids and dog, so the dog lived in the yard all day and other clients, I carried. My clients, my neighbors were upside down, as they called it, meaning they owed more than the property was worth. I wasn’t in that boat, but found myself working way harder for a lot less; it was an ugly time, I picked to absolutely need to rest.

We're beaten and broken over time, so when we’re done there’s no debating. I hated to give up everything when we were covering for banking crooks by decree of GWB and company because they caused my pain. Who gives a f---, right?

Greedy bankers invented new products to sell for more than it was worth, oops. We, the people, had to pay; I had to pay when I needed my lifetime payout, another oops.

The Dodd-Frank Act became law to prevent these same greedy bankers we bailed out less than ten years ago from doing the same thing to us again.

I am disgusted by a legislature that would consider repeal of Dodd-Frank. Does the abuse of the people need to become a real ass whipping before we say, “No.”

People in power talked around the problem until I felt dizzy, but superb performances from a stellar cast in The Big Short and Margin Call shine a light on the bad behavior of reputable robbers/bankers. These movies are the modern day equivalent of Redford and Hoffman getting the goods on Nixon.

What is my generation supposed to say to the next?

“Every generation gets its ass beat by government whores with fat wallets of big business money, shut your mouth and take it.”

Please, don’t. 

Impossible, Unlikely, Oh, No

Note to army: as long as you guys are out there under Martial Orders you can rape if you want. Or was it more of a get out there and rape somebody memo?

What democratically elected president of a country would say that? Officers may start with my campaign volunteers; they’re young and stupid.

Not many world leaders vie to knock the US President off the big jerk platform, but the leader of the free world butting ahead in line paled in comparison.

Young men murdered defending young women in Oregon; that’s too sad. Tell me this is just another day on planet Earth.

World events, the news reads like fiction. Can we own that something’s not right? Greed and stupidity rise from the swamps like a vapor taking over power and populace simultaneously; welcome to the age of the Atavist.

Republicans may trace back on ancestry.com to Atilla, but I’m beyond the pale unhappy with Democrats; the down the aisle difference of opinion doesn’t cut this schism. Everybody has kicked the can into the gutter. People are pissed.

Bernie is the only politician I trust anymore; in fact, I like the way he thinks, but he’s one person. When the government goes against the population we have tremendous problems, so scary we talk around them.

Lying and pot stirring replaced common sense and caring some time ago. Recent events seem like a return to medieval times with jousting for position and raping and pillaging on deck. A return to the dark ages with technology; what does that look like?

Notes with agendas float past on Facebook, saying dear white friend, I know with a bigotry list attached. Mr. Obama would not have been elected twice without the support of white people; these are the people you react with chiding lists claiming we don’t know how great a president he was. You’re bitch slapping the band. Do you think a single Big T supporter read it?

Smart people don’t kick their dear white friends out from under the covers; I don’t care how pissed about history you may be, you’re too smart to do that, right?

As a longtime Obama mama, the dear white friend post twisted my whiskers. Next, they’ll be telling whites and blacks that we don’t revere Gandhi because we’re not in touch with the Indian experience. Do you see how this goes back up the toilet?

A former Speaker of the House charged with pedophilia, again, while Congress holds a party dismantling protections to the environment and every damn thing they can. Choose black and white or living color, the image of them breaking it off in our behinds remains.

Greed and evil versus everybody else, epic battles dating to forever set the mold for continued battles if we don’t learn; angels, demons, and demigods only fight in the movies anymore. Why not us?

How does the working class grab hold of our government? How do we take charge? Historically a hero rises from the ranks with character; I remember John, Bobby, and Martin. I still cry for their loss. An LBJ about now would be welcome.

Rich people have to actually pay tax for the government to survive as an entity protecting the public good. As a middle-class business owner during the Clinton years, I complained when I wrote the check for my taxes, but ponied up and lived a good life.

Rich people ready to kill for the last quarter greedy doesn’t make sense any more than elected officials body slamming people to the floor.

Are they alien? Is something in the water? I have my own reasons for believing beings from elsewhere are here.

Things happen that people sitting on corners see, that if ever they got together Earth would learn something, but we all know it’s never going to happen.

Ancient family owned banks running roughly over unfortunate people would have more empathy run by humans. Educated Earth men know that the best agreements are the win-win model; win-lose always ends in a rematch.

I believe that people are better than this; that after so much fighting we put our fists down and make peace, so we can get on with life. Always, we made things work.

Who but an alien not depending on our atmosphere wouldn’t mind destroying the environment? All the Earth kiddies turn green and die and you don’t mind; what?

Crazy Run Rampant

Batshit crazy evil happening right now; how can we not see that we’re being manipulated? We’re better than this, this is not us. 

An old lady, just my age, hobbled into her neighbor’s party shortly after hip surgery. She asked him to turn down the music and he responded by knocking her down.

That’s bad, but not batshit bad; that’s coming. I mean this sixteen-year-old boy grabbed her by her poor, old arthritic leg, drug her, and threw her in a pool, oh, and her dog, in front of guests. Blood tests and toxicology should be done on him and not just for drugs;  this isn’t normal.

Of course, crazy happens in the best of families, but don’t you think crazy runs a little rampant lately?

On the same day a young woman, a nineteen-year-old wakes up, dresses for the funeral of her boyfriend’s mom. This young woman and her mother walk with the boyfriend towards his mom’s funeral, but before they get there she shoots her own mother; are we desensitized to the bizarre? Is it really just another day in America?

Scientists preach evolution, but the war on mankind today seems little different than the war that introduced us to the dark ages. Shouldn’t we have evolved beyond spontaneous outbursts of hate and anger? We have our assholes but come on, we’re better than this.

I hate to be the nut job telling you that aliens hide among us and manipulate the shit out of us, but there it is folks.

We don’t handle aliens, people from elsewhere, people from our own planet moving in our neighborhood, changing how things are done where we live; imagine advanced beings, the ones depicted in ancient hieroglyphs still watching and influencing life on Earth.

If extraterrestrials wanted to prevent us from exploring outer space, wouldn’t the best way be to keep us busy with bullshit here?

Everybody understands the competitive nature of evolution; don’t we all want to be at the top of the food chain? Living in the closed environment of Earth doesn’t God demand we learn to get along or love one another? Either way, we examine it; we’re better than what’s happening now. Aren’t we?

Why do we rush to mutually assured destruction?  That’s too bat shit crazy for me to believe we’d do without manipulation. Does this make any sense?  

Please Be Warned

People are basically good; we can be whipped into a frenzy and led to destruction but left to our own devices I find human beings to be decent and frequently kind. It’s in our nature.  

Have you ever had something nag on your mind? Your mind drifts back to an event you wish would stop, but there you go thinking about it again. You laugh out loud, which I understand to be a jail-able offense these days thanks to Mr. Sessions; but there you go with that laugh. Suddenly you feel embarrassed to have had the thought. It’s so out there, but the shimmering and displaced feelings; either you’re losing your mind or an alien energy has invaded. 

What began as a vague haunting what if takes the shape of what the  F--- and I just want to run, to hide and be safe. 

What is it they say about “All it takes is for good people to look the  other way?” 

I’m scared. This isn’t the normal energy of the planet. This is bad,  Folks. At least it’s bad for us. 

Holistic Healers on the planet know we’re in a bad energy vortex. Who wants to give this a name we can fight? Mother Earth didn’t birth this energy. 

Human beings will fight to the death over a whole bunch of things, but most of us also manage compassion. Don’t you find it odd that people we’ve  elected to serve us do everything possible to hurt us or the environment?  Surely, we’ve elected an asshole or two over the years, but a whole room full of them says something’s not right. 

What if when powerful leaders congregated, say like the inaugural in  January aliens opened a portal over the event releasing a neurotoxin that reduced empathy to one’s own species? 

Removing laws protecting the environment harms their children also. What evolved species? What did Christ teach? Buddha? Who shits in their beds?!

Picture poor people around the world living modest lives, hoping for a decent day. They travel on scooters searching for scrap discarded on the side of the road. They walk holding children’s hands. Their malls open when crafts get hung from a rope slung between two trees. 

I’ve traveled alone in a car across a modest Caribbean island getting well lost in the process. People were kind and they helped me. One man’s hand an inch above my purse as he leaned in to inspect my belongings, but he stopped traffic to get me in the right direction. He was an angel. The goodness of mankind’s nature touches me often. I’m not saying there aren’t assholes among us; we all know better. 

A percentage of humanity who have no empathy are generally the outsiders and not the community core. 

I saw the shimmering, what apparently happened I believe to be a dispensing of the toxin on inauguration day. 

I never thought I’d say this, but Republicans are right, global warming is a result of aliens dumping toxins on us through worm holes and not the stupid shit we do here. 

60's People Do You Hear Me?

I want to be checking prices for car rentals and hotel rooms in cities I haven’t seen yet. Finding free concert venues should be my priority or at least searching for something that registers more than a yeah, so what on my joy meter.

In my life, I walked the walk, as we used to say. While still in my teens I went door to door collecting for cancer research. My dad died of lung cancer at the age of forty-two.

Marches in Chicago against the war in Vietnam frequently had me in attendance, as did later marches for equal rights, and various issues of the day. We have the right to protest, but nonviolently.

I will confess to being a blind sheep just wanting to live my life and munch my grass. A Democrat would get into office and do a few things for the people and I’d feel reassured that all was well in my world, which I had enough damn trouble handling.

After the Great Recession bankers should have been arrested and put on trial. That didn’t happen and that was a huge freaking clue as to how corrupt the system is. This didn’t happen under Obama’s term; I could cry.

Trump may have been a blessing in that our eyes are being opened to our masters behind the curtains. Things I didn’t understand in the presidencies of men I admired when you add the control layer of the man behind the curtain, the controlling world economics, all become clear.

Whenever I imagined it before I thought an elite occult layer controlling us too fantastic, but I’m just one of the ninety-nine per cent; what do I know?

Allow me to live out my life in peace. Don’t privatize or otherwise mess with my Social Security. And don’t threaten our children with bullets like Kent State. The sadness of that day still lives in my heart. Those were our children killed in our homeland.  

This is a battle for your future; the young will figure it out as best you can just like we did. 

Upset, Wait

Greedy rich and powerful are only kept in check by government regulation or revolution. For those who worship money, there is never enough. If you have a dime they want it.

Most of us just want to get by, to enjoy a life with love, beauty, family, or whatever floats your boat. Frankly, I’m only money motivated when I don’t have any; otherwise, I’m busy following my passion. We don’t all rise to filthy freaking rich because we have other motivations or we simply don’t have the talent.

Contrary to popular opinion, the guy who dies with the most toys doesn’t win; you’re still a dead asshole.

We need to see that people willing to step on others for money are sick; that’s twisted. Some people go from a computer in the garage to the top of the heap doing what fascinates them; those people give back in meaningful ways and I admire those folks.

Have you seen shows on TV about hoarders; people who collect something until the house overflows with their treasure. Obsessed deal makers could they be the opposite end of the same stratagem?

Before the days of Workman’s Comp Laws my grandfather, an ironworker, was injured at work severely enough that he could no longer work. Five or six days a week, he hobbled the streets with his cane collecting bottles for the deposit. He resolutely did this even after his family was grown and doing fine on their own. It could be raining and the man would go walking; I thought him obsessed, but when my dad came back from grandpa’s funeral with a wooden keg filled with silver dollars I was pretty impressed.

The bankers and the deal makers control the lower classes when well under control they shake us like a piggy bank. Removing laws that hold them accountable for dealing in bad faith, and then privatize Social Security; OMG it’ll be a vampire’s orgy.

The only thing I can think is thank God I’m old and don’t have long to go; or maybe, I just worry too much.

Do Not Take Our Social Security

The last Republican president cost me the rewards of my economic life in the Great Recession. Trickle down economics turned out to be piss in my boot and here we are again.

I put my energy into the American Dream. A series of real estate investments along with a successful dog business put us into the upper middle class.

Kirt as many country people did, went to the city, got the best job he could and held on for dear life. I watched him work his way from sitting at a table rewinding armatures for a just above minimum wage company to trusted and valued employee at Zack Heating and Air Conditioning in Cicero, Illinois. This was a proud shop of skilled, valued employees, all union members who took pride in their mom and pop shop.

Because my husband put into his pension and Social Security, I can enjoy my old age if I’m very careful, so I have a second reason to be wary of a bunch of rich men lined up against me.

One thing I share with the Trump folks is a misery; dissatisfaction hardly covers how I feel about the recession and bankers getting away with it. Yes, I’m pissed.

I’m a liberal, always have been, so I don’t see the current president as the savior my right wing friends do; but I want to give him a chance. Like it or not we have him for his term, so we must get on with it.

Republican presidents have earned my respect from time to time. Y'all aren’t always terrible. Having been a business owner most of my working life, I identify with the Republican mindset more than you’d think.

I’ve lived my working life and contributed to society as well. The years I have left should be for me and my wishes. When my husband and I did our life planning, this was our fall back position. In a few months, I’ll be sixty-nine, a hell of a time to contemplate starting over on yet another level.

When the mindset is win or lose, fairness doesn’t factor into; does it? The Republicans I know are good people. I need to see the “leaders” in a different light, one that doesn’t threaten me. 

My friend, Sperry in a Facebook post referred to liberal fear mongering. I read so much over the top shit from both sides that I’m frantic and don’t trust either side. We lived by the rules, paid our dues; don’t pull the rug out from under us, but with a win or lose mindset fair never enters.  

I Racist, No, I See Our Common Ground

I racist, so if I understand correctly, black people see the world as we. If it happens to one of us, it can happen to all. You have a group identification, as black, before you see your own individuality?

White people, the man said, see themselves as individuals. I must agree with that. When the rich people controlling your life is white same as you, you have to have different ways of viewing them. I’d be stupid to run around berating the white banker, who wouldn’t give me a decent interest rate because I’m a woman, or the white cop who pulled me over to hit on me, but gave me a ticket because I wouldn’t co-operate. Although I must admit that one hasn’t happened in a while; could it be because sexism has diminished?

Worry about hurting my feelings? That’s just another canard!

Understand the problem, MONEY & POWER; until you have either of them, you get treated to varying degrees of shit in society.

I could go into a store in my work clothes, jeans and a tee shirt to be greeted with a curt, “What?” The same clerk says, “Yes, ma’am, may I help you,” when I’m dressed in better clothes and wearing diamonds.

You think it’s about black and white? Wonder why so many blacks drop out of the fight when they make it? Black Republicans, and you’re talking about white liberals not meeting some benchmark of understanding; I don’t get it.

I remember the older white man, put his arm around the shoulders of a black entrepreneur, he leaned in close, the black man brought his head nearer to the white man, who whispered in his ear, “Money’s all green, right!” They nodded and laughed, adjourned to their seats at the table, every man for himself.

MONEY & POWER is untamed and corrupt, if you get enough, you’ll be assimilated.  White or black, it’s rich versus poor.

Get the poor scrapping at the bottom of the monetary trickle down and the one percent dodges the tax bullet.

What was the reason they can’t pony up to cushion the bottom just a bit or allow us the benefits we’ve earned over a lifetime? Oh, it’s theirs and they’re keeping it.

I’m just one of the dumb white hicks, but black people aren’t the ones I have problems with; it’s the powerful bastards trying to unwind our safety nets.

They take private jets, while bitching that you can afford a six pack on the weekend. To the rich we’re just white heads and black heads on the face of the riff-raff.

MONEY & POWER make college education unaffordable and gives scholarships to buddies’ children.

Black or white, it’s because of the sacrifices of our ancestors that union laws protect us; or that we have any rights at all.

We’re in the same hole. I don’t want to stand on your head to get out, and I don’t want anyone standing on mine, so said the silly, liberal, white woman,

Let’s be friends. We need to work together.

Mommy Issues Need to be Over

 Catharsis, that’s what I need, a good f’ing enema. Shit my guts out and let the stink fall where it may.

Whatever I put my thoughts or energy into becomes the most important item of my day. Shopping or taking care of the dogs momentarily takes it out of my mind, but sooner or later I get back to it.

How do you multi-task doing wonderful, positive things, while pondering why your mother didn’t love you? So maybe, it’s time to spill my guts and get it out of my system.

Mommy, I remember when I was four I did something that made you very angry. So scared by your wrath I ran around the dining room table to escape, but you cornered me by the china hutch and kicked the sick out of me; until my head throbbed. You instilled fear.

At five I failed a lesson of focus and pay attention. It was the fourth of July, fireworks popped up and down the block. You wanted to be nice to me. The sparkler held firmly in my hand, as you lit the little grey stick, moved ever so slightly, when the folks across the street lit off a firecracker.

The flash of the stick in my hand struck my mother on the thumb. Her shriek scared me witless; I just stood there with my mouth open, holding that stupid sparkler.

The ember died; I stood on the porch and cried, knowing something bad was going to follow. I expected to get hit, but now, I realize your hand hurt too much.  Scared and waiting, I stood in the corner on the porch; until finally, you came out carrying a suitcase.

“You don’t love me. You burned me. I packed your stuff; get out!”

At first I was just happy not to get hit. She closed the door behind her as she went back in the house. The tiny joy of escaping a beating became lost in a sea of despair. I don’t know how long I stood there crying, but cried it out.

A five year old standing on the porch knowing, you’re not welcome, inside feels alone deep in the little soul. I did not know what to do. Terrified, abandoned, I dragged my suitcase down the street to the corner before mommy came to get me.

This isn’t going to be a laundry list of what the woman has done to me.

I feel sorry for you, Evelyn, whatever made you so wicked to me, must have been hell, but you have continued to not love me throughout my life. Why did you hate me?

Loving you, but being forbidden to touch you or hug you, hurt.

When we can’t love, we’re defective somehow. I know you’re capable of love. Without a broken wing I can’t seem to connect with you, and I’m tired of trying.

We bonded over the deaths of our husbands. It was swell; once over the cold war began again. Mom, I don’t like this game; I quit.

At your age, sooner or later God or the devil is going to be reaching out for you, so I’ll just say good luck, thanks for the womb.

Sexism, Company Policy, or Lone Jerk

How do you handle it, when you buy new tires, you tell the counterman to put the news ones on the front and move the front tires to the rear, and they put your new tires on the rear?

I went back in the store. Mistakes happen, it would take no more than twenty minutes to rotate the tires. I told the counterman the tires should have been put on the front as per the work order in my hand.

Instead of an apology or we’ll take care of it for you, guess what he said. No, not you’ll have to come back tomorrow. I could have lived with that answer. This disrespectful old son looked me in the eye and said,

“It is company policy at Name Brand Auto Parts to put new tires on the rear.”

I point to the work order instructing them to put the front tires on the rear and the new tires on the front.

“I want my new tires on the front.”

He says, “Company policy.”

He walked away, dismissing me.

End of subject, you got the tires on the rear and that’s it; like it or not.

In the forty plus years I've shopped tires for my husband, a truck driver with four million accident free miles to his credit, I've never heard such crap. If you say put these tires I’m buying on the front; they go on the front.

The counterman even tried to justify putting the ones on the rear because the front wears them out more.

I looked at him incredulously; that’s why you want your new tires on the front. That he would attempt to promote this mistake by suggesting putting the new ones on the back would save them, made my jaw drop.

Hello, I buy better grade tires for my safety. My husband taught me to ALWAYS put the new rubber in the front. This isn't my first pit stop.

What could Name Brand Auto, what would they be thinking to have such a policy?

This is so ridiculous; I knew he was lying as it belched out of his mouth. How much closer can a vendor come to saying, FUCK YOU?

And, I didn't get my tires where they need to be. So into my busy day is another visit to the auto parts store, to get what I paid for.

I am annoyed, inconvenienced, insulted beyond measure; and I wonder, if this is one jerk or a corporate culture of not respecting their women customers.

What do you think? I’ll let you know after I meet the manager.